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Ben Pearce in Cambridge does great work, feel free to drop me a pm if you want to get in touch.

Most of the repairs done at Tippin are actually performed by Glenn Nichols who for many years was the head of the finish shop at Santa Cruz Guitars. Glenn is also a French polish expert from his...

For T accessible, Yukon Stubblebine in Somerville does really good work, however, he is exceptionally slow and not communicative. You can talk to him before dropping the mandolin off but there is a...

I would highly recommend Bill Tippin in Marblehead, though you would definitely need a car to get there. Jon Mouradian in Wilmington is also excellent but again, car.
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Ditto.
To me, it would show a complete lack of respect for an instrument with an unusually fine finish.
The instrument can be repaired. Fix it, sell it as-is, or return to sender. Please don't...

Surely would be a bummer to make this wind up in the scrap heap! I hate to see historic items wasted for parts value and then they are GONE!

Allen, I think we are in the same wavelength, unless there are some WAY more serious issues than are visible from the pictures, I’d do the restoration! You will end up with something special! If it...

I'd take it here, Music Emporium in Lexington, get a good solid repair estimate, before making a final decision. Great "bones" to this instrument, needs some serious TLC, would part it out only as a...

The thing is readily restorable. As for its tone, in this condition I would not pass judgement on what it really sounds like. It needs work to make it playable, THEN tone assessment can be honestly...

For me the Big Question would be: how does it sound? The tone is real variable on those old A’s – some are incredible, others not so much – and if it’s got the sound that speaks to you, I’d say it’s...

Thanks rcc56, I get lonely when I’m banished to my corner for too long!
And I agree, do NOT do or, have mammy made repairs performed on this fine old instrument! Have repairs done properly by a...

Please don't take a shade-tree fix-it approach to a mandolin as nice as this one. Doing so might only cause the damage to progress or cause new problems.

For example:

The dowel might cause a...

I have worked on many of these old Gibsons and am familiar with most of the problems they are subject to.
We won't send Timbofood to his room for this one. His advice is very good.

Without...

You will likely have $500-$1,000 in the amount of time the Mandolin looks like it might need. I strongly suggest that you “Get thee to a luthier” and see what an in hand inspection by someone that...