top crack repair costs

[acumando]

Hey all,

The top on my beautiful Janish A5 suffered a nasty F-hole crack due to extreme climate change. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif I want to get it repaired, but I have no idea what I'm up against in terms of cost. I'm hoping some folks here could give me an idea so I can tell if I'm getting overcharged or whatnot.

Thanks...

How long is the crack?

[acumando]

it goes from the top of the treble side f hole to the binding... 2-3 inches?

Are you sure it is a crack in the wood or a finish crack in the laquer

[acumando]

definitely through the wood... i checked it with a dental mirror. now that i think about it maybe more like 3-4 inches (i'm away from it right now).

[August Watters]

This should not be a terribly expensive repair -- a good technician should be able to do this for not too much. I'd hope to pay $200-$250 or so, although prices vary wildly across the US and could go higher. The usual process would be to humidify the mandolin until the wood expands enough to hide the crack -- and then work in enough hide glue to keep it there. Cleats may also be used -- little pieces of soft wood inside that are glued across both sides of the crack inside the mandolin, to add stability. They will expand and contract with temperature and humidity changes. If this type of repair is done correctly, it can be made invisible to both eye and ear.

Now, is everyone humidifying their mandolins properly, and avoiding sudden temperature and humidity changes? There's a good reason why most of the vintage Gibsons that survived did so in the South! Radio Shack sells cheap and accurate hygrometers, so you can be sure your relative humidity stays in the 45-50% range.

Up here in Boston, if a mandolin is going to be carried outside in this awful winter weather, it's a virtual necessity to have an insulated case, or a case cover. I have a couple of Small Dog case covers; they're great for maintaining temperature for at least 20 or 30 minutes while you're outside. No interest, of course:
http://www.cavallarocasecovers.com/smalldog.html

August Watters
http://www.galleryofstrings.com

[sunburst]

$200-$250 seems high to me. Maybe I should move to Boston!
Of coarse I haven't seen the crack, but I usually get about $10/in. for simple crack repair. In fact I once glued a new f-hole crack in a Gilchrist on the spot for nothing. It took me about 2 minutes. The crack was so new it was still nearly invisible and the repair turned out to be invisible. In other words, don't wait around to fix this!

John Hamlett

[BigJoe]

Repairs such as this will run from 100 -200 depending upon how bad the area around the crack is. If it can be fixed with minimal effort, the crack can be made to nearly disappear. Like many repair facilities, we do these all the time.