A good reason to pack a floating bridge separately...

[Kerry Krishna]

I got a Facebook PM about two months ago from a guy I know telling me that he loved my passion for 1930s Kay Kraft two point guitars and tenors. Then he said that he had a vera sad two point, that was damaged, and did I want it for free? Well, how could I resist? The gent had no pictures, no real info, no year of manufacture, so I thought it could be anything from a late 30s KAY 'F' hole, (the actual Kay Kraft brand stopped appearing on headstocks in 38/39) to a 50s version with a lipstick pickup routed right through the top. It really could have been anything. Well it came yesterday morn, and when I opened it up, the first thing I saw, was that telltale checkerboard binding that designates the rare Rosewood instruments! Well, you could of knocked me over with a feather! The rarest of the rare 1931 mandolin! My excitement was short lived though. After 80 years of playing, and the last several years of being a wall ornament, the original finish had not been touched by a Luthier, of which I am ALWAYS glad! So upon turning the mando over to see the top, my heart just sank...the mandolin in shipping had an incredibly sad, totally preventable accident. The owner told me last night that he had packed it in a hurry, forgot to take the string pressure and the bridge both off, and how sorry he was. Other than refinishing this, I really can't do much with it. ... I have been blessed by having 9 axes sent to me since last April, all from US Post and Canada Post, and not a single mark on any axes. I usually ask/tell the person shipping the minimum things necessary to insure safe shipping, including taking the bridge off and wrapping it and putting it inside the instrument (these are all round sound hole axes). But the axe was already packed when he Private Messaged me...

[man dough nollij]

Ouch. At least it doesn't look like it did any structural damage. Nice find!

[Tavy]

Ooooo, double ouch, even with that horrid scratch it's still a great find though!

[bmac]

It looks quite fixable to me.... You lucky guy!!! a real beauty. I would love to find one half as nice.

[acousticphd]

Sorry to see this.
It is hard to imagine how the bridge - any bridge on a mandolin normally strung - could topple over backwards, given the string tension almost always makes it want to go the other way. No real way to know if the seller is telling the complete truth about how/when it was packed, or if it is truly caused by handling of the shipping carrier. But at least the damage looks all cosmetic, not that that's a huge comfort.

[Jim DeSalvio]

More mojo for a very cool looking mandolin.

[walt33]

Yep, it's only a flesh wound!

[CES]

Sweet, sweet mandolin!

[eastmountain]

Sweet, sweet mandolin!

How do you go about fixing this sort of scratching?

[Jim Ferguson]

That will pose a good challenge for you Kerry. I hope you post some pics again after you have restored this beautiful mando.
Peace,
Jim

[Kerry Krishna]

Acousticphd, the seller was not a seller at all, he was a giver. I got this beauty for free when the guy saw my Facebook Kay Kraft Guitar page. He is also an old friend of mine too, and has nothing to hide . He was super embarrassed about the damage to the relatively untouched top being wrecked like this. Also phd, if you look at the pictures, you can easily see how tipped forward the bridge is, so it wasnt a stretch that this could happen. Also, the mandolin was NOT packed well although he thought he did a good job, and it was 14 days in the Post Office's hands. It most certainly is not their fault. It is such a shame, that a rare/oddball/flawed beauty like this had to suffer this totally preventable damage. And by flawed, phd, I mean, have a look at the picture below,. The entire top is caved in (look at the Sad Kay Kraft thread)... And BMAC, I have no idea, short of stripping and sanding the entire top, how this lacquer could be repaired. Someone want to tell me how?