Curly Mango Tenor Finished!

Habanera Hal

Habanera Hal

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Location
Katy, Texas
Lots of challanges along the way (including drilling a soundport on the wrong side - turned into a cutaway), but I'm fairly pleased with how this turned out. Still need to fine-tune the string height but intonation is spot on.

Curly Mango top, sides, back and headplate
Ebony binding and tail splice
Spruce bracing
Mahogany neck
Wenge fingerboard and bridge
Abalone rosette and fret markers
Aquila strings
Mango Tenor Uke #005 061.jpg
Mango Tenor Uke #005 054.jpg
Mango Tenor Uke #005 055.jpg
Mango Tenor Uke #005 052.jpg
Mango Tenor Uke #005 058.jpg
 
Looks good. Tell me about the rings at the string through holes on the bridge.
 
Gary Gill said:
Looks good. Tell me about the rings at the string through holes on the bridge.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Gary. Those are string ferrules I made from some thin-wall aluminum tubing. The strings feed through the inside, knotted with wood beads riding on the underside of the bridgeplate. Although it doesn't show in the picture, they are beveled and polished so no sharp edges. I've built about 30 cigar-box guitars using this method and never had a string fail at that point.
 
Last edited:
Habanera Hal said:
Thanks, Gary. Those are string ferrules I made from some thin-wall aluminum tubing. The strings feed through the inside, knotted with wood beads riding on the underside of the bridgeplate. Although it doesn't show in the picture, they are beveled and polished so no sharp edges. I've built about 30 cigar-box guitars using this method and never had a string fail at that point.
Click to expand...

That is friggin' brilliant! I hope you can forgive me if I try to do something like that on my builds. They look really nice!
 
finkdaddy said:
That is friggin' brilliant! I hope you can forgive me if I try to do something like that on my builds. They look really nice!
Click to expand...

Thank you, Fred! By all means you are welcome to do so. BTW, I looked at your site and those are some beautiful builds. Someday I hope to be able to inlay fretboards like that. Some cool and original rosettes there, too.
 
Gorgeous instrument! Yummmmm... love the curly mango wood!
 
Wow, that really came out looking nice! I want one!
 
tangimango said:
Are those some kind of revits for the string on the bridge holes? Where could I get some?
Click to expand...

See post #4 above. Any hobby shop should carry small diameter aluminum and brass tubing. The main advantage to this is preventing the strings from cutting into the wood bridge. Also, by inserting the strings through the body and tying them off inside, the string pressure is exerted on the underside of the bridgeplate rather than lifting the back of the bridge off the soundboard.
 
WOW! What a gorgeous instrument! I am in awe of anyone that can do something so beautiful.

The wood is gorgeous too! Now I must research how it sounds...
 
What fabulous instrument. the mango is not easy to work with. Sensational work.
Something to aspire to in my efforts to make more firewood and sawdust.
Regards
Garry Petrisic.
 
thanks, brass tubing, i wonder if i can find my R/C car parts with aluminum spacers.

Habanera Hal said:
See post #4 above. Any hobby shop should carry small diameter aluminum and brass tubing. The main advantage to this is preventing the strings from cutting into the wood bridge. Also, by inserting the strings through the body and tying them off inside, the string pressure is exerted on the underside of the bridgeplate rather than lifting the back of the bridge off the soundboard.
Click to expand...
 
I used brass tubing from my R/C plane parts bin. I had a Yamaha classical guitar, and the string hole had been cut into enough that the break angle was down to nothing. The brass tubing worked miracles. The trick is drilling the hole with the bridge attached to the instrument. I used a larger brass tube to make an extension for the drill bit, and went very slowly....
 
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