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That's an early post WWII Vega Tubaphone pot. I will guess it was made sometime in the early 1950's.
The neck does not remind me of any Vega product that I am familiar with, but we rarely see Vega...

That number is what is called a factory order number.
The letter indicates the year it was made, the numbers next to it are the "batch" number, and the last two numbers are the number of the...

Uh-huh. Good luck with that. The condition of the finish is the least of this instrument's problems.
And for the record, the next model up, and for the same amount of money [NFI]:...

It is [or was], a plain A. The estimated build date of 1921 is more or less accurate.
The logo, label, and bridge are typical of the mid 1930's. That would indicate that the mandolin was returned...

But if it's left under tension and there's a loose glue joint between the back and the rib, the rib will continue to distort, making the instrument harder to repair.

This probably can be fixed, but not easily. What would it cost? Probably hundreds. Maybe lots of hundreds.

The neck to body geometry on that mandolin has changed significantly. There could be...

If you see any signs of white glue, or heaven help us CA, "just say no."

Well, if you're lucky, someone has already squirted some glue in there, and the instrument is structurally stable, if not cosmetically correct.
But if not, chances are good that it will get a lot...

Your best bet might be the #0111 cream button from Stewmac.
The color and size may not be an exact match, but you will need the rectangular mounting hole to fit over the ears of your tuner shaft. ...

A word of advice to both inquirers, and anyone else who has this problem: Loosen the strings now to avoid complicating the problem!

One of the nice things about mandolins is that you can learn to make three chords with only two fingers, and play thousands of songs with those three chords.

We have no comprehensive date/serial number table for Lyon & Healy/Washburn instruments.
The best we can do is look at the details of the instrument's appointments and narrow down the period in...

Possibly.
Vega made some good mandolins over the years.
Pictures would be essential to say anything more.

From my post in the old thread, #5:

"The very earliest Martin flat back mandolins were slightly smaller in width than the later ones. The change occurred sometime between 1920 and 1922. It is...

A shame, that.
Don't they know that the epidemic is over?

Well, not really. They were already screwing up by the 1960s, at least as far as their acoustic instruments were concerned.

But the legal posturing didn't really take off until Henry J. took the...

I like that!!
Pgambon, you get an A+ for the idea of cutting the wrench.
I never would'a thought of it.

Gibson's third CEO in five years. Same old stuff. It's been going on for many years now.
Maybe they looked at their list of companies they've already accosted, and saw that they hadn't gotten to...

The oval hole style 20's I've seen were well built.

If the instrument has been well cared for, the only down side might be that Martin sometimes ground their frets pretty low and some of them will...

I had a style 20 go across my workbench a while back.
Good sustaining qualities. Very good trebles. A very rough description of its tone might be somewhere between an oval hole Gibson and a carved...

Primarily because of light build. Age might be a secondary factor, depending upon the condition of the instrument.
Style 20s are built quite a bit lighter than modern carved mandolins.

If you...

10 - 14 - 24 - 34 or 36 should be safe.
If you need more bass, you could probably get away with a 38 if the instrument is good and solid.

Metal tailpieces on violins are popular among fiddlers these days.
My personal experience with them has been that, at least on better quality violins, is that when I swapped back and forth between a...

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1.3 mm? Is that height or width?? What is the width of your fret slots? It's hard to answer your question without more specific information.

Jim's suggestion is one solution, if the wire is...