I wish instruments could tell us where they've been and what they've seen over their lifetime. They'd have the best stories. I love how you've given her her life back!
I've actually gotten in the habit of putting a small piece of paper taped inside the cases of pedals and the inside of amps with the date and location of where I got it from. The few times I've sold stuff on reverb, a couple of buyers messaged me after receiving the gear geeking out about how they are adding their own information.
So I do some work as a luthier on the side. I’d recommend you tune down between playing and replace the strings with “silk and steel” strings as they require less tension.
Even silk and steel are too heavy for those Neapolitan mandolins. They need the old style strings. Pyramid 529 is the reference you want (9-32 silver plated).
Dude... your work and Decent Sampler has rebuilt my love of music. I played a brass instrument in HS, but never learned piano or composition. Now I just make music for myself, and for little games and other stuff. I composed a short instrumental piece for the background of a thank you speech I shared with my wife on our 10 year anniversary. It's not a lot, but I've found a way to enjoy music making again, and you're a significant part of that. Thanks man! I'll check out the mandolin samples. Your stuff is always great!
That same terrible noise happened fender Stratocaster when I was trying to take off the neck, the neck cavity completely split but since has been repaired, I’m happy to see that you take old, neglected instruments and repair them. I try to do the same thing. With my guitars and such.
Here in Brazil we have another shape of mandolin (we call it bandolim), that have a flat back and a round shape, it was popularized here by Jacob do Bandolim, a great instrumentalist and composer, if someone have any interest check it out, it's pretty amazing and beutiful sounding.
A couple months ago I decided to start trying to build my own sample library instruments, and I've grown somewhat addicted! Thank you for the amazing gift of Decent Sampler! I think you have impacted far more musicians than you could know - the beauty and joy of using your own sounds and records of your own performances to make a sampled instrument is just so exciting!
If you ever have to fix another instrument that requires you to clamp a weird shaped body, you should look into getting some strap clamps. They're designed for weird and round shapes!
Today, there is a variety of Hide Glue that comes in a squeeze bottle. and sets relatively slowly compared to normal hide glue....please use the right archival glue for the job. Hide glue allows for later disassembly of the instrument for future repairs. Elmers wood glue does not easily allow future repair. Old instruments, made from woods seldom available today, will sound better, and are better respected with repairs made as any luthier would. Elmers type of glues are used today on cheaply made disposable instruments.... RJS
Building from scratch and repairing an instrument are two different things. The gourd back on this is the most difficult to construct. Boiling and bending the wood, then gluing, takes a lifetime to master. I like your efforts. Clamping is an art. Inner tube is an old trick. So is using black crayons to seal inlays is another. You need to match hundred year old woods also. Constantine’s in the Bronx was go to place for old timber. Only on line now, I think. Metropolitan Music Company was out of New York, with guys working there for fifty years and not speak English or cared to learn. I was a goofer. I would “ go for “ coffee and danish and learned vast amounts from these fellows. I’m sorry to say, your repairs won’t hold long and tuning to other instruments will be problematic. That spruce top, at that age will conduct sounds hundreds of times faster than through the air. Worth the save, for sure. Brother at Rosa Strings Company is the go to man for this kind work repair. Real genius. I think he’s still around. Just put out mandolin for sale, I think. Crazy glue and baking soda better glue than what you used. Hide glue for construction from scratch. We lost Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island, which was tragic. Every rocker in the world went there in its hay day. I think Keith Richards even lived out there for a while. George Harrison brought all his acoustic guitars there. Matt Umanov was in the Village, too. He could repair holes and broken necks, etc .
I don't have a single note of talent in music inside of me but I love your videos and the feelings I get every single time I finish watching. I just enjoy listening to different kinds of music and am very grateful I can hear such rich and beautiful sounds.
Music is like any other skill, competency comes with study and practice. Like the person above, I would recommend learning an instrument - you can get a guitar pretty cheap second-hand, and you can find tons of resources to teach yourself how to play online. If that’s not an option, there are a lot of free apps that let you create music, and some of them can even help you learn to play, sort of. Flat is a good example. It’s an app on iPhone(idk if it’s on Android, but I imagine it must be) It’s meant for creating scores/tabs, but it has MIDI playback, and it has a visualization of whatever instrument you’re writing for; the sound quality isn’t great, but you could pretty effectively use it to teach yourself to play an instrument - minus the actual physical skill, but you could develop a similar level of understanding about a given instrument as someone who’s played it for years, which would go a LONG way if you ever decided to learn to play the instrument for real - it would be a lot more like riding a bike for the first time in 10 years, compared to the first time riding a bike ever. If you used it in conjunction with online lessons, I mean, using the app to “play” along with online lessons/instructions, so to speak. If you want to learn to play music, you absolutely can. Don’t let self-doubt stop you, it’s not about talent, it’s about dedication.
