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I'd say that the odds are about 80/20 that the back will have to be removed, the glueing surfaces cleaned, and any loose braces attended to.
Then, it will have to be re-assembled in a manner that...

When I first moved here in 1981, the few Latin-Americans who lived here were mostly Cuban ex-patriots. Some of them were released prisoners from the Bay of Pigs battle.
Starting in the mid...

Habit, mostly; developed when I was doing multiple fret jobs for a well known professional who liked it that way.
I did get used to the look of it.

Playing wise, I think I like the feel of the...

My old Regal Octofone is the only octave mandolin I've spent any significant time with. The fingerboard is 1 3/8" at the nut, and 1 5/8" at the 12th fret. It is set up with an old one piece...

A well executed headstock repair may last a lifetime without any adverse effects.
But the market does not like them. They devalue the instrument significantly, and many buyers will not even...

The modern logo does indeed come in about 1947, first in silkscreen, then changing to a decal in 1954.

Factory order numbers from the late '40's are inconsistent and not much info is available on...

I am 1000+ miles from the mandolin, so I can't offer you any opinions on the tone or projection of the instrument.
However, I will reluctantly suggest that the price seems to be quite high for an...

Many years ago, I visited Fred Oster's Vintage Instruments shop in Philadelphia.
He routinely carries many very fine violin family instruments, and he happened to have an early Stradivari violin in...

Addendum:

I've spent the last several days glueing and cleating cracks and glueing loose braces in an F-5G and a 20 year old J-45 guitar that have had a hard life.

I have nice 20th century...

I operated in my shop for quite a few years with no power tools at all except for a Dremel with a home-made router base, an electric hand drill and a hand held jig saw. The jig saw does not get used...

Dave Apollon was known to remove the 23rd and sometimes the 21st fret on some of his mandolins so he could get a clear high E and sometimes a high D.

Gibson did make a very small number of A-4's with fancy fingerboard inlays. All were built before 1910, and would have left the factory with inlaid pickguards, and a somewhat different shape to the...

The picture of Jim's earlier mandolin appears to me to show a light radius, while the picture of the later instrument appears not to have a radius.
Computers and camera lenses can distort pictures. ...

Very few good handmade mandolins were being made back then. Monteleone and Randy Wood were making a few, and Gilchrist was just starting to build his first instruments. There were only a few others...

Many old instruments have hairline cracks. Your immediate concern is that it does not open up or spread. Use a humidifier such as a Damp-it to ensure the instrument does not dry out too much during...

What's wrong with a good quality [not the cheapo] cutter from the hardware store?
I've got a 35 year old larger size Stanley "made in Japan" cutter that I've used to wire two houses and clip...

The finish has been compressed in that area from the bridge foot due to string tension.
If it was nitro, the area could be drop-filled, levelled, and polished by an expert. But that appears to be a...

Differences: Most A-2's have a Sheraton Brown finish, single binding, and a plainer rosette. A-2Z's have a blonde finish, a double bound top, and a fancier rosette with an ivoroid center ring. ...

Yes, that's the one. His classification of chords into different groups based on the amount of dissonance in the chord's structure goes a long way into understanding how to put color into...

The musical examples in the video would have been easier to comprehend and would have sounded more palatable if they had been re-voiced so that each note in the old chord led to its closest neighbor...

I want to thank whoever bought the pretty Vega bowlback for relieving me from any lingering temptation.
I hope the new owner heartily enjoys it.

Whether they are overloaded or not, that is no excuse for dishonesty.
Report it to Fed-Ex. If they ignore you and you want to make a difference, you can go to the press.

I have used the Stew-mac #147 wire, .080" wide x .040" high on many mandolins with great results.

The #6130 Accu-Fret wire from International Violin is a low jumbo guitar wire, and I do not...

Also available from Axiom Inc. www.axinc.net
They also sell saddles and bases separately, and are our most complete source for celluloid bindings and pickguard material.

Well, not only have I taken the pledge, but the virus is driving my business down to the basement. I made $75 this week, and only expect to make $45 next week. Not the right time to buy even an...