This is part 3 of the Kentucky mandolin top build. I also show how an Alvarez and Kentucky top side by side and prove they were made by the same man! Check it out.
All your little hand made special tools are absolutely priceless! I always used to make special tools for different car jobs for my stepdad to make his work easier as he got older.
Thank you. Just to clarify, I am Jerry Sr., my son is Jr. that's why I designated Sr. on the songs. So the music is mine, my father was not a musician. Sorry for the confusion.
+Rosa String Works AWWWW Dopy me. All the better. Very nice job! I neither play a stringed instrument nor repair them but very much enjoy your work. I do saxophone repair here and there mostly for myself so I truly appreciate the expertise.
It's a little painful to watch the top slipping along the carpet as you work it, but it's also a good reminder that, hey, if a method works for such an experienced craftsman, more power to ya! Thanks for sharing! Really fun to watch all your videos, Jerry!
Hello Jerry, Your song Grandpas ole fiddle. Great song.. It struck a nerve with me pretty quick. Reason being is my Grandpa was a great Guitar and Banjo player..and singer as well. He was fortunate enough to play with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs many years ago.. Grandma and Grandpa lived on Lester Flatt Mountain in Sparta Tennessee for a long long time. I do miss them days of spending time in Sparta.. This ole Indiana Hoosier boy felt more at home down there than I do here. If it wasn't for the snakes I would be living there for sure.. I kinda think that's why my Dad decided not to stay in the south. He hates them ole snakes.. Anyways, thanks again.. Take cafe and be safe.. Chris
I noticed your comment that the top provided 80% of the sound. I believe that to be true. At the same time I believe the back of a string instrument provides 80% of the strength. That's why they are thicker in the center normally. The thickness in the center provides a beam effect. The greater the thickness the stronger the beam. The edges don't carry as much of the string tension load so they can be thinner to reduce weight and allow the instrument to vibrate better too. Now, that's my opinion as an engineer. The original designers of our modern string instruments may have had other reasons for what thicknesses they used. You can take that as palaver if you want. I really enjoy your videos and think you are a master at what you do. Some people could work 35 years at the same trade and not come close to what you can accomplish quality wise. Thanks for sharing with us.
Back in 1981 I was homeless in L.A. and somehow I acquired forty bucks (2 days labor probably) and I needed a small light stringed instrument to "keep my chops fresh". I found a cheap mandolin (a terrible instrument) and it did what I needed it to do. For a couple of months I slept in the back of a moving truck that didn't have a back door. One day I woke up to find that the truck was on Sunset Boulevard and it came to a stoplight and I jumped out the back and landed on my cheap mandolin. Not much of a loss.
That mandolin is starting to look like a mandolin again! It is really interesting about those 2 tops being made by the same guy, and the music was awesome!
I can sit and watch you do this all day and never find a dull moment just love the skill of the craft and your music is just a great addition o your skills and by the way love your voice & playing best wishes Paul
You are a true luthier! Hearing your band was a bonus! Like the guy from the movie O Bother Where Art Thou... that was some fine pickin' and singin'. You show little known secrets that only a guy like you would know. Woah! Thankz
Jerry you are doing a great job on that instrument. It's looking good. Did you scalop the braces on the top? I agree with you about thoes two tops. I like your band. you have a great sound. I would like to see you build a guitar from start to finish. it would be a great video I'm sure. Thank you for sharing your videos. As always you've done an excellent job. Thank you.
I am sure you have posted this at sometime, but I wonder what size and make of finger plane you are using? Love the videos and really look forward to each! Thanks for your commitment in posting good content.
Thank you very much Nathan. I have a 10, 12, and 18 millimeter plane. I rarely if ever use the 18 millimeter it's just too large. For the detail carving I use the 10. I use the 12 for hogging out a lot of material. Hope that helps.
Stewmac would make a $75 tool to do the job your simple, practical ballpoint pen through a block of wood does with scrap parts. I love it. I'll bet your instruments never get a crack out of the edges of the F-holes. The luthiers that make $2oo mandolins are probably fainting because your using Titebond glue. What do you get for your instruments, around $6000 is it?
Is the gauze where the f-holes are to be cut something most mandolins have (used by some early mandolin maker that everyone since copied) or is it something you do because it makes cutting the holes easier?
It doesn't make cutting easier it just makes the perimeter stronger. The wood likes to split in F holes. Lloyd loar on his mandolin back in the twenties was the first to do this as far as I know. I guess I'm just carrying on the tradition and it definitely makes the F hole much stronger.
On the instruments I sometimes use strips of Walnut which I cut here, I also have built mandolins out of Sycamore which I cut here. I have used Hedge Apple better known as Osage orange for guitar Bridges that I cut here on the farm.
What do you do with the old broken tops you take off ? Do you keep them for parts ? Just wondering cause I would love to have some pieces like that to make some folk art.
was the customers original mandolin top broken somehow and was it totally not repairable? Or did he just want a custom made Rosa String Works custom to show all of his friends? Don't get me wrong i like to see a true craftsman like yourself work. Just seems odd to me that he had a machine made mandolin and wanted to have a custom top made?
Jerry you are doing a great job on that instrument. It's looking good. Did you scalop the braces on the top? I agree with you about thoes two tops. I like your band. you have a great sound. I would like to see you build a guitar from start to finish. it would be a great video I'm sure. Thank you for sharing your videos. As always you've done an excellent job. Thank you.
