Luthier 'Custódio Cardoso Pereira'

[JeppeP]

Dear forum,

During a study trip to Lissabon last week, I went to a market and fell in love with a small, moderately beaten up, mandolin. After the purchase of it, I then took off to see a local music store in order to get some more information. He told me that it was from Luthier ‘Custódio Cardoso Pereira’ and that it was a traditional Portuguese mandolin. I looked up the name and found a blog from a guy (second instrument on the page) which seems almost identical to mine.
http://muziekinstrumenten.blogspot.c...balalaika.html

They also looked at the state of the instrument.

The headstock has broken off
Tuning part is gone
There is a small gap between the fretboard and the instrument so slightly coming loose
Bridge is missing
Small cracks at the end of top and bottom faces, if nothing is done they will come off as well
Biggest crack near tailpiece and endpin
Small less serious hit mark on side


What I wish is to learn more about this instrument, maybe support or discarding of the text in the blog – anything to add? Also, I would like to fix it, either by doing it myself or getting it done professionally. I worry that I will destroy it by doing it myself with no experience in instrument work until now, but also if it is worth paying a lot of money to get done by a professional. Should I just give it a go myself or would that be a shame?

Images attached

[vic-victor]

Looks like it is possible to restore this mandolin. I guess it will be difficult to find the tuning mechanism though, unless you look around in Portugal itself, where it is still popular. But as for more information, the insrtrument looks to me as run the mill mandolin, nothing too spectacular and not much value these days. But certainly can be a fun project to work on.

[phorton]

Were you ever able to start/finish the project? My daughter in law just picked one up that needs restoration. I was hoping to ask some questions.