This $13 thrift store mandolin sounds gorgeous as a FREE sample library

[RobinPalmerTV]

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!

[evanlane]

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!

[addisonshinedown]

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.

[ronaldvantine]

My grandfather had one of these, also had a banjo mandolin. Remember him playing songs from the early 1900s.

[bricelory]

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!

[High_action]

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.

[elizeitlin]

Bro has the PERFECT voiceover voice. I could listen to it for ages.

[JasonDWebbMusic]

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! ❤️

[virgomunoz]

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!

[jrange]

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.

[martifingers]

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.

[wildmonkeymind]

Seeing you revive old instruments and integrate them into modern music production fills me with joy every single time. Amazing work, as always!

[andycordy]

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.

[lucas]

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.

[Somestuffstudios]

I think this is the fastest I have gotten to a video on YouTube ever! I got here 55 seconds after the video was posted. I really love your videos!!!😊

[amusicment]

Really inspiring…I’ve got my great grandfather’s circa 1899 mandolin hanging on the studio wall… gonna try it amplified, have some fun. Thank you! 😊

[katfishkobain]

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 .

[schance]

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 ;-)

[fbales]

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. 😊

[room]

"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.