I have been wondering whether the spuce top was actually carved, as advertised, or whether the solid top was shaped into the gentle arch with the same techniques used for arching the top of laminated (plywood) tops? Solid woods for instruments are generally bent into shape using warm water, heat, and a press. I assume that that is how the laminated arched spuce tops are formed. Rather than carving the top, it seems likely to me that the Chinese have a process for doing the same thing with a thin sheet of solid spruce, thus avoiding the difficult and time-consuming process of carving out the arched shape. What do you think?
That’s a good question-I’ve wondered about that myself, looking at Chinese violins before.
First, I think the Chinese products are made with much more hand labor than American factory products, in general. It seems they are much more advanced in the use of hand tools than we are here, where most things are done by machines, to be quicker, and repeatable, and in the end, produced at low cost by unskilled labor, in a factory environment.
It’s not to say that the Chinese lack technology, but I think they rely on humans to do more than is expected here in the US. They routinely do manual physical labor, and here, it is largely a thing of the past.
Your mandolin has more chance of having been produced in a large, modern factory than say a violin would, I think. Violins can be mass produced, and no doubt are, judging by some of the very cheap ones on Ebay-and they probably sound good, but only to a student. But any violin that sounds decent, I would think, likely has had some handwork performed in its making.
Even flat topped mandolins sound pretty good, so I don’t think it’s as critical as the violin, or you might see some flat top violins too!
You might be right about the presses used to form the mandolin tops/backs into the “carved” shape-it makes perfect economical sense to do it if you can.
Eastman violins and mandolins are made in China using largely hand labour and techniques known to Orville Gibson.
They’re not especially cheap, but they haven’t cut any corners, apart from using asian tonewoods rather than the north american woods of the classic carved-top mandolins of the 20s-40s.
The collapsed top on my late lamented Chinese-made mandolin is pretty typical for a pressed-not-carved plywood instrument. I’m going to knock a hole in it, fill it with potting soil, and plant herbs in it.
Jame, thanks for the link to the Chinese violin factory article. It was very interesting. I am fairly confident that that is how the solid mandolin top was fashioned because it is too perfect to have been carved by hand for that low price. I have a $300 Gliga violin that was hand-made in Romania. It is a very attractive violin, but if you look closely at the top, you can see that it was obviously carved by hand, because some of the gouge marks are still present. No doubt that their more expensive models would have been carved to more exacting standards.
Pretty amazing to get anything for 300 with an actual carved top!
I am thinking that laminated woods for the pressed tops are just adding one more step to the process and I’m glad to have a solid wood pressed top these days. After all, it’s workin for me. If I’d held out for an American made instrument I’d have never learned to play anything.
I do feel better knowing there arent tiny children cutting themselves to make me a low cost instrument. LOL
Myself, I’d rather hold out for a carved instrument. Pressed tops just don’t hold up, and aren’t as satisfying to play. Though I’m really craving a mando, I’d rather wait till I have the $ for a good one. Some instruments can be had for less, but good mandos seem to be more expensive than good inexpensive violins or guitars. One of my fiddles is a Chinese fiddle that cost me $475, it’s a really nice instrument, obviously hand carved, I can tell by the tool marks, plus I took a look at the arching and when I pulled the end pin to reset the soundpost after a mishap. To get a mandolin with equivalent quality, I’d probably have to pay at least $800. All of the ones I’ve seen for less didn’t impress me at all. As an aside, The $525 Blueridge OOO guitar (Chinese or Korean) I’ve played seems just as good as the Martin I used to have, even better for fingerstyle…but I digress. Some of the PacRim instruments are really nice now.
Don’t forget the plastic liner bag.