Campfire Mandolin Kit

This kit is a great introduction to mandolin building. The quality of the wood is very nice and the instructions are easy to follow. Here are a couple of hints for building this kit: (1) dry fit, dry fit, dry fit; dry fit everything before assembly, in particular the neck block. (2) This is a small instrument and the overlapping bracing pattern might make the top too stiff. Don't overlap the bracing and move the two braces running along side the sound hole from the front to the back more into the middle so that they don't touch the kerfing. (3) Install the back with a small tab that overlaps the heel of the neck (see picture inset). This is known as the button in the violin world and helps to stabilize the neck. The resulting mandolin has a mellow sound and is surprisingly loud for such a small instrument.

I've been doing guitar repair work for many years but this kit was my first foray into mandolin construction. For the most part it's an excellent kit and a great introduction to much of the basics of mandolin construction (much of which can be applied to other stringed instruments). The quality of my kit was very good overall -- very nice wood in particular. Instructions were clear and allowed room for some variation in approach where I was more used to doing things my own way. My only criticism is I would have liked to have been able adjust the neck heel a bit, but the preset mounting screw (which I did not want to remove) made that difficult. But overall it was a pleasure to build and left me with an attractive, fully playable instrument with great tone and projection.

Dear Sirs, after more then 12 months I already finished my first instrument I ever build. I was surprised by selection of quality wood for the kit - I believe that was first assumption for very good sound of this instrument. I am fully satisfied, this kit was perfect choise for such purpose - I can fully recommend to all who are hesitating to build his own instrument. My next mandolin will be StewMac A5:) Many thanks to all people at StewMac!

Sounds better than $400-$500 instruments

This is a great kit. I'm only 13 and just got into lutherie and and I could not have found a better kit for that price to start acoustic building. The only problem I had was the tuning holes did not match the tuning pegs, so a little adjusting was necessary. Other then that graet kit and great experience.

The neck block and caul were not fitting at all. I had to do a lot of extra work to make it fit. I had also to do a lot of work to make fit the neck to the body. The fret slots were to deep and to wide. I had to glue in the frets. I'm a little bit disapointed about the poor quality of these Items. I managed to complete the work. The mandolin looks great and souds good.

This mando was my first project, and I'm amazed how well the kit turned out! This instrument is very loud and bright and plays excellent if you take your time to make final adjustments. Fitting the neck was the most difficult part, the concave on the neck did not match the convex of my body. Also spend the extra and buy decent tuners, I opted for the economy tuners and they do not stay in tune, I will be replacing. But overall the quality of this kit is very good and I would highly recommend for first timers.

i bought the kit this summer and i just open the box to start working on it this week. at first i check the neck block and the caul and they were not fitting good.i was able to make it fit with a bit of work. today i check the neck and i will have to work on it too to make it fit on the body but its not to bad. but i was really disapointing when i saw that the tuner i bought (economie) didnt fit at all. i dont know how i will make it fit because i dont have press drill(its off by 1/8)and the fret slot are way too deep for the fret i got with the kit. i will have to put super glue but i will always see the slot on the edge of the neck. there is another piece of wood in the box that doesnt appear on the plan. i think it goes inside under the bridge i will have to figure out where exacly. the big deal is the neck. hope i will be able to make something out of it. all that put me trought more problem solving then i was expecthing from a kit.

Great kit, easy to assemble, the only complaint would be that they used Sapele in place of Maple.
Otherwise this is a great kit.
I subsittuted real Maple for this build. And the sound is much more pleasing.
Good quality

Currently working on this kit. Wood seems to be of good quality, however many of the parts in my kit seem to be a bit off. The neck block was quite asymmetrical and the contour of the neck heel was not even close to the contour of the neck block. I figured, that's ok, I'll make it work and it'll be a learning experience.

Despite the problematic neck block, the body went together fine and the neck fits somewhat closely with some coaxing. But then when I went to fret the fretboard, I discovered that the fret slots are about three times deeper than necessary, making it difficult to seat the frets securely. The fretboard worked out ok too with a bit of superglue and finess.

Now, however, I am perturbed by the fact that the tuning machine holes are not even close to the right spacing (off by 1/8") and without a drill press, I'm not sure what to do. I have learned a lot while building this kit, however, I have also been significantly slowed down and, frankly, annoyed when dealing with the parts which were supposed to "fit together correctly, to save you time and work."