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Monthly Update 
October 2009
In This Issue
Product Highlights
Luthier's Tip
Quick Links
More About Us
A note from Kali:

We would like to congratulate Roger on winning the 2009 IBMA Print Media Person of the Year Award!

Roger received this honor for his book Siminoff's Luthiers Glossary and his articles in Banjo Newsletter and Bluegrass Breakdown.

We are so proud of you!
Roger
Dear Luthiers,

We've just completed our first Siminoff Luthierie Camp, and it was a very exciting week. Six campers of various backgrounds and building experiences came to our shop for an intensive course in building F5 mandolins. We discussed and demonstrated every phase of building, beginning with musical acoustics and progressing through wood and figure selection, preparing and gluing wood, heat and steam bending, carving, ƒ-hole routing, body assembly, neck and truss rod construction, front and back veneers, coloring and staining, finishing, and set up.

Camp Pics

After experiencing how each phase was done by hand, the Campers went back to their assigned, well-equipped benches and worked with the semi-completed parts of our mandolin kits. In this way, rather than spending a day carving a soundboard by hand, for example, we could demonstrate several ways to carve, after which campers would go back to their bench to work on their completely carved soundboard provided by us. Saving the hand-work time was a boon; by the end of the fourth day, campers had fully assembled F5s, and one camper built an F4.

We intended to start at 8:00 every morning, but folks eagerly arrived at 7:30, so we were off to an early start. All meals were provided here, so we could eat and get back to work. Evenings consisted of presentations and open shop time.

Oct 2009 Camp

Here's a bunch of happy campers, from left to right: Ken Roddick (our production manager) holding a prototype Gibson 1978 F5L, Kali Nowakowski (our marketing director and Camp director), Carl Askren, Haustin Morrison, Annette Slikker, Bade Millsap, Mike Kundracik, Chris Jenkins, Rosemary Wagner (my wife, partner, and editor), and me with Lloyd Loar's personal F5. Rosemary, Kali, Ken, and I all participated in the training, each of us sharing our particular expertise.

There's a lot more about the program on Mandolin Caf� (www.mandolincafe.com) in the Builder's Forum section, and there is a link in that post that will take you to a web log (blog) prepared by one of our campers, Bade Millsap, or you can go there directly by clicking here: http://bademillsaplutherie.blogspot.com/. Bade chronicled the camp experience so you can see a day-by-day documentary of what transpired. Bade prepared this log of his own accord, and we are deeply appreciative for his great photography and copy writing.

From Rosemary, Kali, Ken, and me, our warmest thanks to all who attended.

If you are interested in attending our camp, here are our tentative dates for 2010 (all are F5 Mandolin camps, except where noted):

February 21-26, 2010
April 25-30, 2010
July 18-23, 2010 (H5 Mandola)
October 10-15, 2010

If you would like more information about one of these camps, please email [email protected]

Happy trick-or-treating!



Thanks for building with us...

Roger
Adirondack Red Spruce and more such confusing names...

I often get questions from builders who ask about Adirondack Red Spruce and why they can't locate it at any lumberyard. And, several folks comment that they can't find Adirondack Red Spruce in books on wood, either. Adirondack Red Spruce isn't really a species, rather it is a local term that refers to red spruce (Picea rubra) that was initially found in the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondack Mountains encompass an area of about six million acres (that's the size of Vermont!) with altitudes that reach over 5000' (Mount Marcy is 5344'). Forty of the mountains in that area are over 4000' elevation. The weather and altitude combine to provide a great region for slow-growth lumber, and red spruce abounds there with tight, straight grain. (Some foresters and biologists refer to Douglas Fir [Pseudotsuga taxifolia] as "red spruce," but the real red spruce is another tree that shares a family with the other colored spruces: red, white [Picea glauca], black [Picea glauca var. densata], and silver spruce [Picea sitchensis] that is more commonly known as Sitka spruce. Confused yet?

Red spruce is also common to the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia and southern Pennsylvania. And, some of it grows in Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountain range. In the early days of guitar and mandolin construction, both Martin and Gibson looked to these areas to source their spruce.

Adirondack Spruce (without the "red") is actually white spruce that grows across Canada, from Newfoundland to Alaska, and into the northern states of New York, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. When harvested and cured, white and red spruce are very similar in weight and appearance even to the trained eye, and often one is sold as a substitute for the other. By comparison, silver (Sitka) spruce has a more reddish cast.

