Re: Mandolin Tail Pin
Originally Posted by
Hudmister
In dealing with a glued in end pin on a used The Loar I once owned, I cut the pin off flush with the body with a handheld hack saw blade. I then drilled a pilot hole in the remaining pin and attached a screw on strap button. All this to replace the tail piece. You can drill out an endpin, but it requires a tapered bit to do it right. If cutting the end pin off, use masking tape to protect the body around the pin.
This post kind of circles everything back around to what the main point of my original post was, which was that drilling a large tapered hole through the small tail-block of an instrument that has never required it (unlike a violin) was (and remains) a bad idea.
If you are ever in the position that Hudmister was in, you must first determine if someone has previously glued the tail-pin in place or not.
The expert and secure fitting of a violin tail-pin (in a violin) is an art and science that does not and should not employ adhesive of any kind.
If you ever have to remove one from a mandolin to change out a tailpiece, after removing all the mounting screws, use some sharp tipped wedges made from maple or plastic and you may be able to safely dislodge the tail-pin by way of raising the edges of the tailpiece hardware itself, which is still often locked into place by the tail-pin.
But Amsterdam was always good for grieving
And London never fails to leave me blue
And Paris never was my kinda town
So I walked around with the Ft. Worth Blues
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