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Spann's specifically lists 11103 as belonging to a batch of plain A's built in 1918. During that year, all mandolins would have left the factory with tuners with scalloped ends on the base plates, a...

Like many other of the design changes that occurred at Gibson in that early period, the phasing out of the cam-style pickguard clamp in favor of the screw-in bracket was gradual. While most...

That is a Gibson A-1 mandolin. The serial number 80397 indicates that the instrument was shipped in late 1926. My reference for fixing the date is "Spann's Guide to Gibson."
It has the angular...

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...

I do repair work and am in the Chattanooga area. I have considerable experience with vintage mandolins and guitars.

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...

I just pulled the frets, nut, and bridge on a 1980 Martin D-37K guitar.

Nice guitar, reasonably well cared for, played a lot, and in for repair simply because of stuff that normally needs to be...

I've done this a few times, and I never saw any compelling reason to file the higher wire down to exactly match the lower wire. .004" difference is chicken feed and the instrument will play very...

Hmmm. Perhaps if he can get his hands on a couple of tenor banjos or tenor guitars, he'll be able to give you some idea of what feels good to him.
Or, if he plays guitar, does he have any...

Are you making the instrument for yourself or for someone else?
Personal preferences are so important.

I play most string instruments to one degree or another. Personally, I prefer wider string...

Well, if no one else contributes, one of my former students has a Trinity College that he could measure.
And Walter Carter just listed a Sobell, and has a Gilchrist in stock. Measurements on those...

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...

If you find it necessary to plug old screw holes and drill new ones, you can plug with round toothpicks with the end cut off and a little bit of Titebond to glue them in. I leave them a little long,...

Phil, if you have any lingering doubts, go to Ace Hardware and buy their little 6" metal rule which is graduated in 64ths of an inch. It costs about $5.

Then, measure again very carefully from...

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...

The neck angle was changed, but several years earlier-- the earliest 2-pointers, introduced in 1910, had the same angle as mandolins made in the late teens and throughout the 1920's. The bridge...

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...

To install a new bridge on flat top instruments with fixed bridges, many of us simply locate the bridge, tape or clamp it in place, measure for the saddle position, drill a tiny hole through the...

Stop by Gruhn Guitars also. Although they have less than usual at the moment, new stuff walks in the door every day. And, at the moment, they do have an older Gilchrist model 5. I haven't played...

The mandolin is an early modern era Washburn. It was built in either Japan or South Korea.
It bears no resemblance to the mandolins made by the original Washburn Company, which was out of business...