"Tater Bug' nightmare!

[Mike Kolb]

Everybody's got their fair share of horror stories, and here's mine for the week :)  A customer's little kid dropped the bowl-back mando and sent the fingerboard flying off and badly cracking the top.  Fine. 

Over the years, the top had also sunk under the bridge so it was time for some surgery to see what could be done to repair it. The mando had belonged to the owner's grandfather and he wanted to get it playable again.

Fast-forward to removing the top.  At some point in it's history, the main braces had become detached from the top and some well-meaning individual (probably the owner's dad, according to the owner) had decided "the fix" was to pour a gallon of glue inside and hope for the best!  Big mess.

Needless to say, a new top is being fashioned, using redwood this time.  Won't be as fancy (ornate MOP binding, etc) as the old one, but it'll get the job done.  Oy, had to share.

[Ned Knepp]

WOW, what a mess!

I got one on Ebay a few years ago for a song because I wanted the rosewood for patches. The top was doubled layered around the sound hole in what I can only assume was an attempt to level the top. It was also covered in a layer of heavy vinyl tape painted orange ( to "match" the original orange varnish, I suppose). The rosewood has been handy a few times and the top actually turned out to make some fairly decent patch wood too... once I clean it up.

Along the same vein of amateur repairs ( need to be careful here since I may be indicting myself in posting this), a week or so ago I came across this guitar on the 'bay:

The seller said that the bridge "has been shaved just a bit."  They also commented that the guitar played "just fine" and that it really didn't need much in the way of repair. Don't remember what the starting bid was set for but it was much too high and no one was bidding on it.

One thing this guitar illustrates is something I  don't understand, which is how people can think that "stable", unrepaired cracks should be acceptable. 

[David Farmer]

Nice!

I guess they were trying to improve the tone w/ asymmetrical bracing. Laying a brace over on it's side is pretty cutting edge though.

[Mark Pollock]

I'll do you one better. I have one here that my grandfather found in storage and leveled the cracked top with bondo. It was then painted black. Yours is quite nasty, though!

[Ned Knepp]

Was it automotive paint?

[Mark Pollock]

Probably just oil based enamel. I scraped a bunch of it out one day. Ugh. 

[Ned Knepp]

Mark, That looks like mine did except mine was tape instead of bondo and paint. I also wasn't interested in repairing it.

Mike, I'm interested in your replacement top. I assuming that it's a break top since that what usually on these.  Is it possible to move the original abalone to the new top?

[Mike Kolb]

Hi Ned.  The replacement top is, indeed, a "break top", made of redwood that the owner provided.  There was a lot of abalone missing on the old one and  (since the the owner just wants a working mando)  we're foregoing any fancy ornamentation.  

I've got some regular cream-colored binding that he feels will look fine, so that's where it's headed.