heel repair on mandolin

If you have a string instrument of any kind that needs fixing, a mistake you made in building a new instrument that you need to "disappear," or a question about the ethics of altering an older instrument, ask here. Please note that it will be much easier for us to help you decide on the best repair method if you post some pictures of the problem.
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Rein van Belle
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:55 pm

heel repair on mandolin

Post by Rein van Belle »

I was given two older mandolins which I hope to make playable again. One is an Egmond which apart from that seems to be salvegeable and needs only some new frets and a new nut. The more interesting one is of the AMKA brand that I never heard of before, I read that it was dutch as well,probably early 50ies and not quite comparable in quality ;). The defects are also more serious, the neck heel has broken, I suspect it to be a stacked heel that came unglued, there is a dowel in there that seems to be factory original, the loose neck also pressed down on the carved/pressed top which come to be severely warped in the area that goes under the fingerboard.
I thought i could probably reglue the neck,do I need to use superglue instead of titebond because of creep issues?
The remainder of the neck heel is still in the neck block, i m a bit wary of steaming it out because i never done that before and because i am worried about the neckblock coming loose.
Also after repairing the neck, does the top under the fretboard extension really need to touch the top, also here i am abit worried about the wood fracturing.
My aim is to make this a playable instrument, I dont know about vintage value and although quite rare and old and a lot better made than most dutch instruments, it is not a top instrument and it has literally been saved from the trashcan.
Previously I repaired an egmond mandolin with some help from a luthier friend, and completed a stew mac 000 with help from the manual,cumpianos book and this forum and although this is my first post here I got a lot of information and help here which is greatly appreciated
Thanks for any advise,
Rein
Steve Senseney
Posts: 673
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 2:45 pm

Re: heel repair on mandolin

Post by Steve Senseney »

Show us some pictures please!
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Charlie Schultz
Site Admin
Posts: 1427
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO

Re: heel repair on mandolin

Post by Charlie Schultz »

Hi Rein and welcome to the forum! If you need any help with posting photos, see this topic: http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=1656
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