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Repairs |
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Famous Old Time Music Company has in-house repair and restoration facilities that can handle anything from a simple string change to minor glue repairs to the complete rebuilding of a severely damaged instrument. Storeowner, Vernon McIntyre heads up the repair department. He is the guy who assesses what is needed and how much it will cost and which of the repair staff will actually perform the repair. |
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If you have a tenor and want to convert to a five-string or for
that matter vice-versa, he can do it.
He can convert a banjo uke into a small five string for a kid. He
can swap out the tone ring or install the capo nails banjo players need
for the 5th string. Henry
Kruse is the guy for major repairs that might require finish work or
other complex techniques. Henry
is one of the best. Terry
Stedding is doing more and more of the guitar repair and Dave Seagram
specializes in mandolin repair. Weather can drastically
affect a wooden instrument. Winter’s
cold, dry air can cause cracks; when small, repair of these cracks is a
relatively simple matter. Oftentimes,
simply injecting glue into the crack and clamping overnight will solve
the problem. If left unattended, however, they can grow into difficult
repair problems. In the
worst case, a crack can cause the braces inside the instrument to come
unglued; the whole structure of the instrument is then impaired. As glue ages it becomes dry and brittle. Old fiddles often need to be re-glued before they are playable, especially if they have been stored in an attic. A fiddle was once brought into the shop in splinters. The pieces were in a cake box that still had frosting in it! Vernon glued on that thing for weeks. A mouse had made a nest at one time inside the instrument and had gnawed the ‘f’ holes until they were ‘o’ holes. When the instrument was finally re-assembled and strung up, it was dismally ugly. When I drew a bow across it, though, it was one of the best sounding bluegrass fiddles I ever heard. |
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