Another vintage "tater-bug".
by
, Jan-15-2013 at 4:29am (5575 Views)
I'm new here, and don't spend much time on forums of any sort, but I have a question and was hoping someone out there could help me. A friend of mine has an old "tater bug" that she inherited form her mother and I am cleaning, restoring and restringing for her. I'd like to know exactly what type of mando it is. It's a bit grungy, hasn't been played in probably 30 years, has a small lengthwise crack in the bowl. Tuners are still good (original), the tailpiece is intact (not original, but old).
Right now I have it stripped of the tuners and tailpiece, which I've cleaned up. The crack I fixed with superglue and will use a bit of epoxy on top of that. I am lightly sanding it with 000 steel wool, then will apply something like MinWax, lightly. I don't want to sand the scratches and "character" out of it!!
Oh yes, it is missing some mother-of-pearl inlays on the "binding" around the body, which I'm not sure yet how to replace.
If anyone knows what make it is, I would sure appreciate the info!!