I am a luthier, someone who studies, makes and repairs musical instruments and I want to point out several things. very important, I am not saying that this restoration is bad, believe me when I say that much worse things have been done to "restored instruments" but I want to leave these comments in case anyone wonders how it could be done if they want to give it a try. Anyone who wants to learn this beautiful trade is always welcome, but you should know what is right and wrong when repairing an instrument. 1st - i do not recommend use of paint remover to remove the lacquer on an instrument, the wood would expand and then when it dries it will shrink and crack, it is better to use sandpaper of different grits. 2nd - I do not recommend sanding the harmonic top, backs and sides without checking that the thickness is equal throughout the length of the piece to be sanded, as this can create variations in the way the resonance box or body vibrates, removing important harmonics and sound volume to the instrument. it is recommended to always use a thickness gauge. 3rd - Always use hide glue or wood glue to glue musical instruments, as these types of glue crystallize instead of sticking which gives it more vibration and allows it to melt with water or heat in case the instrument needs to be opened to repair it. It is not recommended to use rubber adhesive or similar, also i do not recommend using super glue to glue the resonance box or body. 4th - Hardwoods and a bone nut are recommended for the bridge to enhance resonance. do not glue the bridge to the harmonic top as it must be moved for adjustment when calibrating and tuning the instrument. 5th - The missing fret that was replaced should be adjusted to be at the same level as the rest to avoid hum and cause the instrument to fret or sound bad All this that I am mentioning is something that is studied to be able to repair the instrument correctly if it is to be used later as a suitable musical instrument. if the end is only decorative it seems to me a decent repair and restoration and I congratulate you for at least trying it with acceptable results for decorative effects. Please don't hate this restoration, I've seen worse, be polite. Follow my advice if you want to try. In any case, I recommend anyone to go to a luthier if they want to repair an instrument and are not sure what they are doing.

As a luthier of some 40 years experience, I feel the need to comment on several aspects of this restoration. First, the bridge on an instrument of this type should never be glued down. It’s designed to be held in place by string pressure and should be free to be moved to make fine adjustments to intonation. Hammering down the prongs on the tailpiece will eventually weaken the metal; after two or three string changes they will probably break. And olive oil is not the best choice for a finish; it takes a very long time to polymerize and harden. That being said, it’s nice to see an old-timer like this revived!

Points for effort and I accept you're not a musician but Glueing the bridge before you checked the intonation? Oh dear! Mando bridges dont need to glued because the string are anchored at the tail peice ( nails? really?) a free bridge would have allowed for upgrading to a better more resonant material and fine tuning. Hammering the string hooks closed wasnt needed either what about when the strings need changing? Prying them open could cause them to weaken and break The 'Brass bar' is called a fret BTW

It made me happy to see this saved from the trash, but sad to see it not restored as a music instrument. It will still make someone a nice decoration though.

You were doing so well up until you glued on the bridge and then hammered closed the hoop end of the strings.

As others have commented, the bridge should have been left floating, the string hooks open, screws in the tailpiece instead of nails, etc.. One other thing I would have done, was to find ferrules for the tuning pegs (prevents damage to the head). All in all a beautiful job on the restoration otherwise. Thank you for sharing it with us! God bless. Rev. D.

As a musician and hobby luthier I have to say I agree with the others on the bridge, tuners, tail piece etc. but good job getting that ink pen off there! That was surprising. Good work on the headstock repair also, that would have scared off a few “pros”. Getting the back on and properly aligned was good work as well. Enjoyed the video. 👍 P.s. the plastic for the pickguard is available online and not terribly expensive. Regardless of what this instrument is to be used for, it would look nicer with a pickguard.

This reminds me of when I went to an antique shop and found a beat up classical guitar and after buying it, I cleaned it up, removed the paint, removed all of the rust, and put new strings on. A guitar that hasn't been talken care of by the shop owners is now in very good hands.

Seeing how you were dealing with string makes it clear that you are not an expert of musical instruments. But you've done a pretty good job.

