Hello Friends
What began as a backup mandolin for me while my 85 Flatiron was in for a refret, this particularly nice early Eastman 815 (which even made an appearance in my videos) was handed off to a student after much begging and a time payment plan.
Being a youthful free spirit, he promptly ditched the hard case for a trendy gig bag, had a little too much fun at a gig in East Atlanta and crashed his bicycle thereby running the handlebar through the bass side f hole. To my astonishment the 815 was still playable. No damage to the bass tone bar.
The mandolin came home to me and he moved on to an F-9. The thing hung on my wall for a decade as a reminder of how not to treat a mandolin.
For years I sometimes pondered how to bring it back to life and considered a top replacement.
One day I made up my mind to repair it by replacing part of the top without opening it. I enjoyed the puzzle and “ship in a bottle” challenge.
When completed I toyed with a black top but a whim caused me to go white. I dubbed it The Ghost. It gets some odd looks when I drag it around to jams and turned onto a good conversation starter.
.
.
To my delight, it sounds good. Not as good as my Flatiron, of course, but good nonetheless.
Am posting from my iPod so I hope to get some pics up and am just curious how folks react to white (actually I toned it to a barely ivory) faced mandolins.
Bookmarks