The Ultimate Bluegrass Mandolin Construction Manual

I have to say that from a technical perspective, Roger presents info that you won't find anywhere else. It does give one food for thought and he explains sound production quite well. But as far as his woodworking techniques go, he leaves a lot to be desired.

I'd give 5 stars for the acoustical engineering ideas but look elsewhere for mandolin building instruction.

Siminoff provides a good introduction to how a Loar-style F-5 mandolin is put together, although some of the finer details are not necessarily correct if you are trying to build an exact copy. The drawings are seriously flawed and not particularly well drawn. For example, the cross-sections, so important for getting the carving of the top and back right, do not agree with the plan view or longitudinal section, and the outline of the instrument body changes from drawing to drawing.

The book's greatest value is in showing how the basic construction is arranged, with good explanations of some of the less obvious details, such as the neck-body joint, the scroll reinforcement in the peghead, etc. If you combine this book with a better set of plans (the plan that StewMac sells here is pretty good), you can build a decent F-5, which is a pretty complicated instrument.

All you ever wanted to know about the mandolin but were afraid to ask.