Building a Mandolin...

AddFor my first acoustic mandolin project, I decided to build a relatively ambitious and untraditional design I though up while stuck in my dorm room freshman year in college. In hindsight it might have been a good idea to use a kit or at least an established design for my first instrument, but what is the fun of certainty and predictability anyway? This site is meant to document my triumphs and failures alike as I venture deep into the unknown territories of luthrie...

Now that the overblown introduction is out of the way, down to business. For a first acoustic stringed instrument, a flat-top acoustic mandolin worked out well for me. It was inexpensive to build and not nearly as time consuming as a larger instrument could be. Overall, I spent less than $100 for the materials and parts and around 80 hours over a month on building the mandolin.

I've also finished a second mandolin that's very similar in design to this one. That project can be found here: Building Mandolin No. 002

Mandolin Plans

Here are the plans I used to build my mandolin: MandolinNo001.dxf. The plans are free to download and copy for reference or as a guide to build your own mandolin. If you don't have a CAD program, there are free CAD viewers available that will let you view and print the plans.

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