Electric Mandolin

Published: Aug 15, 2015 by K. E. Claytor

This 4-string 14” scale length mandolin was constructed over the course of one summer. I ordered a bunch of mostly barebones parts and did the design and construction myself.

Some lessons learned:

  • Never use Bass guitar tuning mechanisms - or at least buy a wider drill bit. Filing the holes larger by hand almost killed the project.
  • Glad I had the freboard pre-cut.
  • Shaping the nut is actually really difficult - would pay for a pre-cut nut in the future. Or buy a few extras and experiment.
  • Run through a complete virtual build in your head - I skipped the bridge ground wire and added it in later, so it’s bit ugly.
  • This was tons of fun and I’d recommend it!

I also decided to “live-tweet” the construction, so here’s the history:

Here are some more images of the complete gadget:

full emando

bridge

back

music, woodworking, project

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