Rex Professional Mandolin

This beautiful lute-style mandolin has been in my family since the 1930's. From the wear on the ebony ingerboard, it looks as if my grandfather used it a lot. Around 25 or 30 years of its life was in hibernation in my grandmother's closet, attic, or basement. I inherited this in the mid 1980's.

When I got it, the first thing I noticed was the moisture or humidity damage. The top had dry rot around the sound hole. Having come from Baker City, in North-eastern Oregon, which is a dry high-desert region, I get the feeling this was kept in a basement. My grandmother's basement was a little damp and also had the laundry area and hot water heater. The tuning gears were very rusty, and the inlayed pickguard was peeling off.

Even though there was quite a bit of cupping between the frets, I didn't restore the fingerboard. I wanted to keep the instrument as original as possible. I cleaned off the dry rot by sanding down a little and treating the bare wood with a weak bleach solution. Fortunately, the top was pretty thick to begin with, so thinning it down didn't hurt--in fact, it probably helped the sound.

I carefully removed the rest of the peeling pickguard, and used a Dremel tool with a fine bit to clean out and deepen the inlay (which it needed after thinning the top my sanding). I had to do the intricate parts of the inlay by hand using small carving tools. I coated the sanded top with several coats of tung oil. After drying, I waxed the whole instrument.

For the tuning gears, I took them apart and soaked the metal parts in a small tin of gasoline for a day. After washing them in dish soap I wire-brushed them until the metal shined again, then coated the parts with a light spray of silicone.

Once I put it all together and strung it up with new strings, I was amazed at the beautiful tone this "inexpensive" instrument has.

Note: Rex mandolins and banjos were budget instruments made by the Gretsch Company. For more info on Rex, go to the American Instrument Info page.