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Not Just Guitars!
Although I get less of them I'm more than happy to work on other stringed and fretted instruments. I have trained at Sheehan's Music working on Mandolins, Banjos, Violins, Cellos, Resonators, Bouzoukis, Mandolas and more. It's always a pleasure to help out another stringed instrument player.
Mandolin Neck Reset
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This mandolin was the victim of shipping damage!
The neck joint had been split but not detached, looks like one sudden impact had done it. The paintwork was all that was holding the neck on!
I want more info!
Job list:
- Remove neck
- clean up neck joint pocket
- check and re-glue neck
- clean up excess glue
- fill cracks
- repair the finish around the affected area
- set up for an easy playing action!
1980's Handmade Pratt Mandola quick repair
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This tired and beaten mandola came in for some much needed repair work.
This regular stage instrument also needed to be back for the next open mic night!
More info!
Job List:
>Neck reglued
>Soundboard cracks repaired
>String height set
>Tuner repairs
>Full set up
>Restring
A joy to work on :)
-Jack
1920's Keech "Banjulele" Banjolele Restoration
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This Ex-Museum Banjulele or Banjo Ukelele had surely earned the work I did to it! Over the years the main body of the Banjolele had warped under the pressure of the strings.
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At some point the varnish had been removed which probably hasn't helped.
Instead of steaming the hoop to try and correct the hoops shape me and the owner decided the simply alter the angle in which the neck is held onto the body to save on a huge bill...
This simple geometry correction will reduce the height between the strings and the fingerboard making it loads easier to play. Luckily all the tensioner hooks were intact and functioned perfectly. With the neck angle set I lowered the bridge and installed a fresh set of strings. Next job is tuning the tension of the vellum until it sounds best.
The Keech Banjuleles have a extra "tone ring" that allows you to alter the voicing and volume of the instrument too. It's great you can really get the instrument to match a loud singing level with the tone ring adjustment and the back resonator plate.
Amazing little instruments should be good for another 90 years!
-Jack
Cello Snapped Peghead Repair
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After an accident at school Lorraine's Cello's peg head had snapped clean off.
More Info
They're surprisingly weak there. The case she had didn't really help either. Not to worry though!
Job List:
>Clean up joints
>Reglue
>Clean up excess Glue
>Test Strength
>Begin finish repair work
>Polish and clean
>Reassemble
Kala U Bass tuner repair
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This Kala U bass has a broken D string tuner. Once the gears inside have worn out you have to replace it. This one seized up meaning the owner could tune the string.
This was done as a while-u-wait job, very easy to replace
What a cool instrument!!
Brazilian Rozini Cavaquinho
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This lovely little Rozini Cavahinho has come in because the pickup system underneath the bridge isn't giving equal volume to each string.
It's a problem with the transducer. I have replace the old transducer with a mandolin's transducer and also made a new bone saddle for it
The instrument has a lovely sound which really projects. The strings are held at high tension which can make one hard to play, especially tough on your left hand. I lowered the string height on this one too to make it more manageable to play!
Redwood Ukelele In desperate need of a fret dress
This Redwood Uke was buzzing on certain frets on the fingerboard making it mostly unplayable. The buzzing string were sapping the instrument's sustain and tone.
A miniature fret dress was needed!
I used our smallest fret dressing beam to work on this tiny instrument but it did the trick perfectly. With a true fingerboard and true fret level we can now set this Uke's string height to be very easy under the fingers and not have any buzzing notes
-Jack
