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I'm getting dragged into the repair side of the house kicking and screaming...........

A local musician (fiddle player) called about getting an antique Gibson Mandolin back in service for its owners 80th birthday. The story was it was purchased sometime in the 1950"s for $65.00 and played hard for the next 50 years. When it became unplayable it was put up. The owners son in cahoots with the fiddler snuck it out of the house The owner had tried several time to get it re-fretted however he wanted the original size fret wire which is the tiny .039/.040 wide, .040 tall. I had re-fretted an Orpheum banjo for the fiddler several years ago which had the smaller wire (he wanted bigger) and had returned the pulled frets in an envelope. And would I be willing to use the used fret wire. Worked out better than I expected I replaced the first 11 frets, nobody knew where I stopped and the old started. I used my fretting cauls from Andy Birko with the Stew Mac system for the first five then hammered the rest.

Nice job, Greg! That mando has seen some serious use!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Nice work. That mandolin has surely made a lot of music!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Yeah that mando has had a lot of good times, very cool!

Great job Greg!!!! Ya done good!!!!

We need some video of the guy playing it once he's reunited.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

He was playing it last night, https://www.facebook.com/sleepyeyedjohn ... ED&fref=nf the first two videos have Doyle playing his mandolin.

I just got this text from ol Sleepyeyed John himself.

"We sang and brought out a cake while he was onstage and then Alicia handed him the mandolin while I explained the significance of his mandolin. Doyle never speaks publicly onstage, but I don't believe he was physically able to speak when we handed it to him. We backed off and let him play Nearer my God to thee, by himself. The audience couldn't tell but he was fighting back tears as he played it. You have no idea how much I appreciate you doing it and especially getting it done so quickly, so carefully and skillfully done. When I see you remind me to tell you the story about my last fiddle repair long sad story."

Once again hats off to Dave and Hesh, that road trip was a real game changer.

Wow.
Good luthing making the world a better place.
If that's not what its all about, I don't know what is.
Great job!

Greg, that is a great story.



And that's a fact!

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

That's cool - a real "feel good" story.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

It just shows that doing a kindness to others is the best thing that you can do! Hats off to you, Greg, and all those involved, for bringing an old friend back to life for a man who thought it was gone forever.
This made my day, on Canadian Thanksgiving Day!

Alex

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"Indecision is the key to flexibility" .... Bumper sticker

Nice work! How chippy was the board? Those things can be a real PIA sometimes.

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Very chippy, the bass side had a seam about 1/8 inside the binding that wanted to pull out. After the second fret I ran a line of super glue almost the length of the fingerboard and that fixed that.

Very cool! Nice work and a great story to go with it

Mr. Doyle Sowers dropped in, one fret was a smidgen high, got him fixed up. He plays out four or five night a week. Not bad for 80.

Also my diamond file would not touch this tiny fret wire .040X.040 I used a "safed edge" three corner file, any other options?

I broke down and ordered a new Stew mac Z-file for just such micro-mando wire. I have no idea if it will work well. I'm planning having to grind it down to fit. I do a fair amount skinny wire work on bowl backs. I have one to do this week. I'll let you know if it works.
The 53x37 wire I use is finicky enough, 40x40 sounds tough.