There's just a lot that's not right on this restore, but it is what most people fixing something wooden would attempt. Not a terrible job, but musical instruments should be restored by a luthier. A TRAINED luthier.

My wife keeps bringing home peoples busted up abused guitars for me to restore because I made a few dulcimers in the past....As much as I hate it I love it! It's amazing how they clean up in the end and how much experience and confidence you gain from the process...Keep up the good work!!

Just a suggestion. Maybe ask a few things about how an instrument works. We NEVER glue down the bridge. You could have bought a fret wire for the "brass thing" that was missing, olive oil is never good for instruments cause it's heavy and does not absorb well and you screwed the tuning pegs upside down. Also on top of the bridge there should be a harder material, we use bone, brass, graphite or even plastic and that part is the one you file with the gauges suitable for every string. Hammering the tailpiece is useless because the tension of the strings will rip it apart soon and also you NEVER hammer down the prongs because they will break after a while and also it would be a really difficult task to take old strings out with the rust buildup on the string. And we don't use superglue on instruments.

I restored just one mandolin but I agree with many others down here, that the bridge musn't be glued. Although this is already being said in many comments, I would like to add the reason why the bridge must be left floating. This is because the bridge must be placed there where the octave is perfect. Most of the time this leads to a bridge that isn't quite perpendicular, because of the difference in thickness of the strings. Instruments with glued bridges are very often untunable. Modern electric guitars have bridges that are modifiable for each individual string. That is impossible for such a mandolin, but one can come close to this ideal situation with a floating bridge.

I appreciate you cleaning and reusing the tuners even if I was surprised at first. Good job overall though! Aside from the other suggestions I'd say you should have replaced the missing kerfed lining before gluing the back on. That's the notched wood pieces that were glued to the edge of the sides. They should go all the way around and give a wider gluing surface. Looks like several sections had fallen out.

Regardless you put more effort into this instrument than the original luthier did. Kudos

I will not bash you on your efforts, you did an overall good job restoring that old mandolin, Iam sure other will tell you what was done wrong. But I appreciate you posting this, Thank you & God Bless🙏🙏🙏🇺🇸🎸🎼🎹👨🏻‍🦯👨🏻‍🦯

Unless the bridge is a very hard wood the strings will slowly compress the wood and keep going out of tune. Ideally should be made of bone or hard plastic. Plus Mr Casey's other comments are spot on. Nice job for a non luthier mind!

As a mandolin player, this warms my heart ❤️ Great job!

Poor mandolin, it's very sad that there are people who can't value an instrument so much. Thank you for saving this instrument, because I trust that it will end up in good hands and play wonderful tunes again... Once again, eternal thanks to you

Bravissimo!..un abbraccio 🤗 da Cagliari

The pickguard is absolutely necessary. Great job.

Не стесняйся поиграть , все могут на своём уровне. Работа отличная!

Ellerine sağlık İsmail mükemmel oldu. Resmen yepyeni oldu. Ey gidi günler be. Ne mandolinler vardı dedemin dükkanında. Helal olsun. Sen bu işi biliyorsun.

Eline emeğine sağlık, çok güzel oldu, resmen tekrardan hayat buldu. Noksan parçaların yapımı ve ayar kulakçıklarının olduğu kırık bölümün onarılması da fevkalade başarılı idi. Kedilerin uslu uslu seyretmeleri de videonuzu izlerken ayrı bir huzur veriyor.

Ellerinize sağlık İsmail bey, kısıtlı imkan ve malzeme ile harika işler çıkartıyorsunuz, Türkiye'de maalesef restore edecek materyal bulmak çok zor! Buna rağmen yaptığınız işleri severek izliyorum.

I know instrument restoration is kind of a specialized niche area - and other's have pointed out a few nuances that I'm sure are important - however this restoration makes me feel a lot better about all those little destructive acts I committed as a kid by scrawling all over every object in site with a pen! Someone like yourself can actually undo that damage and that is a great thing! I'm also guessing this was probably not an incredibly valuable instrument to begin with or it would not have ended up in someone's play room! At least I hope not!

