Instrument Repair
Sam has been playing Mandolin for over 20 years, but in an effort to find the perfect instrument he decided take his engineering skills to instrument repair and manufacture. Here you will find information about repair services, current projects, restorations and instruments for sale; new and antique.
Head to the contact section if you need any repair work done, or are looking for a new instrument.
American WT&B Rosita mandolin restored with new cherry fingerboard and rosewood inlay. In bid to reduce use of tropical hardwoods I am tried an experimental fret board using a very dense piece of cherry (700kg/m3). It's turned out really nice with a smooth even tone, however, I think it might be tricky to keep clean! Also, new bridge with bone saddle and bone nut.
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Sound hole modification tunes the body to F (175Hz) giving a more even tone across the strings by moving resonance away from open string frequencies. Previously is was G (196Hz) making the it very bottom heavy!
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Musikalia Mandolin finished. New rosewood fretboard, with mother of pearl dots, and re-glued neck joint which had begun collapsing. Other than that it's in good condition as you can see. Good tone, balance between strings and reasonably loud, which will probably improve with playing. It's quite a bit older than one which I tuned the sound hole on (~1970's) and has extra decoration, it also has a rosewood bowl instead of walnut.
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Aquila Nylgut strings tested. They appear to be just nylon classical guitar type strings but milky white. Thick, smooth and soft with a warm, slightly bendy, tone. Very light on the fingers, I can't see them ever being used for performance but excellent for long practice sessions. They are NOTHING like gut at all, if you want a true renaissance sound look elsewhere. See video of test
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Hand crafted replacement rosewood fretboard with mother of pearl spots, rosewood bridge with bone saddle and nut. It sounds fantastic! Such a bright and resonant tone from it's exceptionally deep body. This is another instrument from around the 1970's much more modern than what I'm used to but I'm very impressed with it. The bowl and neck and head are maple with rosewood veneer on the head.
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