Help pricing Kentucky KM-630s

[TheMandoN00b]

Okay so I posted this in the "Looking for Information About Mandolins" section but I haven't gotten any responses so I figured I'd try here now. Like the title says I need help knowing how much to sell my Kentucky km-630s I believe I paid at least $250 for it used and I've had for about 2 years now, I found out after bought it that the bracers are messed up which makes the G string buzz and sound out of tune when I play chords using that string. Anyways I found the mandolin I want on sale that I will probably be purchasing soon (depending on how much I can sell this for) and just need to know about how much money I could possibly make from selling this one considering the problem. Thanks!

[MikeEdgerton]

Is the top collapsing? Who diagnosed the brace problem?

[TheMandoN00b]

I don't think the top is collapsing but you can hear the bracers buzz when I play and and if I hold the mandolin at the top of the body the buzz is sightly muted. I took it to a local music shop to get it adjusted and he told me it was the bracers and he probably wouldn't be able to fix the problem by just adjusting it.

[MikeEdgerton]

There are no "bracers", there are two tone bars in there. I'm assuming that is what they are talking about. Has anyone else tried diagnosing the buzzing? I'd hate to see you take a major hit selling this if there isn't really a major problem with it. Buzzes like you describe can come from different parts of the instrument. Frank Ford has a Buzz Diagnosis wizard on his www.frets.com page. Take a few minutes and walk though it to see if anything else comes up.

http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Setup/BuzzDiagnosis/buzzintro.html

[TheMandoN00b]

Okay thanks! Ill definitely spend more time trying to figure out what it is and maybe take it into someone else to see if they can confirm what the other guy said or not. The guy I took it to also said the neck was uneven could that be the cause of it?

[TheMandoN00b]

Oh heavier gauged strings help but don't completely do away with the problem. Also when I capo the second fret the buzz moves to the D string instead of G

[MikeEdgerton]

What town and state are you in? Maybe we could direct you to someone that could help you figure this out.

[TheMandoN00b]

I live in Lakeland Florida, there's not many music stores around but there's a good one I don't know about that would be awesome.

[MikeEdgerton]

Can any of the Florida members suggest a shop in this area?

[gtani7]

Okay thanks! Ill definitely spend more time trying to figure out what it is and maybe take it into someone else to see if they can confirm what the other guy said or not. The guy I took it to also said the neck was uneven could that be the cause of it?

If the frets are polished you can sight down the neck at the reflections on the frets and see high frets, twist/uneven relief in the neck or a hump over the neck joint. Teh 1st is pretty straightforward fix, the 3rd may be a fret mill and crown issue, the 2nd could be a problem (did you test that the trussrod works?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBzirIfsQPo

[TheMandoN00b]

The guy I took it to said that the neck had uneven relief (the fret on the G and D side is higher than on the A and E side) he tried tightening the truss rods all the way to fix it but that didn't help at all.

[gtani7]

The question is how high do you have to set the bridge to make it reasonably playable (and maybe shim the nut up to the high side of the range, per Rob M's pdf ebook: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?88980-How-hard-is-it-to-do-setup)

I would just sell it with disclosure of what's discussed here, instead of putting any significant amounts into repairs (and the luthiers i've shown vintage size frets to are reluctant to do fret levels on them)

[TheMandoN00b]

I was planning on selling it in a few months but in the meantime I'll take a look at the book and see if I can do anything to make it sound better while I still own it. Thanks!