I picked up a 1910's bowlback Mandolin on eBay several months ago for around $50, in non-working condition. The body had a big crack down the back, it had no strings, and missing tuners. I decided to make a strong glue using find sawdust from my electric sander mixed with superglue. The resulting product was a fully playable, stable instrument that I still love immensely. I've been meaning to pick up another one of these, since I find these instrument so fascinating. A tied a shoelace around the bridge and headstock to fashion a strap. The strap can also be turned upside-down to wear the instrument on your back. Thank you for showing care for these unique instruments, good work!
Use hide glue instead of other types. hide glue, if needed, can be softened and be removed later if needed the new hide glue can be re-applied. With other types of glue it is permanent.
I guess it doesn’t matter with this one and you doubtless already know this but; I know at least for other instruments you tend to use hide based glues because they’re easier to remove if you need to do other repairs or modifications later. PVA etc. ends up being stronger than the wood so it will cause more damage to the structure of the instrument if you try to remove it.
Thank you for the amazing Decent Sampler! It has become such a versatile plugin, I make whole pieces of music using nothing but many instances of various DS instruments.
A little care, a lot of glue, a bit of clamping ingenuity and dollops uncommon generosity have given us all the delightful sounds of this instrument. David always makes me feel the best way to be grateful is to be creative.
I love that you gave that old instrument new life. I’m not a musician, but I love musical instruments, and, of course, music. I’ll be watching what you’re up to. 😊
Neapolitan style mandos need EXTREMELY low tension even when they're new and whole, let alone old and cracked. If the strings hurt your hands, they're too thick and/or high (probably because the neck has tilted forward at the joint, which happens a lot more with bowl backs due to the back being less rigid). Also, wood glue and glue in general only works by clamping together the seam perfectly after applying the glue. Only epoxy can truly "fill" on its own and it's still not very strong.
Seeing you bring one of these thrift shop instrument back from oblivion is like watching one of those nature films where the baby animal gets rescued and is cared for by someone very lovingly but without really understanding what the implications of that might be. I'm so glad this had a pay off for you and decent sampler users. I already thought the sampled sounds were way richer than the voice of any mandolin I'd heard but when your Omnichord technique is applied it becomes a powerhouse of sound design. A tremendous achievement from such a tragic beginning.
Great video. I won't be pedantic about resins vs hide glue but some of the suggestions here in the comments section are valid. Always clean all the surfaces thoroughly of all residue after dismantling. Many heavy rubber bands should be strapped around the mandolin multiple times over after you reassembled the top. This should remain in place for a day or two at least.
No way! I just purchased an 1895 Napoli mandolin myself and had to do very similar repairs around the same time this video was uploaded! I’ve never considered mandolin before I’m a guitar player but I saw the poor thing on marketplace and decided to give it the TLC it deserves. Now it’s repaired I’ve been learning basic chords which lead me here to watch you do the same thing! ❤️
I own a greek bouzouki since a few weeks. It’s like a huge mandolin, it has 8 strings and sounds like the mandolin, but then almost as big as a guitar. Really reccomending it for guitar players that struggle playing such a small instrument. Thank you for this video it’s so so cool!
Love the mix of "here's how i found it", "here's how I repaired it" and "here's how I sampled it" in your vids! The killer free samples are kinda nice, too ;-)
"Tragic chorus effect." Another great video! But I'm still hung up on the Sears catalog from near the beginning… it looks like the same one I have that used to belong to my grandma, a 1968 reproduction of the 1902 catalog.
One of my favorite things in life- as an experienced player, and luthier - is taking an old, well used/abused instrument home, doing a little work on it, and giving it some playtime - just to let it know that it's loved, and still alive. We should treat our people that way as well!
I just listen! I’m not a musician, but I know what I like and I love this! It’s amazing what you can do with music. It’s so varied, determined only by the musician, him/herself!
Really interesting vid. You clearly have much better second hand shops than me, wish i found more instruments in my usual wanderings. Great to see them get a new life. Highly recommend investigating using hide glue for instrument gluing. It is what luthiers use and If things go wrong it can be steamed apart at a later date. You can actually make it out of gelatine powder (like you get in the baking section of super markets) if you cant buy the stuff. If you aren't already, detuning the strings on a mandolin when your not using it for a while is a really good plan, especially on a bowlback, as it reduces the massive tension the neck is under. Particularly important if your mandolin has had any kind of restoration.
It feels so special to restore some old piece of forgotten junk. I got one of those old entertainment sets with a record player and AM/FM radio in a huge coffee table sized speaker housing at a yard sale that was just beat to shit, and every night I'd work on it a little bit with youtube pulled up trying to find a tutorial for something similar. After it was in working order, we sat and listened to the radio and our records WAY more than we ever would have otherwise, because it was a rescue.
