Morgan Monroe mms 7 with strange backside.

[Rick Isham]

I'm going over this Mandolin for a friend and cannot figure out what this is or why it is.

[Marty Jacobson]

Interesting. Looks like either the blackout spray or the topcoat changed somehow. Maybe it was improperly mixed at the factory or there was surface contamination causing it to not adhere properly. Or maybe something reacted to it after the fact, which I would think is unlikely since these finishes are extremely stable once cured. Then again it may be something a previous owner did to it, but if your friend is the original owner, it must have happened at the factory and then ghosted like that over time.

[pops1]

I have seen these or very similar for sale, I cannot remember what they called the finish, but it is factory original on purpose.

Like this: https://www.amazon.com/Morgan-Monroe...onroe+mandolin

[Rick Isham]

My thought seeing it close up, looks like the center of the body , which is the original Marble, was taped off and this other added. The greenish grey color looks like an epoxy.

[fscotte]

Looks pretty cool, too bad it wasnt done properly. I'd like to know how its done. I've seen paint splattering that looks similar.

[Phil Goodson]

Magnified view makes it look like an oval veneer has been glued on. ????

[MikeEdgerton]

Perhaps the back had a little buckle rash and somebody decided to cover it up.

I do, in the back of my mind, remember seeing something like this on the cafe before.

Yup, MMS-7 Marble Finish.

Pictures can be found here. It looks like they were doing the entire mandolin. Might not be the same.

I see pops1 found it before I did.

[Phil Goodson]

Looks very similar, Mike, but your pictures don't seem to show a gouge around the edge of the marbling. This stuff is beyond me.

[MikeEdgerton]

Yeah, I saw that. It's also all over the mandolin on the marbled examples.

[Steve VandeWater]

Can you get any pics of the inside of the back through the f holes? It almost looks like somebody cut an oval out of the back for access to work on the top (Instead of taking the whole back off and messing with the binding). Then perhaps he patched it all back together and finished it with something that clouded up (like epoxy). Just a wild guess. But when you zoom in on the pic by the upper point, you can see that the finish isn't original. It's got brush marks or sanding marks and dust stuck in it.