Greetings, You may have recalled back aroun last November that I was asked to replace the rotted binding on a 1972 F5. It ended up being a total cosmetic rebuild.
I cut out the original bindings, only to find that the top had nearly separated from the rim.... so that got glued back down but not before I checked inside to make sure the tone bars were intact. They were, but they were also huge. We chose not to mess with any regraduation or changing of the bars, partially because of expense and partially because my client likes how his mando sounds.
Neck joint and angle were fine, finish was definitely lacquer and it was flaking off of the top, so we went with a total stripping/refinishing. You will see in the pictures that the original finish was very dark and the back/side grain was almost totally obscured.
I went with the Royal-Lac finish. It's a shellac based varnish with some added resins/secret sauce that makes the finish more resistant to alcohol, sweat, etc...after a sufficient cure time (month) it polishes really nicely and can be wet sanded.
I delivered the Mandolin to its owner this week. He gasped when opening the case. Mission accomplished! (Good thing because the repair ended up costing more than he paid for it new :-). . Thank you to the folks who gave me a variety of advice on this project.
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