Great foresight by putting in the dowels into BOTH pieces. That's better than new, you do good work.

Love the work you done to save this beautiful mandolin.

as a musician, it SOOOO painfull to watch this, you did a good job in restore the mandoline, but now it wont be playable any more, the owner should just hung it on a wall as an ornament or use it as wood to fire

Ummmm, that's not the way to string it. Otherwise, a nice job.

Muy bien, lista para acompañar momentos de nuestros días 👌👍🇪🇸

Show! Bom trabalho! Adorei!

Estupendo trabajo, felicidades

Really good job it turned out beautiful and gorgeous well done and you are brilliant idea and the video. Great video enjoy watching it

Excelente trabajo 👌

Finally varnish application could have been very good. The performance in the last episode was impressive ⚘❤

Auch!😶 La restauración de instrumentos es un proceso muy delicado, porsupuesto que está hecho de madera como los muebles, pero es un trabajo más fino, se tiene normas y materiales propios de LUTHERÍA. Recomiendo que lleves un curso de LUTHERÍA para restaurar correctamente un instrumento musical. 😉

... привет ретроманьяк!!!-, не знаю как тебя зовут, но учась в начальной школе меня родители записали в музыкалку в класс народных инструментов, и обучался я целых 5 лет игре на мандалине, ну на точно такой-же которую ты востанавливал, молодец, спасибо за ностальгию,- вспомнил свою школьную молодость, здоровья тебе и удачи во всём, новых творческих успехов!!!

It's beautiful! Great job! Thanks for sharing this.

Just started my mando journey and posting video clips. This was a really interesting video super detailed work and great job!

Fun to watch! Lovely result. Thanks for posting!

Good evening. It seems an incredible challenge to restore a intrument destined to go to trash. Excelent job. Best regards and good luck.

Schön das eine kleine übersetzung dabei ist, Danke

Everybody else has already said what you did wrong - but you took what amounted to a piece of scrap wood covered in ballpoint pen scribbles with half the tuners held on with baling wire and brought it up to a state where if someone with more experience building instruments wanted to get it into proper playable form, they probably could. And that is worth the effort.

Very relaxing to watch. Cheers!

I would like to see a video of this instrument being played (in its "proper" state, as others have commented). With guests, of course.

Beautiful restoration, but what if you break a string...how do you replace it since you hammered them in?

You may not be , but you've done a great job there. Love it

That was great because you tried and did your best. Now you have more information from the experts who commented for next time. I would say stay away from olive and other oils that don't dry because they will get rancid over time. It's basically food at room temperature and that's never good. Stay well!

...let the music begin..lol..nice resto, stay safe and have a great week..

I'm sure your little buddies enjoyed watching you work!

It's a such shame to see a nice instrument like that abused and vandalized so badly. It is so good to see you restoring it with loving patience and relatively basic tools. Your black & white and ginger friends seem to approve too. Have you seen the movie "Captain Corelli's Mandolin"?

Gees, a lot of blokes on here who feel an urgent need to tell you with great self-importance what you could have done better. Nice work. I enjoyed watching your video. I didn’t overthink it.

Not a restoration of a musical instrument; but a transformation. A respectful way to retire an instrument that can never be played again.

Bence gayet güzel ve başarılı olmuş ellerinize sağlık. Dİğer videolardan belli oluyor ki çeşitli ve farklı ekipmanı restore edebiliyorsunuz. Bana kalırsa bir adet nargile restore edin bence çok yakışır. Teşekkür ederim iyi günler başarılar.

