WHAT in the world is THAT. An alien spider perhaps? A work of modern art, unappreciated and misunderstood by most. A bridge support?
It is another experiment in sound and strength, this time for a guitar.
While waiting for the arrival of the truss rods for the mandolin necks, I am proceeding to the next project, which is a comparison of two guitars with similar shapes and similar wood with the main difference being the bracing used on the guitar tops.
Most all guitars use a tried and true bracing system made with straight sticks. These sticks keep the top from warping under the tension of the strings, and help transmit the strings vibrations along the length of the top. While the tried and true system works great, just perhaps another system will work better. We shall see [hear].

The jig on the right is a devise used to route the neck cavity on the mandolin [left].
A HAND HELD router is used to perform this critical cut.
Many, probably most all, mandolins use a different kind of joint to attach the neck to the body. The old joint is traditional and works well. It was designed long before the advent of the great glues and wonderful hardware that we have today.
Most all of the mandolins built [copied] today also reflect the traditional design which has been in use for decades. While I suppose most people prefer, for whatever reason, the traditional looking instruments, I prefer to incorporate design and materials of the modern age which we live in now.
Does this produce a better instrument? Does this approach produce a better sounding instrument? Maybe, maybe not, but it at least will be something a little different than all those thousands, perhaps millions, of clones.
I MUST keep excited and MUST keep my passion for building instruments alive and well, and I simply can't by building clones, no matter how perfectly built they may be.

Stringed musical instruments today are better than the ones made even a few years ago. I'm not talking about the guitar one could buy at Wal-mart for $39.00, but the handcrafted instrument made by people who do it for the passion of it.
Technology isn't the reason, as the techniques used by custom builders hasn't changed much over the years. Sure factories have CNC machines to do carving and inlay and design, but the individual builder doesn't need or even want these machines. No, the reason that instruments are better now than before is the sharing of knowledge between builders. Almost all builders willingly share new ideas about sound production, about design, about a better way to attach this or that, etc, etc.
It is easier to get started building instruments now than ever, because the information on how to do it is readily available.
It's also harder to get started because the instruments must be just about perfect or they wont sell. They also must produce world class sound, and they must be artistically pleasing, or they wont sell. Buyers inspect instruments with little mirrors to inspect places not normally seen for a errant spot of glue, or a little stick not perfectly sanded. And they also bring magnifying glasses to inspect the joints with are perfect to the naked eye, but perhaps not perfect under magnification. All of this leads to instruments of really outstanding quality, and it makes the building of such worth doing.

Why, I was asked the other day, are you building three mandolins? It's because I have three hooks on which to hang them. Actually, I have four hooks, but I need one to hang up my magnifying glasses, so I have some chance of seeing what I'm doing. Even young people, if in fact a young person were to build musical instruments, would probably need to see things more clearly, as many instrument thins are small. Instrument making isn't for everyone, in fact almost no one. Many, especially the younger folks find reward only in money, and there simply isn't much money in making guitars and such. Why, you say, the damn custom guitars cost thousands of dollars, surly a maker is getting rich. It costs much for quality materials. An average for one of my acoustic guitars for material alone is about $1600. And while an artist doesn't count hours to complete a project, it takes 250-350 hrs to complete a guitar.

This is a picture of a mandolin top without the tone bars, and without the rim, and one with tone bars and rim.
What are tone bars, you wonder?
Well, the two little sticks do a few good things. First, they reinforce the tops strength, which is necessary to keep the strings from pushing the top down flat.
The little sticks also help transmit the tops vibrations through out the entire top, thus adding to the overall sound.
Another important aspect of having the little sticks is that the sticks can be shaped to alter tone, in other words, the sticks can tune the top to a specific note. That is cool for overall sound performance. And you thought they were just two little sticks.
Building guitars, and now the much smaller mandolins, one realizes just what can be done with a very small amount of material.

Experienced artists. What a difference it makes. At least when music is involved.
Many of us older farts dislike of even detest "new music". For many of us it has no beat, no taste, no substance, NO SOUL.
Some younger artists have soul, but not very many. Most older musical artist do have soul, and it makes such a difference in the experience of the listener.
Older musicians have years of playing whatever instruments it is that they play, and that certainly makes a difference to the performance.
Older musical artists also love what they do, or they would be burnt out and not playing anymore.
So these mature musicians have technical expertise and enjoy performing, but that isn't the entire equation. It's life longer lived that makes the sound something worth listening to.

Why, this looks like a VERY small guitar! But wait, it's actually a mandolin in the making, not a guitar at all.
Why would a guitar maker build a mandolin? They have too many strings, are odd looking, probably hard to play, and the cases are expensive. But they also have something else unique to only a few types of instruments, that is the wood parts, eg the top and bottom are tuned to each other. Violins are another instrument in which "plate" tuning is done.
This concept MAY be important to constructing a better sounding guitar. Tuning the "plates" of guitars may also contribute to the overall projection of sound. We shall see.
One can read about this and that all day long, but HANDS on experience is always the way to really figure something out.