If the mandolin is new, you could send a picture to the manufacturer.
But this is probably what they will tell you, and it is true:
Bone has natural lines and pores which can easily pick up dust and other contamination from sandpaper, files, saw blades, etc.
I wouldn't worry about it. It's doubtful that it will break.
(Just curious) How much did it cost?? (more or less than the phone you needed to get those pictures?)
Just saying; micro QC is a cost,,
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
If this is the Eastman about which you deleted your inquiry about scroll craftsmanship, bear in mind that it is a modestly priced instrument that may not have as high a level of craftsmanship as a $5000 instrument. That's one of the reasons that Eastman's don't cost as much as Collings.
For that matter, I've also seen some rough craftsmanship on instruments that commanded high prices.
What is the nut advertised as being made of?
If it's synthetic, it could just be some impurity that got in the mold.
If it's bone, it could just be dirt caught during final sanding, or a vein in the bone itself.
Either way, you could try a little gentle buffing with very fine (600 grit) wet-dry or some 0000 steel wool. If it goes away, it was dirt.
-- Don
"Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
"It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."
2002 Gibson F-9
2016 MK LFSTB
1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
[About how I tune my mandolins]
[Our recent arrival]
That little shaving on the headstock side doesn't look like bone to me.
Randy Mallory
2020 Gibson Custom Shop F5 MSC Wide Nut (2020) David Harvey
2022 Eastman MD515
2022 Northfield NFO-AT1 Octave Mandolin
and a few more....
Side topic:
I'm mystified by the nine layers of alternating grey & white fretboard binding. At first, I thought it might be a grained ivoroid surface catching the light differently, but it's consistent across all three photos. Is this a "thing" that I just haven't noticed before?
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
Doug Brock
2018 Kimble 2 point (#259), Eastman MD315, Eastman MDA315, some guitars, banjos, and fiddles
it's like a Persian rug. You can only tell the quality for the flaws. Otherwise, a machine made it.
jam on!
f-d
ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A
It looks to me like it's their equivalent of ivoroid binding... Some of the StewMac bindings used to look like this a few decades ago, consistent lines to the extreme. It's not ugly, but it's also not like the slightly more random-pattern ivoroid we've seen on some big name instruments.
This mandolin looks like a nice player... How does it sound?
-- Don
"Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
"It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."
2002 Gibson F-9
2016 MK LFSTB
1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
[About how I tune my mandolins]
[Our recent arrival]
The binding is very similar to that on my Kimble “F”. It’s only plastic!
To me neither. Looks like plastic to me.
I had to finish a gig with only 7 strings due to a nut failure early this year. Luckily our instruments provide a sufficient level of redundancy ;-)
So I would ask for a replacement nut and replace if it really breaks or if the gap grows wider.
I had a km900 that had a fossilized walrus ivory nut. It had all kinds of imperfections like that. It looked like a fossil. I thought it was very interesting, and it sounded good.
It's likely not a problem. But, with that said, I think you have an argument for getting it fixed for free. You'd likely have to ship it though, right? Let's just say that's $70 each way. Balance that with considering the cost of an uncut bone nut (maybe $15), and it takes a luthier what, an hour to do the work ($50/hour-ish)? Even if it's fine, you'll want to consider getting a bone nut installed for tone, so why not find a local luthier who can do all of that and get that bone upgrade (or pearl, preferably).
Hamlett Two-Point
Eastman MD805
Schertler DYN-M + Yellow
http://www.youtube.com/ktbriggs
https://www.facebook.com/kevin.briggs.1213
I've replaced many nuts over the years, and I assure everyone that it takes quite a bit more than an hour to remove an old mandolin nut, clean the pocket, and cut, fit, polish, slot, and adjust a new one. Nuts that fit in a pocket take longer than nuts that sit on top of a peghead veneer.
I can do a banjo nut in less than an hour. A 6 string guitar nut takes about an hour and a half to two hours, more or less, depending on how long it takes to get the old one loose, the type of pocket and its condition after removal, how much old glue has to be cleaned out, and which way the wind is blowing. Mandolin nuts usually take close to 2 hours.
In the case of the OP's mandolin, you might want to consider the old saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Last edited by rcc56; Apr-21-2020 at 1:43pm.
Hamlett Two-Point
Eastman MD805
Schertler DYN-M + Yellow
http://www.youtube.com/ktbriggs
https://www.facebook.com/kevin.briggs.1213
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