While some people might consider owning multiple properties or having a fat portfolio what it means to be rich, for me, and I suspect for most luthiers, having lots of beautiful woods is the true meaning of feeling rich. Here are the woods I’ll be using in the next batch of five mandolins I’ll be building and they make me feel rich indeed!
Set out on my bench are a number of different body woods including flamed Red Maple, a profiled back of some very busy Birdseye Maple and some wildly figured Big Leaf Maple at the back. In the front are several sets of Red Spruce face wood. Finally, in the front right position, are a couple of billets of flamed Red Maple that will make the needed necks.
For a number of reasons, I’ve always built in the manner of, “One at a time, one of a kind.” The main reason for that had been the limitations of my shop space. That is no longer a problem and so, to save time and be far more productive, I’m moving to build in small runs of one instrument model at a time. To make that move means that, initially, it will take longer to have some finished instruments, what with having to build all the needed body molds, jigs, and fixtures for multiple instruments. Eventually, when all the supporting tooling is complete, I should be far more productive. For any who are interested, I intend to journal this process over the coming months.
