Carpenter jack clamp--more capacity

[LARRY KLOSE]

I recently picked up a Baggs radius pickup for my bandolim (Brazilian mandolin) but the clamp for the external carpenter's jack (hardware like a violin chinrest clamp)is too small for the body. Does anyone know whether longer clamp parts are available for carpenter jacks and where they might be available. If not, is there alternative hardware for the jack available. I'm not interested in in internal installation at this time.

[Ned Knepp]

Larry,
You haven't told us how long the jack needs to be or how thick the Bandolin is at the edge so it's a bit hard to know what to look for.

You might, however be able to modify these with a new foot, longer foot to make what you need.
http://cgi.ebay.com/INGENIOUS-NEW-VIOLIN-CHINREST-CLAMPS-work-for-v...

Actually, if you can find long enough screws, you may be able to modify your existing jacks to work as these do.

Ned

[LARRY KLOSE]

The bandolim is 2 3/8" at it's deepest--at Baggs' suggested location for the jack. I saw the EBay chinrest on the seller's web site, and the question is still the depth of the turnbuckle barrel that holds the two sides of the clamp together. The barrel length isn't shown on the web site or the EBay listing.

I have another contact working out the needed barrel length but I may go to this vendor for more info on the length of the barrels to see whether it will fit.

Larry

[Ned Knepp]

Larry,
I didn't point these out as a fit so much as something you might easily modify to work in your application. By making new "feet" with a longer "ankle" length, you could increase the span of the jack to whatever you need it to be.

I don't understand why barrel length really matters. It determines the amount of adjustment you have but you shouldn't need much to put the jack and off the instrument. Isn't it the total length of the jack that is short? If that's the case, why not lengthen the screws or posts on one or both sides of the turnbuckle? It seems to me that they can be one half inch long or 6 feet long if the sum of their length falls into a range that allows the turnbuckle's travel to tighten the clamp.

Ned

[LARRY KLOSE]

The bottom of the clamp is a single U shaped casting with a lip and a cork pad against the instrument with threaded pins on both halves of the clamp that the barrel adjusts like a turnbuckle. One thread left hand, one right. There's no hardware I know of that would allow extension of these without a new casting--the crux of the problem, since the hardware I've been able to find is too short. Different barrel lengths are available, but it appears that the longest one I've seen, 35 mm, is too short for this instrument.

This is adapted violin/viola hardware, which is probably why there isn't one available that's long enough. The deepest viola is probably shallower than this instrument.