The Ides of March are under-celebrated as far as I’m concerned. And those who are condemned to repeat history are doomed. In honor of the Ides, I decided to plunge a couple of knives into the back of this lovely Eastman mandolin.
The customer brought it to me with a previously-repaired crack in the top, and a serious buzzing that made it unplayable. Upon inspection, I found that the impact that had caused the crack had also loosened a tone bar inside the instrument. I decided the best way to go about the repair was to remove the back.
The back came off nicely but slowly. As my friend Ron Sharp says, “There’s a whole lot of careful in that job there.”
A man can never have too many clamps.
Having glued down the tone bar, I shored up the previously repaired crack with some nice splints.
And the back is ready to go back on.
Like I said, a man can never have too many clamps. And be grateful for adhesion. It’s kind of what holds everything together.
This mandolin was loud and proud. Maybe loud enough to make a banjo player nervous. And it’s back in the field now doing the work that mandolins were made to do. Happy customer. Happy Fret Boss.
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