diminished value from a repair?

[fatt-dad]

I bought a Gilchrist. It was shipped in a Calton and double boxed with peanuts. No joke, I think the box fell out of the airplane when it was sitting on the tarmac. The whole side of the cardboard box had accordion pleats.

Opened box one, removed the peanuts. Opened box two, removed more peanuts and the Calton/mandolin.

Opened the case, pulled out the mandolin and noticed a crack. The mandolin had received a sharp wack on the back. It was odd; however. The wack was on a very discrete location on the back - right up where it joins the neck - right up where the little tit of wood is pointed to the neck.

Well, here's what happened: The mandolin was upside down when it fell. The impact led to the mandolin's inertia flexing the cushion and the little tit hit the underlayment of the accessory pocket. That wack broke the glue joint and there was a one to two-inch long seam separation.

That's when I realized - Caltons are not immune to such turmoil.

I returned my Model 1. Seller had to ship it back to Australia.

Thought I'd gotten a good deal and did, but. . .

f-d

[MikeEdgerton]

Any case, and I mean any case if subjected to enough force will not protect the instrument. Unfortunately you do the best you can to make sure there's no movement but if you drop a box form a high enough distance from the hard ground you will get some whiplash inside the case. I've stood on my Calton accidentally and on purpose. It's a great case but I'm pretty sure a 15 foot drop onto pavement would cause issue inside that case. Someone is going to pop up and say their Whizbang case with their Shmergel Devastator inside fell 10,000 feet from an airplane and was still in tune. Maybe, but I'd say luck would be a big part of it. When I ship an instrument I usually have a roll of paper towels inside the case wadded up in every possible spot to limit any movement due to an accident. It happens. It sucks, but it happens.

[David Kennedy]

You may want to read this article from Frank Ford about packing an instrument for shipping before you send your mandolin to Don.
http://frets.com/FretsPages/Musician.../packing1.html

[pops1]

I remember one night when Jim and Kim Lansford, and some other friends, were coming to the house to play music. It had rained and the grass was wet. We had a small, very small, downward slope in the grass, but it was wet and slippery. Jim slipped and like all good musicians held the case up to protect his fiddle. The case came down in his lap, not seeming hard and Jim was fine. When we go into the house to play and he opened his case, the sound post had gone thru the top of the fiddle. Jim was heartbroken, even tho it is fixable, and didn't play at all that night. Sometimes it doesn't take as hard a fall as you would think to damage and instrument.