This is phenomenal! I love people restoring instruments which would otherwise be thrown away or used as a dust collector. I am no means a luthier (rough carpenter), a good way to get glue all the way through some cracks when I'm working with thin delicate wood is I put the glue down and vacuum it from the other side to fill the void, hope this helps, it's helped me in the past, keep up the fantastic work!
This is why I absolutely love antique stores. If you do enough research the value of pretty much everything in those places will skyrocket. Its always the story that sells.
I love restoring old string instruments and playing them. Even if I don't know how to play it, I will restore it and learn it. I recently picked up a 60-year-old Sitar (which I already learned how to play) and a mandolin very much like the example.
Impressive choreography and it’s sounding pretty cool! I love the realness of moments like trying to figure out where to put the stick for a part change
I picked up a beat up old guitar for £20 in a book shop a couple years back, I took it home, fixed it up and it sounds beautiful. It turned out that other guitars of the same maker have been sold at auction for a few thousand each. Nothing crazy, but very nice for £20 and some love.
Awesome, I had to repair an old swap meet mandolin (I broke it like in half) thats now my every day player i've earned money with. Now i need to learn how to computer.
Decent sampler is great. It's re-invigorated and extended the capabilities of soundfonts in an easier to develop format. And this mandolin pack is very nice. I'm sure I'm going to be using it soon. And I'm going to have to look at what you've added to the format since I last made my own instrument with it.
Sitting with a massive grin on my face playing chords in the omnichord and mandolin sample packs. OK, maybe there are tears pending too thanks to how lovely these sound. Thank you David!
I'm a new sub to this channel but as an audio engineer & a mixer I must admit its really awesome that a part of what you do is create indie produced sample libraries & free vsts .. respect!! ✌️✌️
I found using bicycle inner tubes cut in strips to do glue ups on irregular shape works the best, you just tuck the starting point under itself and stretch to "clamp" and tuck the end it under itself again to hold the pressure.
David, I love your videos, attention to detail, and love of the process. My band is in the final stages of cutting a new album so I'm not allowing myself to be in "song writing mode" right now (mostly because I'll get too distracted and never finish the LP, haha), but I can't wait to play with your libraries after we get this vinyl pressed. Keep doing what you're doing, it's great stuff! Love it!!
I downloaded and installed this yesterday... Am really glad and thank god for coming across this. The mandolin sound is so well sampled. Short of words to praise. To me it sounded more like Afghanistan's 'rabab' that has strings made out of goat gut in yesteryears...nowadays they use synthetic material strings. The sound of this .vst3 is so realistic to give a joy for sure. Hats off... Glad for installing it. I use Ableton 10 Intro under Windows 10.
I have limited luthier skills but have been entrusted with a similar bowl-back mandolin to see if I can resurrect it. This video was really helpful, as are the comments and tips from fellow viewers. One tip I’d like to add is to use rubber tubing wound sufficiently tight - seems to work a treat for such awkward clamping jobs … ask Ted Woodford!
For future reference when you need to clamp an irregular shape (again). Use a flat strap like webbing around the object then tighten it as if it were a tourniquet. Just don't tighten it too much as you can crush the wood and leave impression of the webbing.
Somthing that i dont think would work here but could be interesting for a future project is wood stablising resin where you soak the wood in it and it hardens all those cracks and air pockets. I think it would work for strengthening the wood and could make for some interesting changes to the tambre.
I love the sound of mandolins, mandolas, and octave mandolins. I got into playing them at my 40-year point, but sort of lost my muscle memory over the years (same with guitars). The two I own are A-styles. This is fantastic.
Thanks for offering these great sounds and options for free. I prefer playing real instruments, but this is as close as you get to the real deal if playing synthesizer. Btw I'm impressed how quickly and effortlessly you repaired the mandolin. Seemingly carelessly spreading the glue, but smart people don't need to overthink stuff.
The neck and headstock of these instruments are often softwood veneered to appear to be of hardwood. They are often ornate because labour was cheaper than the materials. The soundboard really should have been supported along the cracks by little wood buttons I believe you call cleats in America. It's ok to use modern glue (not superglue) on the cracks and buttons but for gluing the soundbiard to the body hide glue in case you ever need to take it apart again. Unlike the rest of the instrument the soundboard was not usually varnished on these instruments, just occasionally cleaned with a scraper.
You're usually better off spreading glue across both sides of a joint when using wood glue before pressing them together. Also a bag of sand (or rice in a pinch) with a weight on top of it is really good for applying pressure to the glue of odd shaped things.
David, I don't know if you know this or not, but your videos are incredibly (and weirdly) relaxing and therapeutic. its always a joy when you upload a new video.
