Re: How to replace a broken A-model neck
Not that Larry needs me to defend him (he doesn't) but I'll chime in here
to provide a little more background. The saw-through-the-neck photo is
certainly jarring!
I no longer own this instrument, but I know it well, as I bought it in
about 1999, in its already broken state (from a guy... at a CMSA
convention... who knocked on my hotel room door and had this
broken mandolin in a paper grocery sack... "pssst... hey buddy...
wanna buy a mandolin?"....) I have no way of knowing
how long before that time the break actually took place... but I
suspect it had been broken a long time before I saw it... giving
the split ends time to morph around a little with the weather.
Yes, there is lots of surface area there, and yes, a repair was attempted
in the hands of a well-known luthier, along the lines of what many of the
posters here are suggesting. Unfortunately, though there is lots of surface
area, enough time had passed that the very complex three-dimensional
break didn't fit together all that well anymore. It was impossible to actually
put it back together tightly. With the inevitable slight misalignment, the
repair looked bad, and it was clear that it was only a matter of time before
it let go again... which it eventually did in a subsequent owner's hands.
I'm normally a guy who is a stickler for the original, and I generally like
to see original bits saved if they can be. In this case, given the circumstances,
I think this was an acceptable approach. The instrument will have a new lease
on life (and it was clearly a nice player when it had its head on). At the end of
the day it is a plain Gibson A... a nice instrument, but not a rare and priceless
relic... :-) IMHO, the damage to its sense of originality had been done by the
break and its subsequent neglect.
A new peg head and a neck splice would have been possible, I suppose, but as
long as you're re-making a peg head, why not have a whole neck that you know
is sound for the long haul?
Maybe you won't agree, but sometimes amputation is necessary to save the patient...
I'm personally comfortable with Larry's approach and attention to detail.
Best,
Eric
"The effect is pretty at first... It is disquieting to find that there are nineteen people in England who can play the mandolin; and I sincerely hope the number may not increase."
- George Bernard Shaw, Times of London, December 12, 1893
Bookmarks