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I’ve heard them described as “the instrument of the devil”!

I don’t have them on any of my guitars either! I’m sure there’s a psychological explanation here; you buy a relatively expensive piece of kit and then you’re persuaded to buy some sort of accessory...

I appreciate that nobody sells them in the UK but you could get hold of one if you wanted to and it suggests to me that nobody has seen the need. The varnish on my GBOM does have a sweat mark so it...

None of mine have armrests and, come to think of it, I can’t ever remember seeing a mandolin with an armrest (or a case with a case cover) in the UK. Might that say something? I do now have three...

I’d suggest that you look at everything but the Golden Age “Restoration” tuners. Those are made for mandolins made before circa. 1924.

The give away is that tuners with worms over (like yours)...

A luthier friend once told me that, in some of them, the enormous block of wood the neck sat on, through which the screws passed, tended to disintigrate.

As for durability, the lead singer in a...

I’ve not yet got round to buillding shelving but my wife did suggest it!

I seriously doubt that non mandolin players even notice.

Looking at the head, it looks to me as if somebody has glued something on it and then peeled it off again. Of course it’s possible that your Grandpa bought it in the 70s when he shouldn’t, sneaked it...

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/threads/118902-Is-there-such-a-thing-as-a-fretless-mandolin

It looks re-finished to me. If it is from 1918, the tuners have been changed from worm under to worm over - Gibson did this circa. 1924. The fretboard inlays look more 1970s than teens and twenties.

I’d agree that it’s confusing but, to me, the terms mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass are direct equivalents of the violin, viola, violoncello and bass and, therefore correctly named. I’m...

This post will soon be deleted by the mods. If you want to sell it, put it in the classifieds.

Exactly, if you go up, you’ll end up with a mandolin and probably break something. If you go down, it will tune like an octave mandolin but probably sound terrible due to the shorter scale length....

The 40s ended 35 years before d’Addario started making strings. I suspect that, back in those days, people put new strings on when they broke; that’s certainly what we did in the 60s.

Saw some the other day in a UK shop (Richtone Music) ...... and they’re in the sale!

As I’ve said before, Newtone will put together sets of whatever you want. Cheaper than buying individual strings in the UK but not sure about the US.
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I have no complaints about my Clark and it has the scale length you’re looking for. It has F holes - how much are you intending to spend?

I do realise that!

As for taking a $6000 mandolin to a pub session, Max, I’ve no problem with that and I do so regularly (..... or I did until early last year!). In fact we once did a pub gig...

Any one in the UK currently looking at Primetones should check out Richtone Music (Sheffield - + mailorder). By way of example, they have these at £5.95 for 3 -...

Why don’t you add a set of Waverley tuners and a James tailpiece whilst you’re at it?:grin:

The trouble with fitting an upgraded bridge on a new instrument is that you’ll never know whether the new bridge improved the sound or you could have got the same result by tweaking the original one....

It’s generally a matter of “feel”; just as some people prefer light gauge strings and some like medium or heavy gauge, you should really try ‘em all and find the gauge you like best.

Thanks for that, I’ve always been suspicious of “signature” items. As for me, I’m perfectly happy with the bag of Primetones I bought several years ago and the odd Wegen.

I haven’t the slightest intention of buying one but I do wonder how much they are and how much of that goes to Mr Thile?