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I just came upon this buddy! Gibson's off-brand Cromwell GM-6, FON stamped inside appears to read 536B which I believe makes it a 1936. I've seen a few posts about these claiming there were fewer...

Thanks for all the thoughts and info. Nailing it down from it's factory was the main thing I was looking for. I love old Harmony stuff and have seen and owned lots of supertone branded stuff too. ...

That's it! Thanks very much!

Hi folks,

I can't remember ever seeing one of these before. Anybody have any info?

It appears to be all solid mahogany, perhaps a pressed arch, dyed whatever-wood fretboard,...

Cool mandolin. I have had a couple of these and worked on them, including neck resets and refrets. In my opinion they are totally worth the work. It's true it's not a high dollar mandolin, but...

I've built a handful of mandolinettos based on an old Lyon and Healy. My only tip I can think of right off the bat is to tuck your top braces under the linings so the downward pressure on the flat...

Hmmm.. I looked at the photos enlarged and I don't see a photoshop job. It looks to me that it has been spliced with a scarf joint on both ends of the middle piece. Why?... I have no idea. But I...

When doing fret work I often do tape over the soundhole(s) of the instrument, and I also tape over pickups on electric instruments. This is from a repair perspective. The majority of the time I'm...

Holy Moly!!!

One more here..
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They still grow out here in the NW. A few years ago I bought a plank of chestnut from a roadside lumber mill in Oregon. I recently made a neck from that for a parlor guitar.
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Todd Cambio of Fraulini guitars occasionally uses Hemlock on his flattop guitars with good results. When I was a full time carpenter, we used hemlock for trim once in awhile. What I remember is not...

I don't think that is a very good first project... unless your aim is to work on bowl-backs in particular. A kit build would be much easier because it is designed with the beginner or amateur in...

I've always found that I get a much cleaner surface and nice shaving off the scraper on hard woods rather than on spruce or cedar, and it can be especially tricky getting a clean surface in the...

I've done a few re-frets and new instruments for people with Evo gold. It's definitely not as bad as stainless, but I do notice it takes a bit more elbow grease to work. An interesting thing.. one...

So I went to the local art store and picked up a Paasche VL double action airbrush. I've been messing around with it on some scrap pieces and am having a lot of fun and getting some decent looking...

Thanks folks, very helpful. I got to check out an airbrush that belongs to a friend yesterday. It's a double action Paasche, made in the USA, and he only had good things to say about it. I'll...

Thanks for the input. I generally shy away from harbor freight stuff, but I suppose it's an affordable way just to try it out. There are so many options out there, it's a bit overwhelming.

I'm going to try my hand at spraying sunbursts. I've had pretty good results so far with hand rubbed, and am looking to try something different. I'm starting into researching airbrushes and am...

I use a thrift store bought Little Dipper by Crock Pot. I cut the cord and wired in a dimmer switch. With that it is very easy to keep my glue at exactly 145. Before I wired in the switch, I found...

I've used Duco on lots of instruments with success. As pointed out, it takes quite a while to cure, and I wait at least a few days before scraping.

I recently used superglue for gluing...

Nice work! Thanks for sharing.

I love those guitars. There's a lot of possible causes. This is a good place to start... http://frets.com/FretsPages/Luthier/Technique/Setup/BuzzDiagnosis/buzzintro.html

Here's a link to a previous discussion that you might find helpful... http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?86742-Cutting-a-binding-channel&highlight=cutting+binding+channel

I've done this with titebond. Occasionally there's a bit of delamination while bending, but not enough that's caused a problem for me. I'm curious to see what others suggest.