Hi,
Here's the latest project/dilemma. This is an Ebay purchase that was reasonably priced, but had a serious issue, a broken headstock.
It has an odd fiddle style headstock with unusual tuners on a bowl back mandolin body with a lovely, though damaged, mother of pearl and abalone fingerboard. I was not able to clearly see all of the break area in the pictures online, but happily, it's a clean break with just a bit of wood tear out on each side of the neck where the first set of Tuning machine screws pulled out when the head was broken off.
My concern is that while this is a clean break, it's a very small surface are to deal with the stress of the neck and I'm wondering about the best glue. Usually I use hot hide glue, and that's my thought at the moment, but with the area to glue being so small and that being the critical pressure pint in the neck, I wonder if I should consider a higher gram weight glue to make for a stronger glue joint.
I've read conflicting reports online about the virtues of high gram weight, but many are furniture makers, not instrument repairmen (and women). I have seen a number of folks mention 192 as the gram weight of choice. I'd be interested in hearing thoughts from the forum on this.
Frank Ford once said these old pearl inlaid mandolins are "black holes" and I have to agree, he's right (I'm still tinkering with the one I wrote about then), but I think this one actually stands a good chance of being restorable if I get the headstock re-gluing right. Thanks!
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