I am finishing my second Saga mandolin kit purchased from International Violin. My first was an f hole and my present one is an oval hole.
I am generally pleased with both builds and most of the components but I thought I'd mention one thing which has been iffy on both of my builds. The veneer on the head stock is literaly paper thin and very very delicate and subject to damage. On my first one I accidently nicked a piece of veneer off but managed to more or less repair and hide the flaw... On my second though the veneer was so poorly glued on it immediatly began to break and peel off. I might have been able to salvage and reglue it on but fortunatly I had some nice veneer left over from another project. It was a lot thicker and easier to handle and nowhere near as fragile as the original veneer on the peg head. I would recommend having some veneer handy just in case as I suspect you stand a 50/50 chance of needing it. We bought our veneer on line from Logs to Lumber or you'll find other sources on line. My veneer is called Burly Imboya and I am more than pleased with its appearance. In fact I may just redo the veneer on my first build.
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