Viewing entries tagged
mandolin setup

100 Year Old Restoration :: Lyon & Healy Bowl Back Mandolin [1.3 lbs]

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100 Year Old Restoration :: Lyon & Healy Bowl Back Mandolin [1.3 lbs]

100 Year Old Restoration :: Lyon & Healy Bowl Back Mandolin [1.3 lbs]

Whew! Finally finished up this ~100 year old mandolin restoration a couple weeks ago. Let's see ... neck & fingerboard reglue, missing soundhole pieces, cracked / loose top bracing, loose back ribs, new inlayed pickguard (courtesy of Dave Nichols Custom Pearl Inlay), new bridge and properly spaced new tuners (peghead had to be bunged & redrilled). A lot of hours into this little fella. Excited to drop it off to it's new owner. I went to high school with him in PA and this was his grandmother's mandolin. Always an honor to work on family heirlooms.

Until I gather everything into a single blog post, you can check out the previous progress of this project here.

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Bridge fit :: June A5 mandolin

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Bridge fit :: June A5 mandolin

Bridge fit :: June A5 mandolin

The player wanted the action taken down slightly, but the adjustable bridge was bottomed out (and prevented further lowering).  The solution above is to remove wood from the bridge's foot and refit it to the top.

Fun fact: Alan Carruth scrapers rule.

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2001 Weber Gallatin F-style Mandolin [2.1 lbs] :: fret level & setup

This beautiful mahogany-backed F-style mandolin came in for a full fret level, crown and polish to correct a slight rise over the fingerboard extension.  The bridge has a slick wedge and set screw adjustment in each wing.  These set screws allow you to vary the height of the inset acoustic guitar-style saddle with a 1/16" Allen wrench.  The wedges allow for more contact area (ie string transfer to the top) versus the traditional post and thumb wheel bridge.

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Kentucky KM-150 mandolin [2.0 lbs] :: fit bridge foot and setup

Kentucky KM-150 mandolin [2.0 lbs] :: bridge foot fit and setup.

The bridge foot was better fit to the top to improve volume, tone and overall string transfer efficiency to the body.  The top of the bridge had sagged slightly where the middle strings were lower than the outer strings with respect to the fingerboard.  The outer string course bridge notches were filed to correct for this.  A few high frets were reseated, the nut slots adjusted and restrung with Ernie Ball 80/20 bronze alloy light strings.

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