Another great episode of Dave's adventures -- love it! Thank you. May I offer a bit of advice on using wood glue for best results? Nothing far from what you are doing, but you can get a lot more strength from an edit to your approach. First, apply the glue to the bond area, then ensure total coverage of the patch with a brush (old toothbrush or cotton swabs work too); set aside. Do the same to the opposite surface, and set that aside for 3-5 minutes; this waiting time allows the adhesive to set a bit, and will really latch on to the opposite surface when you place and clamp. Clean squeeze-out with a rag dampened with warm water -- it will remove all glue quickly. Note that glue will not fill gaps or holes -- shims (even toothpicks or popsicle sticks) glued and trimmed to shape work well; sawdust mixed with glue can fill holes but won't be as strong. Tx again for the video!
I have this same style of mandolin with almost the exact same back story. It was still playable when I bought it, and it has since been featured on a number of my recordings.
You would've loved this pawn shop I used to go to in New Orleans, I got a mando sort of like this (1930s made in Istanbul) for $40, a 50 year old Kay mando for $25, a balalaika for $29, a sanxian with rosewood frame and Burmese python heads for $50, a yueqin for $40, a rosewood lyre harp for $40, a Baby Taylor with hard case for $100, (all of these in good shape except the Kay and sanxian which I had to fix up), plus alot more stuff too. The pawn shop changed ownership and I never saw a good deal again.
I’ve got a mandoline almost like this. It’s VERY old, but in really good shape. My wife bought it for me from an antique mall. I’m afraid to tune it and put tension on it. Just looked at mine and there’s no label in it. I would have used surgical tubing for clamping the top on. It works great!
I could have gotten a beautiful round backed mandolin for $26.00 in Mexico when I was in 8th grade. My dad was in a hurry and I had the flu so I couldn’t make a decision quick enough. I have regretted not buying it my whole life. I wish I could find one like yours. I ended up sticking with woodwinds and keyboards but finally bought an Eastman mandolin a couple of years ago but its not a bowlback. I want one like yours super bad. Thanks for the great video!
4:14 Clamping odd shapes - you need a pattern maker's vise. It is not the perfick solution , but it dose allow a whole range of odd clamping. Wood By Wright: just put one on his bench build - check it out. First visit like your story.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 88 | คู่เอก "ป้อมเพชร vs อัสลามจอน"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1ZqTVVbMgbo/mqdefault.jpg)
I wish instruments could tell us where they've been and what they've seen over their lifetime. They'd have the best stories. I love how you've given her her life back!
There’s a great novel called ‘accordion crimes’ that does this
thanks for this info! (i love the internet!)@@alexex5513
I've actually gotten in the habit of putting a small piece of paper taped inside the cases of pedals and the inside of amps with the date and location of where I got it from. The few times I've sold stuff on reverb, a couple of buyers messaged me after receiving the gear geeking out about how they are adding their own information.
"I was left in a closet because my owner refused to practice everyday"
Tragic!!! @@Marta1Buck
So I do some work as a luthier on the side. I’d recommend you tune down between playing and replace the strings with “silk and steel” strings as they require less tension.
Ah, that's interesting. I was just looking into silk and steel strings for one of my guitars.
Generally if your instrument is 100 or so years old, it was designed before modern strings which play at a higher tension.
Obviously, it also becomes less painful for the fingers.
Is there a silk and steel string you’d suggest for an Irish music mandolin?
Even silk and steel are too heavy for those Neapolitan mandolins. They need the old style strings. Pyramid 529 is the reference you want (9-32 silver plated).
Dude... your work and Decent Sampler has rebuilt my love of music. I played a brass instrument in HS, but never learned piano or composition. Now I just make music for myself, and for little games and other stuff. I composed a short instrumental piece for the background of a thank you speech I shared with my wife on our 10 year anniversary. It's not a lot, but I've found a way to enjoy music making again, and you're a significant part of that. Thanks man! I'll check out the mandolin samples. Your stuff is always great!
So great to hear :)
How have you learned to compose?
Please share your music! There’s an audience that would love to hear it.
That same terrible noise happened fender Stratocaster when I was trying to take off the neck, the neck cavity completely split but since has been repaired, I’m happy to see that you take old, neglected instruments and repair them. I try to do the same thing. With my guitars and such.
im glad you were able to repair it! such a beautiful guitar, woupd have been such a waste if you had just thrown it away
im really glad you decided to repair it! such a beautiful guitar, would have been a huge shame for one to go to waste
Woah you bought a mandolin - No strings attached?
🤔
nice one lol
My grandfather had one of these, also had a banjo mandolin. Remember him playing songs from the early 1900s.
Here in Brazil we have another shape of mandolin (we call it bandolim), that have a flat back and a round shape, it was popularized here by Jacob do Bandolim, a great instrumentalist and composer, if someone have any interest check it out, it's pretty amazing and beutiful sounding.
