As someone who makes mandolins and fixes instruments I cannot believe the way in which this mandolin was made. I was surprised to see the quartersawn body which had a good amount of grain per inch. The pins to secure the tailpiece killedn me. Great work
Same here, woodworker and player. He has done a cosmetically great job, but the E strings don’t look playable. There are bushings missing from the tuners, and I’ve never seen anyone go through the holes twice as he did. A headstock veneer would have been a nice touch. It was at best a souvenir-grade mandolin, mass produced in Italy after WW2 and made with a flat back for easy packing. And, you don’t need anything special to tune it, download an app like guitar tuna etc.
Good work Resto. Just two points: you swapped the bass and treble side tuning strips at reassembly. This pulls the cog teeth away from the worm gear under string tension causing poor mesh contact, difficult tuning, and will wear the teeth out very quickly. You will see many early guitars and mandolins up to the 1920's with reversed tuners. Once manufacturers realized the problems this was causing they reversed the installation. Also, the strings should enter from the center of the head stock outwards. You have done the opposite which will puts uneven pull and extra friction on the string spacer behind the zero fret. This stress can in time crack the spacer on the two outside strings and also causes tuning difficulties. These are small details that can have a big impact!
Hello, the tuners of 1900 hat a reverse worm gear and were in their function absolutely smooth and save. They had to be tuned in the same direction as modern tuners. The ancient mechanics knew very well, what they were doing. Best wishes and sorry for my english.🙂
Well, plus side, it looks better. As a mandolinist I appreciate you bringing it back to life. However, should have consulted a luthier to get it right. Should have plugged and re drilled the tuning post holes definitely needed the fretboard flattened and you'd never reuse frets. Those things are toast and need replaced as does the nut. They need to be dressed after replacing too. I like the vanier pick guard, however wax is not a good instrument finish. The finish on a instrument is extremely important to it's sound! This will sound really flat. It needs several good coats of an instrument grade poly. You can order replacement knobs for the tuners too. I applaud the ingenuity to make some out of epoxy putty but it's definitely not going to hold up to even one tuning. Mandolin strings are very tight and there's a lot of torque on those knobs to tune them. That bridge is also toast needs replaced. And even if you wanted to reuse it a 3 sided file is not what youd re cut the grooves with. There are specifically sized files for each size of string. While it looks ok it's virtually un playable at this point.
Wow...what a great job on bringing that mandolin back to life.. It looks fabulous. I used to play the mandolin my grandfather made, with him on the banjo, downstairs in the basement/workshop. Great memories. Excellent on this piece sir. Kudos.!
Здравствуйте уважаемый Эффенди! Мир Вашему дому! Мне очень понравилось, замечательный музыкальный инструмент, задорный, с красивым звучанием! Спасибо! ♥️😀
I play mandolin as my main instrument, and then a bunch of other stringed instruments. The mandolin is the hardest to tune out of all of them by a big margin. Violin is a 30 second process, guitar is a 40 second process, mandolin is a 4 minute process. It's much easier now that I bothered to buy an electric tuner though Looks great!
You are brave to take on a musical instrument. You made it look so good. I am curious to know if it can hold a tune after all of this work. Excellent work as always!! 🏅
Filing the slots on the bridge is something you should not do unless you need to lower the action. Also, no luthier would ever put used fret wires back in. Buy new ones. There are various phone apps that will let you tune your instrument.
EN UNA OPORTUNIDAD PINTE UN CUATRO VENEZOLANO Y NO USE LA CERA DE CERA DE ABEJA, SINO BARNIZ, Y EL PERDIO SU SONIDO ORIGINAL, SE ESCUCHABA, PERO SE ÓPACO EL SONIDO, Y ACÁ EN VENEZUELA SE LE LLAMA A ESE ERROR QUE YO COMETÍ Y LO SEÑALAN COMO "CUATRO SORDO" Y ACÁ CON ESTE VIDEO APRENDI QUE DEBO QUITARLE COMPLETAMENTE LA PINTURA, Y LUEGO PARA PINTARLO, USAR TINTA, Y LUEGO CERA DE ABEJA, GRACIAS HERMANO POR TU ENSEÑANZA, AGRADECIDO, DIOS TE BENDIGA 🙏
Lovely job, but It won't stay in tune very well this way. The machineheads will be pulled towards the body and rub against the wood. Get small metal tubes and place them over the machineheads, like a bearing, so they rub against metal instead of being pulled against the wood. It should stay in tune just fine then. I play mandolin all my life and you did a real good job on it, it sounds fine even if it is not tuned, and it looks great.
Good job! It looks like a mandolin again. It was trash before. Not a proper Luthier work but very good for the piece it is. Very nice video too. Thanks for sharing and post some more 😉
Muhteşem oldu abi. Mandoline bayılırım. Bide çalabilsem. Kulakları çok güzel yaptın abi. Orijinali kadar güzel oldular. Akoru da verdin tam oldu. Ellerin dert görmesin. Selam ve sağlıcakla kal.
Your refinishing skills are quite good, however, you put the tuners on the wrong sides, the gear should be facing the body of the instrument. Also, the strings should be strung around the inside of the post. Anyway, both issues are easily remedied and the mando came out looking very nice. Thumb up! Regards.
Did you think about imitating the "patina" that the Guarnieri and Stradivarius used to make that perfect sound? I love your work, my youngest son worked with a well known luthier as an alumnus for some time. so I respect the work very much.
Это не реставрация, потому-что инструмент не антикварный. Инструмент середины 20 века, а то и позже. Это простое восстановление, когда и так все детали в нормальном состоянии, и их нет смысла менять :)
Looks great! Curious… why reuse the original frets rather than use new ones? Interesting that the zero fret is a different material. Not sure what the rationale is for that, other than maybe wear.
@@Restomaniac Yea, they are in pretty terrible shape unfortunately. Each fret should be smooth across the top, and it looks like these have a lot of notches in them. It is easy to get "fret wire" (which is T shaped in cross section) from companies like StewMac, which you can find online, and also has a RU-vid channel. They also sell replacement tuners for reasonable prices.
I look at this three ways: (a) Yes, repairs were needed on the neck and the overall finish. (b) the artwork should not have been sacrificed! But the plastic, yech! (c) overall it looks nice! As long as it is tuned by a pro, with the new strings it should sound great! PS: You could not buy new knobs?
good work but i think if it was possible you should have use the childrens drawing on the body somehow. i think this could add an aesthetic sense of humour to the instrument
@@ledcrash I actually learned something from the way he manufactured the missing head parts. Didn't mean to knock you on your opinion. Just a knee jerk reaction on my part. Peace Paulo
Nice job of restauration. But at 17:25, may I suggest that you recenter the bridge and move it to the left so that the strings a perfectly centered over the fingerboard? It really cannot be played as is. It would be nice to hear what it sounds like!
