Bad point

[mando-picker]

Hey Guys, Last night the worst happened ,while pickin the leather strap broke and the mandolin fell from chest high down on the lower point and broke the binding off. The bad part of this is the binding has yellowed over the years (21 years old). Any body got a suggestion on a mirracle fix. Signed SICK

[F5G WIZ]

I feel your pain brother, dropped mine and broke the headstock scroll a couple weeks ago, and it is only 8 months old! Was there any other damage? Save the peice and take it to a good luthier, he or she should be able to reglue it no problem unless there is other more significant damage. If it is a simple reglue of the binding you may be able to do it yourself. Post a picture of the damage if you can.

[Michael Lewis]

You get one chance to get it right. If it needs a re-do it is just making the best of a bad situation.

[MikeEdgerton]

I agree with Michael, there is nothing worse than trying to undo a bad repair. You'd be best taking it to someone that has the ability and has done this sort of repair before. The right repair person will be able to get that yellowed binding close as well.

[ErikAitch]

I agree with Michael, there is nothing worse than trying to undo a bad repair. You'd be best taking it to someone that has the ability and has done this sort of repair before. The right repair person will be able to get that yellowed binding close as well.
That would be the miraculous repair.

The ounce of prevention? check your strap regularly, especially if yours is a spagetti strap single strand of leather. Make sure it can't slip off the end pin by tying the loop closed.

Better yet; a braided strap over a rot-proof core, with an end pin loop that requires removing a _tight_ end pin to install. Even without a core, a braided strap will give a warning; it has to be very far gone indeed for all the strands to break at once.

[MikeEdgerton]

That would be the miraculous repair

Not really, spend some time on frets.com and you'll see it's doable. Monroe's mandolin would be another that proves it can be done. The fact that Gibson can build a DMM that looks old shows it can be done.