Did the floridectomy tonight

[Barry Wilson]

It was about time to change the j74's for a set of ft74's so might as well get rid of that florida. I truly hated that thing. I cut the binding with right angles instead of peeling way back and going 45 degree. far too much stripping. I pull the frets, cut the binding in half at the end and had a look. the binding has a thick finish as well. I tried bending a piece that I wasn't going to use and it cracked and snapped... so I decided easiest was about the best case for me. Tossed a towel on the body, and used a coping saw. Just slowed down when getting close to cutting through. black felt marker took care of the cut on the underside.

the finish had a triangle of rough area on the body under the extension. I used some cut polish but there's wood grain showing so it's not thick enough to get crazy. you can barely see it anyway. pfft. The last pic I just restrung it. still have to tune it up and clean the hand prints off hehe.

I used green painter's tape on the body to mark the bridge position. makes life easy. it's not perfect, but it makes me happy

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn181/Pipeous/Instruments/DSCI0001-11.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn181/Pipeous/Instruments/DSCI0003-3.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn181/Pipeous/Instruments/DSCI0004-1.jpg
http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn181/Pipeous/Instruments/DSCI0005-1.jpg

[mandobassman]

Nice job. I've never done it myself, but I've had it done to two previous mandolins. On the first one, it was done just like yours. On the second, a beautifully finished piece of mahogany was used to cap the end and replace that part of the binding. It looked terrific. Thankfully, I don't need to worry about that now since my Breedlove doesn't have much of a fretboard extension. I've always hated the Florida also.

[George R. Lane]

You have created the 'The Loar" Sam Bush model.

[pjlama]

Looks good, I've done several with no issues. You obviously got it. The big thing is doing a good job on the binding and you did.

[billkilpatrick]

very daring - looks good - i filed mine down, slowly-slowly so as not to mess-up the binding

[mandopete]

"Floridectomy" - I love it!

Was the patient sedated during the entire process? What is the recovery time? Is this procedure covered under Obamacare?

:)

[Barry Wilson]

well the doctor was a bit sedated lol. had a small glass straight up of some rum from guatemala. supposed to be the best rum in the world... sure was tasty. Now that it's cleaned up and tuned, I don't even notice the missing clear coat under the extension, the flash made it stand out more...

it was pretty easy to do and didn't take long. black felt sharpie fixed the white wood under the fretboard I had to cut. and loving the sound with the ft74's

thanks for the comments gang. I would never have even considered doing stuff like this before I found the cafe'

[Barry Wilson]

oh ya, and we have harperhealth here ;)

I even cleaned and restrung my electric guitar. dam strings were cutting my fingers yesterday. now I see why. I change mando strings often and neglect the guitars since starting mando...

[Spruce]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/DCP_2175.jpg

[Don Grieser]

Stylin'.

[Barry Wilson]

Love the bolo clip. I pulled all the frets first to save the binding. Still pretty shocked how thick the finish is on this thing. wow.

[greg_tsam]

OMG Awesome bolo!

[Barry Wilson]

I have to say I am tickled. I played all day yesterday, had to sand the fingertips twice.
I wish I'd cut that thing off sooner... see I was playing all day. new strings too

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn181/Pipeous/Instruments/DSCI0001-12.jpg

[Spruce]

OMG Awesome bolo!

Thanks to Bill Bussman....
(Who else??) :grin:

[billkilpatrick]

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/DCP_2175.jpg

fly the flag!

[journeybear]

Very cool. Though I would never, myself. Pretty darn scared about doing anything like that. I guess people click their picks on these? Is that why you did it? Say - if you're not going to turn that into a bolo, can I have it? I wouldn't mind adding a few frets to my A. I got up to the C# the other night in a song in A, which was fun, but I wouldn't mind getting a whole two octaves, just for the odd every now and then. ;)

[Barn Owl]

if i could have done it as well... I would've too.. very nice.