Ry, it's been 5 days since I emailed heritage and no reply has materialised. Might I take advantage of your kind offer to personally contact their repairman and use your 'fluence to extract the info. I would be extremely grateful, especially so since another local repairman, who has no finishing facilities, is prepared to pass all his finishing work on to me depending on the outcome!

Regards

Dave Yelverton

Hi Ry- the instrument that you are working on in your pic looks to be a lap top steel, correct me if I am wrong, however it looks like a very unique shape and I must say, I'm very interested in the out come.
I have made a few lap top steels and they were all made of solid maple.
Peace,
Donald

Hi Ry - I took a look at your web site and I must say that I liked what I saw :)
I have a mandolin in process and its on my page in blog form if you are interested in looking.
Peace,
Donald

Hi Ry.. many thanks for all your efforts. Please don't trouble any more on my account. I've been experimenting and manged to get the correct effect by using a matt lacquer to soften the colour coats before I shot the clear gloss. I doubt if that's how they do it and probably age has been a factor in modifying the appearance of the finish, but at least I think I'm going to make the customer happy! By the way I enjoyed having a lokk round your website.
Best wishes
Dave Y

Hi Ry- I will be posting the whole process so you can keep track and I'm glad to share with you any info that I have on any building too -- ok??
Peace,
Donald

Hey Ray- I finally got the chance to finish up that bass mando that I was making.
Pic. posted on the blog.. hope you like it..
Peace, Donald

Hi Ray- Thank you for the comment on that bass mando that I made--
I need to take the neck and the bridge off and narrow them up a bit--
they are now @ 1-5/8 and 2-1/4 inch respectively
I think a 1-/38 nut and a 2 inch spread at the saddle will be better since the thing seems to be a lil too spread out now.
here's the specs if you want to build one-----
body is classical profile with the body depth being 4 inches and tapered 1/4 inch in ether direction from the waist to the heel block and the tail block
the "X" racing is set @ 100 degrees and the tone bar is set @ 110 degrees to the "X" brace.
neck follows a martin scale length or 25-1/2 inch will work too..
If this info helps then I am glad to share ----
Peace,
Donald