Stew-Mac Offers Mandolin Kits

New from Stewart-MacDonald are two carved top mandolin kits, providing all the major parts required to produce you own, hand-made instrument.

Requiring few tools for construction, the A5 teardrop style mandolin comes with a pre-finished carved top and everything needed including tone bars, kerfed linings, bindings, fretwire, nut, dot inlays, endpin, truss rod, peghead veneer and a blueprint. The arched top and back of the A5 can simply be sanded and assembled, or if preferred, carved and tap-tuned for optimum sound.

Providing even greater scope for the potential luthier, the Stewmac F5 scroll type mandolin is supplied with the parts already mentioned, along with a dovetailed curly maple neck, 29-slot ebony fingerboard, assembled curly maple rim with dovetailed neck block, carved curly maple back and European spruce top.

Both A5 and F5 require the purchase of tuners, bridge and tailpiece, and both are designed by Don MacRostie, creator of the Red Diamond mandolins.

The A5 kit sells for $325, and is also available bundled with a 2 VHS video set detailing the construction process. The F5 kit sells for $425, or $499 with the videos included.