Favorite Mandolins To Work on (and to play)

[Adam Sweet]

What are your favorite mandolins to work on (and play) and why?

[Mark Pollock]

Cheap-o Stella mandolins, with the fake flame on the front. They are really cheap, crummy poplar, brass frets, but they sound great and are very rewarding for the effort - an inexpensive instrument turns into a killer sound machine!

[Steve Williams]

I got one of those. I think mine is branded "silvertone" (sears). I have had for over 50 years and has never needed any work. Its built like a tank, and I don't think it sounds all that bad either. I might just dig it out and see if I remember "Soldiers joy". 

[Adam Sweet]

I have an old Martin roundhole that needs a lot of work.  Does anybody know what model/style it is?  There's no label inside.

[Ned Knepp]

Hi Adam,

 It's an "A" style Mandolin. It's one of their bread and butter instruments. I can't tell if the pick guard is missing of it is a gray plastic guard. If it has a pick guard, it's not a color I ever remember seeing on a Martin. Model would depend on trim and materials. 

When I play mandolin, which is not very often, it's a Gibson but I also have an old Kay Kraft, oval hole which I finally completed on just a while back. It's fun but doesn't sound anything like the gibson. In the wings is a Martin 2-15 which needs to have a cross grain crack under the tail piece repaired. Frank has a good repair tutorial on that sort of crack on the Frets site but I'm still just a bit chicken to attempt it. He makes it look so easy sometimes but I'm not so sure of my ability to thin the top then fit a new patch into the thinned area cleanly. Some day I'll work up the gumption to try it.

[Adam Sweet]

It's missing.  Do you know what year the instrument was made (approx)?

[Ned Knepp]

It is a style that Martin has made for many decades. If you can find the serial number, as Eric suggested in his post, I may be able to look it up. 

 Off the cuff, I would say it is old because Martin guitars with very square corners on the head stock tend to be early since they used the same pattern on them and the corners gradually got rounder over the decades. I don't now if that carries over to mandolins or not.

  The bottom line is that we need more information than we have at this point. More pictures might help. If you can identify the  wood that was used in the back and sides it may help a bit too but what we really need is the serial number.  

[Eric Steven Johansen]

Serial number should be stamped on the headblock.

[Eric Steven Johansen]

I really enjoy working on pre 1930 Gibsons myself. I've yet to encounter a dud, and in fact I'm always impressed by their tone. I play around with a 1906 F2 thats been shimmed under the fret board so a real bridge fits with the action set low. I also have a 1905 A4 that needs the shim and quite a bit more. Looking forward to that project.