Hi,
I got a nice looking mandolin from EBay thinking that it would probably be a wall hanger, but upon receiving it, it looks like it's worth setting it up to make it playable and see what it sounds like.
I believe it to be a German Hofner instrument from the early 60's and it bears a resemblance to Hofner 545 that Dawg plays in Tone Poems 2, but it does not have the cats eyes soundholes. I'm no expert but it looks like mahogany to me with an arched back and top and nice carved headstock. Finger rest is held by 3 screws to top with cork washers. Anybody know what the model might be?
I've got a few questions in terms of getting it playable.
1. The trapeze tailpiece is resting pretty much on the top. Is this normal or is there perhaps some distortion of the top? I've removed the hardware from the instrument to clean it up, but here is best as I can show the top. Maybe some bulging between bridge and taipiece?
2. What do the original bridges look like on these things and what sort of measurements might they have? The bridge on it was a non adjustable bridge that had not been fitted properly and the string spacing was screwed up, so I'll have to ditch that and buy something else. I think that an adjustable bridge would be too tall, so a non adjustable seems the likely bet.
Any comments or advice appreciated. Sorry if orientation of photos is screwed up, if you click on them they show properly.
Regards
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