A couple months ago I decided to start trying to build my own sample library instruments, and I've grown somewhat addicted! Thank you for the amazing gift of Decent Sampler! I think you have impacted far more musicians than you could know - the beauty and joy of using your own sounds and records of your own performances to make a sampled instrument is just so exciting!
I've just downloaded the sampler and can play the samples.....but how do I record what I'm playing in my DAW?
If you ever have to fix another instrument that requires you to clamp a weird shaped body, you should look into getting some strap clamps. They're designed for weird and round shapes!
Bro has the PERFECT voiceover voice. I could listen to it for ages.
Today, there is a variety of Hide Glue that comes in a squeeze bottle. and sets relatively slowly compared to normal hide glue....please use the right archival glue for the job. Hide glue allows for later disassembly of the instrument for future repairs. Elmers wood glue does not easily allow future repair. Old instruments, made from woods seldom available today, will sound better, and are better respected with repairs made as any luthier would. Elmers type of glues are used today on cheaply made disposable instruments.... RJS
Building from scratch and repairing an instrument are two different things. The gourd back on this is the most difficult to construct. Boiling and bending the wood, then gluing, takes a lifetime to master. I like your efforts. Clamping is an art. Inner tube is an old trick. So is using black crayons to seal inlays is another. You need to match hundred year old woods also. Constantine’s in the Bronx was go to place for old timber. Only on line now, I think. Metropolitan Music Company was out of New York, with guys working there for fifty years and not speak English or cared to learn. I was a goofer. I would “ go for “ coffee and danish and learned vast amounts from these fellows. I’m sorry to say, your repairs won’t hold long and tuning to other instruments will be problematic. That spruce top, at that age will conduct sounds hundreds of times faster than through the air. Worth the save, for sure. Brother at Rosa Strings Company is the go to man for this kind work repair. Real genius. I think he’s still around. Just put out mandolin for sale, I think. Crazy glue and baking soda better glue than what you used. Hide glue for construction from scratch. We lost Mandolin Brothers on Staten Island, which was tragic. Every rocker in the world went there in its hay day. I think Keith Richards even lived out there for a while. George Harrison brought all his acoustic guitars there. Matt Umanov was in the Village, too. He could repair holes and broken necks, etc .
I don't have a single note of talent in music inside of me but I love your videos and the feelings I get every single time I finish watching. I just enjoy listening to different kinds of music and am very grateful I can hear such rich and beautiful sounds.
Try learning an instrument, I have been playing for a bit and I had absolutely no talent.
You should try learning an instrument, I have been playing for a bit, and I have no talent.
Music is like any other skill, competency comes with study and practice.
Like the person above, I would recommend learning an instrument - you can get a guitar pretty cheap second-hand, and you can find tons of resources to teach yourself how to play online.
If that’s not an option, there are a lot of free apps that let you create music, and some of them can even help you learn to play, sort of.
Flat is a good example. It’s an app on iPhone(idk if it’s on Android, but I imagine it must be) It’s meant for creating scores/tabs, but it has MIDI playback, and it has a visualization of whatever instrument you’re writing for; the sound quality isn’t great, but you could pretty effectively use it to teach yourself to play an instrument - minus the actual physical skill, but you could develop a similar level of understanding about a given instrument as someone who’s played it for years, which would go a LONG way if you ever decided to learn to play the instrument for real - it would be a lot more like riding a bike for the first time in 10 years, compared to the first time riding a bike ever.
If you used it in conjunction with online lessons, I mean, using the app to “play” along with online lessons/instructions, so to speak.
If you want to learn to play music, you absolutely can. Don’t let self-doubt stop you, it’s not about talent, it’s about dedication.
I picked up a 1910's bowlback Mandolin on eBay several months ago for around $50, in non-working condition. The body had a big crack down the back, it had no strings, and missing tuners. I decided to make a strong glue using find sawdust from my electric sander mixed with superglue. The resulting product was a fully playable, stable instrument that I still love immensely. I've been meaning to pick up another one of these, since I find these instrument so fascinating. A tied a shoelace around the bridge and headstock to fashion a strap. The strap can also be turned upside-down to wear the instrument on your back. Thank you for showing care for these unique instruments, good work!
Use hide glue instead of other types. hide glue, if needed, can be softened and be removed later if needed the new hide glue can be re-applied. With other types of glue it is permanent.
I guess it doesn’t matter with this one and you doubtless already know this but; I know at least for other instruments you tend to use hide based glues because they’re easier to remove if you need to do other repairs or modifications later. PVA etc. ends up being stronger than the wood so it will cause more damage to the structure of the instrument if you try to remove it.
Glad you said something. I play string bass.
Thank you for the amazing Decent Sampler! It has become such a versatile plugin, I make whole pieces of music using nothing but many instances of various DS instruments.