Excellent work👍👍👍. Thanks for sharing

Grats on a passable restoration. I thought some of your techniques were inspired, and the mistakes you made have already been pointed out in other comments, so I'll skip that, with one exception. My eyes did go wide when you hammered down the prongs on the tailpiece. After going back to the beginning, I noticed that they were hammered down at the beginning (probably from taking too many trips to the floor). So, that was an easy assumption to make. My recommendation is to watch some of the other restoration/repair videos on youtube. Stew Mac and Twoford are a couple I would recommend, and there are many others. I don't believe the mandolin you repaired was particularly valuable, and was probably a great learning experience. With nothing to base this on other than the plastic tuner buttons, and what was left of the pickguard, I believe this mandolin may have been from around that late 50's early 60's era. I may be way off though. Anyone else want to chance a guess at year made or manufacturer?

And two feline supervisors !!!. beautiful cats.

I think it's nice to see when a musical instrument gets saved

Great work!

interesting restoration, olive oil not a good choice, Shellac is much better it is fairly cheap goes on easily dries quickly, and looks amazing. The bridge should be of the floating type, they can be purchased cheaply enough to have made this a much better job. Still, it's back in one piece, reasonably playable condition and looks much better than before.

Looks like this *started as a musical instrument *became a toy *discarded as trash *resurrected as a mandolin again Great job.

Excellent Resto bro...nice job..thanks :)

15:02 I just realized, I'm just as relaxed as the cat watching this. Bro, I'm not a instrument maker or restorer but if I were you, I think I would have sought out some professional advice before attempting this delicate restoration. I give you props and kudos for not being afraid to make an attempt to restore the mandolin. From a wood workers perspective, I think you could have done a much better job on the gluing, clamping, drilling of holes and overall finish. This isn't some of your best work. Having said that, it still was a very enjoyable video if nothing else.

Eline emeğine sağlık hocam güzel bir çalışma olmuş

Hello. I am not an expert on musical instruments, but I believe that the headstock cannot be repaired like this as it loses its natural tension characteristics. As a decoration it was very good. Greetings from Seville. (Spain).

Excellent soooo glad you got rid of the bad idea lol 😊👍🇨🇦❤️

Very cool mandolin well done.

Fantastic! 👍

This was amazing 👍

I take it it was your first time doing something like this but not completely awful apart from one or two things that have been pointed out in the comments section already you did a pretty good job.

The result is perfect, thanks

You might wanna check out Jerry at Rosa String Works before you tackle another instrument restoration.

My favorite part - the kitty. Meow.

Beautiful work. Cat help is the best help.

you are not supposed to hammer the string loops down . they are supposed to be held by the tension of each string as you put them on one by one

Magnífico. Só faltou o polimento.

Great result 👏👍

Q: How can you tell if there's a mandolin player at your door? A: They can't find the key, the knocking speeds up, and they don't know when to come in. Nice restoration! 😃👌🏼

Elinize sağlık canım, çok güzel olmuş 🥰

I'll go with the other luthiers comments and add the bridge should be shaped seated to the top. It also needs the bridge height adjusted and a hard edge on the bridge like bone or plastic etc. Overall it does look nicer.

Guess restoring this was "music to your ears"?

Ficou bonito, sem dúvida. Agora, se ficou bom? É difícil responder. 😐

Nice job looks awsome

Gr8 job 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼, maybe next time u could put a shiny finish on it 😀

Sonda bir oyun havası bekledim ama :) Elinize sağlık...

Excellent work congratulations, is possible to use Linseed Oil by Olive Oil?

Good job! But you should learn about the scale of string instruments. i think, the bridge must be movable

Срасибо за удовольствие! А что происходит с предметами после реставрации?

After reading through most the comments I have to ask about one question. Is no one going to mention the tuners being backward?

Thumbs up for the cat.

Nice piece of wall art.

Ficou incrível 🇧🇷

Ok, now just add pizza and pasta, and you've summoned an Italian

Great! Beautuful

Buen trabajo

Tel bağlantı yerindeki metal parça kayıp. Her ustanın kendine has bir deseni var. İnternetten biraz araştırdım, Sadık Büyükçağlar'ın mandolinlerine benziyor.

Perfectly!

Very nice work like allways👍

Cool job buddy, as always, like 👍