Emergency Mandolin Repair

[mandowood]

Here's my situation:

I am playing tonight- Wed. at a Worship Conference here in St. Louis. #Before practice today, I had loosened the strings and in the process of bringing them up to tune, the bridge saddle snapped. #I have practice again this afternoon and the first service is tonight at 7:30 p.m. #

I need some advice- I'm checking with some local music stores to see if they have a new bridge, but does anyone know if there is a luthier here in town who could fit a new bridge at the very last minute? #

The bridge was a maple bridge that came with the mandolin (1991 flatiron F5 artist) that the previous owner put on. #It does not have standard spacing on the posts, so just putting on a new saddle won't work. #Thanks for all your help. #Hopefully somebody knows of a quick solution...

[John Flynn]

Get to Music Folk in Webster Groves. One of the co-owners, Andy Ploof, is a great mando player and luthier and there are other people there who could fit a bridge also. The store has lots of new and used parts and they will sometimes work on stuff while you wait if they can. There are others, but that would be your best bet.
www.musicfolk.com

[mandowood]

Thanks Johnny- I found a blank bridge saddle at music folk and everything worked out in the end. It took a while, but the Conference started tonight and went really well. Thanks for the quick assistance...

[dls59]

Where is your conference? I'm in the STL area. (By the way, I just joined and this is my first post here.)

[mandowood]

The conference is put on by Covenant Seminary and the Worship Reformation Network (see here for the information).

Tomorrow morning there is a service at 9:30 a.m. at the Covenant Seminary Chapel. Tomorrow evening we'll meet at 7:00 p.m. at Chesterfield Presbyterian Chuch (PCA) for a service and there's one on Wednesday morning there, too. I think it's at 10:30 a.m.

The website should have all the information you need. Tonight was great and I really enjoyed playing. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[dls59]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've played worship music in this area for approx. 27 years, so your topic caught my eye. I've played bass for 30 some odd years, but I just started mandolin, to add a tool to the arsenal.

What kind of material are you playing mandolin on?

[mandowood]

Mostly hymns, some contemporary stuff. #There are a few churches in the PCA that are rewriting a lot of music to old hymns. #Here are a couple of resources:

Go to Indelible Grace Music- there's an online hymnal with a ton of demos you can listen to. #These guys are out of Christ Community PCA outside of Nashville. #And you can buy their cd's. #They're excellent.

Or try Red Mountain Church Music- they're from Birmingham and have redone some hymns as well. #Great cd's and free worship resources on the website.