A little care, a lot of glue, a bit of clamping ingenuity and dollops uncommon generosity have given us all the delightful sounds of this instrument. David always makes me feel the best way to be grateful is to be creative.
I love that you gave that old instrument new life. I’m not a musician, but I love musical instruments, and, of course, music. I’ll be watching what you’re up to. 😊
Neapolitan style mandos need EXTREMELY low tension even when they're new and whole, let alone old and cracked. If the strings hurt your hands, they're too thick and/or high (probably because the neck has tilted forward at the joint, which happens a lot more with bowl backs due to the back being less rigid).
Also, wood glue and glue in general only works by clamping together the seam perfectly after applying the glue. Only epoxy can truly "fill" on its own and it's still not very strong.
Seeing you revive old instruments and integrate them into modern music production fills me with joy every single time. Amazing work, as always!
Seeing you bring one of these thrift shop instrument back from oblivion is like watching one of those nature films where the baby animal gets rescued and is cared for by someone very lovingly but without really understanding what the implications of that might be.
I'm so glad this had a pay off for you and decent sampler users.
I already thought the sampled sounds were way richer than the voice of any mandolin I'd heard but when your Omnichord technique is applied it becomes a powerhouse of sound design. A tremendous achievement from such a tragic beginning.
You're doing some beautiful work rescuing neglected instruments and building enchanting Sample Libraries from them. Thanks
Great video. I won't be pedantic about resins vs hide glue but some of the suggestions here in the comments section are valid. Always clean all the surfaces thoroughly of all residue after dismantling. Many heavy rubber bands should be strapped around the mandolin multiple times over after you reassembled the top. This should remain in place for a day or two at least.
No way! I just purchased an 1895 Napoli mandolin myself and had to do very similar repairs around the same time this video was uploaded! I’ve never considered mandolin before I’m a guitar player but I saw the poor thing on marketplace and decided to give it the TLC it deserves. Now it’s repaired I’ve been learning basic chords which lead me here to watch you do the same thing! ❤️
I own a greek bouzouki since a few weeks. It’s like a huge mandolin, it has 8 strings and sounds like the mandolin, but then almost as big as a guitar. Really reccomending it for guitar players that struggle playing such a small instrument.
Thank you for this video it’s so so cool!
I think this is the fastest I have gotten to a video on TH-cam ever! I got here 55 seconds after the video was posted. I really love your videos!!!😊
Love the mix of "here's how i found it", "here's how I repaired it" and "here's how I sampled it" in your vids! The killer free samples are kinda nice, too ;-)
I’ve had the thought that I need to compose a song entirely from DS instruments.
Just FYI David, the ‘lid’ is called the top, and the ‘support beams’ are called braces - both the same as in acoustic guitars.
lol. I don't think he knows much about instruments.
"Tragic chorus effect." Another great video! But I'm still hung up on the Sears catalog from near the beginning… it looks like the same one I have that used to belong to my grandma, a 1968 reproduction of the 1902 catalog.
Yes, that's the exact one I have!
One of my favorite things in life- as an experienced player, and luthier - is taking an old, well used/abused instrument home, doing a little work on it, and giving it some playtime - just to let it know that it's loved, and still alive. We should treat our people that way as well!
That old catalog is gorgeous! 😍 Oh, and the instrument too!
I love how much your content makes me comfy. I love your tunes!
Something about your videos just feels really nice and nostalgic
I just listen! I’m not a musician, but I know what I like and I love this! It’s amazing what you can do with music. It’s so varied, determined only by the musician, him/herself!
Really interesting vid. You clearly have much better second hand shops than me, wish i found more instruments in my usual wanderings. Great to see them get a new life.
Highly recommend investigating using hide glue for instrument gluing. It is what luthiers use and If things go wrong it can be steamed apart at a later date. You can actually make it out of gelatine powder (like you get in the baking section of super markets) if you cant buy the stuff.
If you aren't already, detuning the strings on a mandolin when your not using it for a while is a really good plan, especially on a bowlback, as it reduces the massive tension the neck is under. Particularly important if your mandolin has had any kind of restoration.
It feels so special to restore some old piece of forgotten junk. I got one of those old entertainment sets with a record player and AM/FM radio in a huge coffee table sized speaker housing at a yard sale that was just beat to shit, and every night I'd work on it a little bit with youtube pulled up trying to find a tutorial for something similar. After it was in working order, we sat and listened to the radio and our records WAY more than we ever would have otherwise, because it was a rescue.
Amazing work, I’m literally amazed by your skills! Thanks for your contributions to the music production and music tech community!
This is phenomenal! I love people restoring instruments which would otherwise be thrown away or used as a dust collector. I am no means a luthier (rough carpenter), a good way to get glue all the way through some cracks when I'm working with thin delicate wood is I put the glue down and vacuum it from the other side to fill the void, hope this helps, it's helped me in the past, keep up the fantastic work!
