The quest to build a mandolin leads DIY's Handmade Music series to the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. It was from the Ryman's stage that a man named Bill Monroe introduced the world to bluegrass music. That was 1945 and it was an F5 style mandolin that delivered the unique sound. Since then, the world hasn't stopped tapping its toe to that high lonesome sound, and musicians haven't stopped trying to replicate Mr. Monroe's style. But Bill Monroe's 1920s-era Gibson F5s are hard to come by, and that's where we come in (along with Lynn Dudenbostel). Lynn is a craftsman who replicates the look and sound of Bill Monroe's mandolin. On the first of three episodes devoted to mandolin construction, we learn why the instrument is special and how we can build one. We begin with the construction of a red spruce top. The top features a set of tone bars on the inside of the mandolin and Lynn shows why this step is referred to as "giving the instrument its voice". Old-school yields to high-tech when Lynn introduces the use of a computerized router to carve the top and the curly maple back. Finally Lynn prepares the sides of the instrument. But this show ventures out of the wood shop and enjoys craftsmanship of another kind. Viewers see (or hear) how Dudenbostel Mandolins sound when pushed with a virtuoso performance. Andy Leftwich and his fellow Kentucky Thunder band-mates put a Dudenbostel mandolin through its paces with a genuine bluegrass jam.