Doing Things Wrong

Other Guitars

Instruments with non-standard tunings.

Other Guitars


This body is maple plywood over a hollow pine core, double-bound. It came out very lightweight, too light to balance even a guitar neck. This was originally going to be the 12-string, but I realized that it would never balance. So I shuffled parts and bodies between some other projects - a planned six-string got canceled and became the twelver. That left this body free. I thought about it a while and decided it would make a good mandolin.


image
The plate is an old piece of phenolic I had lying around - very stiff stuff. The 'legs' are pine scrap, in whatever width works.​

The Reverse Routing Jig holds a router above the workpiece, which is secured to a flat smooth surface below. I use an old piece of countertop, not a carpet, as in the picture. By sliding the router over the workpiece, you can mill the face of the piece. Height is adjustable by changing the legs. This jig is very useful for milling Fender-style headstocks. It is also possible to cut angled headstocks by blocking-up the workpiece and using the longer legs. This jig is basically an upside-down router table, with one great advantage - you can see what you are doing.

Printed from luthierylabs.com