Another Strad-O-Lin that needs some repair

  1. Denis Kearns
    Denis Kearns
    Hi all -
    Well, I picked up another Strad-O-Lin which needs some attention before it can be played. I will post photos. It seems to be a late 1940s - early 1950s model, but I’ve yet to find one in any catalog that is exactly the same. No date or writing visible anywhere inside. It has laminate back and sides, a nice spruce top (a small crack may need attention), white deteriorating plastic binding, and tuners with the buttons rotted off. It looks like someone may have sanded the headstock at one point; it has no label. The dark stripe on the headstock is part of the wood and not a crack. Despite having rusty strings when it arrived, and being untunable without the use of pliers, the G & D strings were almost in tune and it seemed to play well and have a decent sound. Looking forward to getting working tuners and new strings installed. Have thought about revamping the tuners, but the buttons available through Stewmac won’t fit and no telling how well the tuners work. Thinking about installing some Rubners. Besides new tuners, I’ll have new binding installed and a general “tune-up”. Should be a nice little instrument. It came in a mandola-sized chipboard case.

    - Denis
  2. Denis Kearns
    Denis Kearns
    I was estimating the build date by the rotting tuner buttons, but just came across a Cafe thread where NickR posted photos of the same tuners and stated, “the tuner type is what I think is a style briefly made in the late 30s very early 40s- for guitars and mandolins- judging by the shape of the plate”. I have not yet come across another Stradolin like mine (some similar, but not exact) and Nick’s post is the only other example of the tuners I seen. Think I will try to revive and rebutting the original tuners instead of replacing them.
  3. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Nice! Have fun getting it spruced up, and look forward to how it sounds when it's done!
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