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Instrument Notes
 The
articles, pages, that follow are written with Oklahomans in
mind. I’ll try to do a couple each year and will do as much
as possible to be responsive to the Oklahoma environment.
The first few pages are on humidity. I’ve checked on the
specifics that we face in Oklahoma so my comments are
practical rather than theoretical. I’m open to suggestions
for short pieces and original contributions, so don’t
hesitate to contact me.
Buying Your Child's First Guitar or First Mandolin >>
Stringing Your Guitar >>
Keeping Your Guitar or Mandolin in
Playing Condition >>
Oklahoma, Humidity, and Guitars >>
Protecting the Vintage Value of
Your Instrument
I am a
player (though only average), and while I have friends who
collect and invest, I am definitely not an investor in
vintage instruments – so I had never thought I’d write about
vintage issues until a few items came across my repair
bench. The moral of this story – so you don’t have to read
all of this if you don’t want – is “Be careful that your
well-intentioned DIY efforts don’t destroy your vintage
instrument’s value (or your new instrument, for that
matter).”
One story relates to an old vintage guitar by a major
builder (the name is not really important). In addition to
being a fine player, this was a vintage guitar potentially
worth a few thousand dollars. A minor crack had been cleated
fairly well – no crime there. It needed a neck reset – no
one’s fault but age. But for some reason a previous owner
(not the individual who brought it to me) had decided the
instrument needed re-finishing. Re-finishing will usually
devalue a vintage instrument even if it’s well done.
Re-finishing well is not easy and the job had been poorly
done. Still, with some work this was a good sounding guitar
that played nicely, but its vintage value had been cut
dramatically.
Another recent story comes from the mandolin family. For
some reason the owner and one of his friends had decided to
show their DIY skills on a nice 1970’s Japanese-built
mandolin. The finger board extension had been amputated and
the binding replaced with a non-matching piece – and no
touch up on the top. The frets had been removed, replaced,
leveled, but the ends left dangerously sharp. The tuners had
been replaced (an up-grade?) that left damage around the
post holes. While, with some TLC, this was still a good
mandolin, the value it might have had as a vintage
instrument was lost.
I’m a DIYer around the house – at least in areas my wife
allows. But before you start to work on your instrument
think carefully. Will you impact vintage value? Do you care?
Instruments are delicate and require delicate and careful
treatment – do you really have the skills and patience (mine
is frequently tested with restorations)? And if you decide
to do it yourself – make sure you have a credible source of
information. I recently read a piece of advice (?) on a
repair site that suggested using coke to clean a fretboard…..
hmmmm, if you try that – let me know, but you did NOT get
that advice here.
Ed Cunliff,
MandoAiki
You are welcome to use this
article on your website, blog, or in your newsletter as long
as you include this complete credit line: Copyright
2009 Ed Cunliff.
Buying Your Child's First Guitar or
First Mandolin>>
Stringing Your Guitar >>
Keeping Your Guitar or Mandolin in
Playing Condition >>
Oklahoma, Humidity, and Guitars >>
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