Omnichord!?! How did I miss that one!?! As a mando player I gotta say, this is badass. Nice work!!!!
This is why I absolutely love antique stores. If you do enough research the value of pretty much everything in those places will skyrocket. Its always the story that sells.
Thank you David. Appreciate the work you do!
I love restoring old string instruments and playing them. Even if I don't know how to play it, I will restore it and learn it. I recently picked up a 60-year-old Sitar (which I already learned how to play) and a mandolin very much like the example.
Impressive choreography and it’s sounding pretty cool! I love the realness of moments like trying to figure out where to put the stick for a part change
This felt wonderful and soothing to watch, reminded me of watching Mr Rogers.
I picked up a beat up old guitar for £20 in a book shop a couple years back, I took it home, fixed it up and it sounds beautiful. It turned out that other guitars of the same maker have been sold at auction for a few thousand each. Nothing crazy, but very nice for £20 and some love.
Thanks so much. Your work inspires me to spend the time putting my ideas together in a DAW.
David, you always make the best music content on the platform. Keep it up.
Good work on restoring your mandolin AND making the digital sampler for everyone .
I can't thank you enough for making Decent Sampler available on Linux.
Awesome, I had to repair an old swap meet mandolin (I broke it like in half) thats now my every day player i've earned money with. Now i need to learn how to computer.
Experiencing new things while creating things, amazing! Those kind arp with tremolo, what a discovery!
Decent sampler is great. It's re-invigorated and extended the capabilities of soundfonts in an easier to develop format. And this mandolin pack is very nice. I'm sure I'm going to be using it soon. And I'm going to have to look at what you've added to the format since I last made my own instrument with it.
I would recommend extra-light strings for this type of mandolin.
Sitting with a massive grin on my face playing chords in the omnichord and mandolin sample packs. OK, maybe there are tears pending too thanks to how lovely these sound. Thank you David!
I'm a new sub to this channel but as an audio engineer & a mixer I must admit its really awesome that a part of what you do is create indie produced sample libraries & free vsts .. respect!! ✌️✌️
I found using bicycle inner tubes cut in strips to do glue ups on irregular shape works the best, you just tuck the starting point under itself and stretch to "clamp" and tuck the end it under itself again to hold the pressure.
the tremolo stuff is so hypnotising! amazing work as usual
I'm excited to try the slow strumming on chords. thanks for all the hard work you put into your sample libraries!!!
Man i'm so amazed that passionate people like you are doing those kind of stuff !! It will be a huge help for me to compose my videogame's music !
I love the music and soundboards you always choose for your music. It sounds like the Portal 3 we never got.
There's something that's always so relaxing about these videos. I love it.
In a world filled, it sometimes seems with war, hate and inhumanity, your videos are such a tonic for the innocent heart. 🙏❤️☯️
David, I love your videos, attention to detail, and love of the process. My band is in the final stages of cutting a new album so I'm not allowing myself to be in "song writing mode" right now (mostly because I'll get too distracted and never finish the LP, haha), but I can't wait to play with your libraries after we get this vinyl pressed. Keep doing what you're doing, it's great stuff! Love it!!
I downloaded and installed this yesterday...
Am really glad and thank god for coming across this.
The mandolin sound is so well sampled. Short of words to praise.
To me it sounded more like Afghanistan's 'rabab' that has strings made out of goat gut in yesteryears...nowadays they use synthetic material strings.
The sound of this .vst3 is so realistic to give a joy for sure. Hats off...
Glad for installing it.
I use Ableton 10 Intro under Windows 10.
Briliant video, love what youre doing with restoring instruments and bringing them to the masses
I absolutely enjoy your work , when I see a new instruments of yours I already know they are high quality. My best congratulations!
2:12 Bro got that RDR2 Guns catalog 💀💀💀💀 😂
I have limited luthier skills but have been entrusted with a similar bowl-back mandolin to see if I can resurrect it. This video was really helpful, as are the comments and tips from fellow viewers. One tip I’d like to add is to use rubber tubing wound sufficiently tight - seems to work a treat for such awkward clamping jobs … ask Ted Woodford!
Love your story. My dad had a mandolin when I was young. I didn’t inherit it. I wish I had.
Thanks for sharing your gift.
that tremolo effect is awesome ! Wonderful job !
For future reference when you need to clamp an irregular shape (again). Use a flat strap like webbing around the object then tighten it as if it were a tourniquet. Just don't tighten it too much as you can crush the wood and leave impression of the webbing.
Somthing that i dont think would work here but could be interesting for a future project is wood stablising resin where you soak the wood in it and it hardens all those cracks and air pockets. I think it would work for strengthening the wood and could make for some interesting changes to the tambre.
