The Ghost Mandolin

[bradlaird]

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.

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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.

[Phil Goodson]

I think it looks good, but you need to be playing something jazzy while wearing a tuxedo.

[bradlaird]

Thanks, Phil. Honestly I was leaning towards black but white seemed interesting and certainly reversible. I can see a silk top hat in order.

[Jeff Mando]

If it were mine, I think a carefully positioned bumper sticker would have covered most of the damage.....something like Woody Guthrie had....

[Aaron Smith]

I like it. Add a flourish of green somewhere and you've got your holiday gig axe.

[bradlaird]

Jeff: I originally thought duct tape or a couple of Mandolin Cafe stickers.

[bradlaird]

Aaron - That is a good idea. A touch of green. Maybe some holly leaf stickers. I’d better go to Hobby Lobby and see what they have.

You know, at one point I thought of having a local sign shop cut me some vinyl of the Pat’s Place logo and “wrap it” and present it to Pat to be a house mandolin as a way of saying thanks for the Tuesday jam he hosts here in Americus. I should Photoshop up a mockup for input.

Either that or sell ad space on it.

[Doug Brock]

I love it!

[Grommet]

Looks good to me. It has that Gretch White Falcon thang goin on!

Scott