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It's real easy to make it look worse! It is new only one time. If it bothers you I would have an expert with lacquer do the repair. It's not hard but it IS touchy and requires skill. Send it to...

That should be wired much like the electric guitars of that year. Look for a general wiring diagram at the electric guitar sites like "guitarelectronics.com", or any of many other sites available...

Jim, from what I have seen your work is pretty consistent, so you would know if the mandolins are very close to each other in pertinent dimensions. You might get a better comparison if you made two...

Many years ago I salvaged a piece of desert iron wood from southern Calif. When I tried to resaw it my band saw started smoking after a few inches of cutting. There is so much mineral material...

Stable is relative to who is making the claim, and of course the seller wants to reassure a potential buyer. The open seam at the tail block is definitely an issue to be concerned about. Glue...

Gluing the brace first is certainly the way new construction is done, and maybe appropriate here. I would try to fit the parts together before gluing to see how they can be assembled, since they are...

It seems that folks are happy to perpetuate partial truths as THE TRUTH. Since most varnishes are applied to instruments in a thin film they add very little mass or weight to an instrument, so they...

Keith, my take on this is the new finish adds some mass and a bit of damping, which will change things in a slightly negative way. After a few months or years as the finish gets hard and learns how...

It will be considerably easier to put the original top back on than make a new one that looks the part. You can always make a new top if you really need to, but try to save the old one first.

If...

Tom, I don't know of other makers of stainless steel frets but there certainly many types of stainless material, and some can be rather soft. The tiny stainless frets from Jescar seem rather soft to...

With all the damage and previous "repairs" I don't see this instrument bringing more than $2000 after being professionally repaired. I think it would be a stretch to get that much, but let the...

Try using soda as blasting medium. Much less abrasive and doesn't damage the metal. Soda is available from suppliers in different 'grits' specifically as blasting media.

You can make this into...

Uh, those will be laminated from veneers, not solid wood.

There is no rule to say what wood can be used for the top of an acoustic mandolin, but there are some general guidelines and limits of...

Most tuning problems are caused by friction in the hut, NOT slipping gears or string posts. Make sure your nut is not pinching the strings and save yourself some money.

By the way, Steven...

The traditional violin world material for this is rottenstone. All the previous steps in the surface preparation and finishing process should leave you with a very smooth surface at this point. The...

Back on track, you can remove the string posts and spur gears from the set of machines and install the plates to the back of the headstock right where they should be. Now the holes for the string...

The F2 has seen a lot of humidity, they have a monsoon season there every year. I wonder how many years it has been in the area. It also has been aggressively picked at around the sound hole, plus...

Maybe from the Swiss patent office where Albert Einstein worked about that time.

The word is to use cheap foam a brush and discard it after each application. I would think a bit of thinner would help here too.

I have had the granular "sand" appear with the Behlens Rock Hard...

Rather like so many things, you get what you pay for.

Like most businesses I think they are trying to make money, and in this case by capitalizing on the D'Angelico name. I too think modern electrics and imported factory made are not in keeping with...

I stopped by the new D'Angelico booth at the winter NAMM show in January to see what they were showing and to return a tailpiece that had been sent to me several months ago. Most of their guitars...

Bernie, I still don't see why you are going to do this operation. I try to visualize things when I am designing, try to get the picture in my mind of what it will look like. I may be missing...

This could be a good project for someone to get a good bit of education. There are some issues I see, like the long arch of the top. Probably need to make a new neck but you just never know what...

The top is distorting from the stresses caused by string tension, not much can be done about that without doing a whole lot.

I agree with Robert, play it as long as it plays.