I love the sound of mandolins, mandolas, and octave mandolins. I got into playing them at my 40-year point, but sort of lost my muscle memory over the years (same with guitars). The two I own are A-styles. This is fantastic.
Thanks for offering these great sounds and options for free. I prefer playing real instruments, but this is as close as you get to the real deal if playing synthesizer.
Btw I'm impressed how quickly and effortlessly you repaired the mandolin. Seemingly carelessly spreading the glue, but smart people don't need to overthink stuff.
The neck and headstock of these instruments are often softwood veneered to appear to be of hardwood. They are often ornate because labour was cheaper than the materials. The soundboard really should have been supported along the cracks by little wood buttons I believe you call cleats in America. It's ok to use modern glue (not superglue) on the cracks and buttons but for gluing the soundbiard to the body hide glue in case you ever need to take it apart again. Unlike the rest of the instrument the soundboard was not usually varnished on these instruments, just occasionally cleaned with a scraper.
Please take a string repair class. Wood glue is not reversible .
Big Rubber Bands are used (Bungie is fine) to help keep the tops of guitars in place when being repaired by Luthiers.
You're usually better off spreading glue across both sides of a joint when using wood glue before pressing them together.
Also a bag of sand (or rice in a pinch) with a weight on top of it is really good for applying pressure to the glue of odd shaped things.
Your content is soo beautiful and therapeutic, brings me soo much joy
Great video..when you took the top off and I saw the Stella label I new you had struck gold with this find...Stella is highly collectable and cool..
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David, I don't know if you know this or not, but your videos are incredibly (and weirdly) relaxing and therapeutic.
its always a joy when you upload a new video.
I admire your restoration. Using hide glue to reattach the top to the body instead of wood glue is recommended by most luthiers.
Yesterday I watched The Last Repair Shop.....today this lovely video! Thank you.
Another great episode of Dave's adventures -- love it! Thank you.
May I offer a bit of advice on using wood glue for best results? Nothing far from what you are doing, but you can get a lot more strength from an edit to your approach. First, apply the glue to the bond area, then ensure total coverage of the patch with a brush (old toothbrush or cotton swabs work too); set aside. Do the same to the opposite surface, and set that aside for 3-5 minutes; this waiting time allows the adhesive to set a bit, and will really latch on to the opposite surface when you place and clamp. Clean squeeze-out with a rag dampened with warm water -- it will remove all glue quickly. Note that glue will not fill gaps or holes -- shims (even toothpicks or popsicle sticks) glued and trimmed to shape work well; sawdust mixed with glue can fill holes but won't be as strong.
Tx again for the video!
Great video! As a 90’s kid, first stop with a Mandolin would be a Losing My Religion cover
I debated trying to learn that! :)
I have this same style of mandolin with almost the exact same back story. It was still playable when I bought it, and it has since been featured on a number of my recordings.
You would've loved this pawn shop I used to go to in New Orleans, I got a mando sort of like this (1930s made in Istanbul) for $40, a 50 year old Kay mando for $25, a balalaika for $29, a sanxian with rosewood frame and Burmese python heads for $50, a yueqin for $40, a rosewood lyre harp for $40, a Baby Taylor with hard case for $100, (all of these in good shape except the Kay and sanxian which I had to fix up), plus alot more stuff too. The pawn shop changed ownership and I never saw a good deal again.
The beat is LEGENDARY!
I’ve got a mandoline almost like this. It’s VERY old, but in really good shape. My wife bought it for me from an antique mall. I’m afraid to tune it and put tension on it.
Just looked at mine and there’s no label in it.
I would have used surgical tubing for clamping the top on. It works great!
I could have gotten a beautiful round backed mandolin for $26.00 in Mexico when I was in 8th grade. My dad was in a hurry and I had the flu so I couldn’t make a decision quick enough. I have regretted not buying it my whole life. I wish I could find one like yours. I ended up sticking with woodwinds and keyboards but finally bought an Eastman mandolin a couple of years ago but its not a bowlback. I want one like yours super bad. Thanks for the great video!
"It was never a high quality instrument"
Proceeds to survive for 100yrs
Love it and those rectangular violins behind you
4:14 Clamping odd shapes - you need a pattern maker's vise. It is not the perfick solution , but it dose allow a whole range of odd clamping. Wood By Wright: just put one on his bench build - check it out. First visit like your story.
Really appreciate all your hard work David, thank you so much!
Why Is Your Voice So Calming And Soothing
Thanks for all the great quality stuff you keep delivering. You're amazing!
That chord progression with the mandolin sounds super close to a Boards of Canada song!
First video of yours that I’m watching. Super entertaining!
This vid is so hypnotic.
Getting major Cocteau Twins sound around 8 mins. So beautiful. You’re a genius