To complicate matters further, black spruce is more properly called Black Hills Spruce, which is abundant in the Black Hills area of South Dakota. (We visited some of its wood lots this summer.) Black spruce is a stately but slender tree. When cut and dried, it looks very much like red or white spruce but is too small to yield mandolin or guitar soundboard sets. Some of the locals call it "white spruce." Oh well.

Bottom line, what is really important to us as luthiers is that the original specs for Gibson's F5 Loar-signed mandolins called for "... the very best Adirondack or W. Virginia Spruce." This would clearly suggest red spruce as the selected wood or the possibility of white spruce from northern New York State. And, if all of this isn't confusing enough, Gibson's promotional literature described the wood for the F5s as "Norway Spruce." However, the company did this at a time when clever marketing folks could get away with "fairy tales" prior to the creation of the Federal Trade Commission.

Adirondack Red
Product Highlights

End Pin End Pins - These beautifully turned and polished pins are made from either Gaboon Ebony or Indian Rosewood and are shaped to fit into a tapered hole in the tailblock. Ebony pins are Part #600 and are $5.50 plus P&H. Rosewood pins are Part #601 and are $6.50 plus P&H.




Bridge
F5 Mandolin Bridges - Our mandolin bridges are replicas of Gibson's two-piece adjustable bridge. They are fully intonated and feature either gold or nickel hardware. Made from either Gaboon Ebony or real pre-embargo Brazilian Rosewood. Hand finished and polished. Part #308-N (ebony/nickel) is $39.00 plus P&H, #308-G (ebony/gold) is $41.00 plus P&H, #307-N (rosewood/nickel) is $42.00 plus P&H, and #307-G (rosewood/gold) is $44.00 plus P&H.

Fret Set Tool Fret Setting Tool - Here's a tool that makes fret setting easier. Our #830 Fret Setting Tool is made of aluminum with three flat sides and one side with a precision-ground 12˝ radius (so you can use it for either radiused or flat boards). The tool is "sacrificial" - that is, the aluminum is softer than the fretwire and takes the beating without marring the surface of the frets - and it will hold up for 30-40 fretboards before you need to replace it. Part #830 is $13.95 plus P&H.


NOTE: Please consult the Shipping & Returns page on our website for a P&H table.
Luthier's Tip...

When preparing the soundboard and backboard for binding, I find it easier to leave a small flat surface about 3/8˝ wide along the edge of the board so that there is a smooth and even surface for the binding tool to ride on as it cuts the binding channel. Once the channel is cut and the binding is attached to the soundboard and backboard, the next step is to shape the recurve of the board up to the binding. This can be done with sandpaper on a rounded block, but the job will be greatly expedited if you use a sharp cabinet scraper. Cabinet scrapers come in many sizes and shapes, including the curved one shown in the accompanying photo. A scraper works as well on spruce as it does on maple, and it only take a matter of minutes to properly create the recurve in both boards. A nice feature of the scraper is that the shape of the recurved area will be consistent as long as you use the same part of the scraper tool.
Luthier's Tip
Keep the scraper sharp (a sharpened scraper is one that has its edge cut or filed perpendicular to its faces). Work in long intentional strokes scraping away a length of about 3˝ of wood surface at a time. If you have not used a scraper before, practice on a piece of scrap wood prior to working on your mandolin.

Product of the Month: F5 Peghead Templates

F5 Peghead TemplateFor the month of October, if you make a purchase of $50.00 or more, you can save $7.95 (that's 15%!) if you also purchase one of our laser-cut F5 peghead templates. The peghead template features a cutout for the truss rod pocket as well as locations of the machine post holes. Part #370-P (F5 peghead template) is regularly $13.95. If you order one with any purchase of $50.00 or more, you pay only $6.00 plus P&H and save $7.95! Just enter promo code F5pegspecial.

15% off!
 
F5 Peghead Template Special
 
October's Product of the Month: Spend $50 and get a F5 peghead template for $6.00. Limit one discounted template per person. Not valid with any other offers or promotions. Use the promotion code F5pegspecial when ordering online.
Offer Valid: October 14, 2009 through November 14, 2009