1930s German-made Windmill-Scene Flatback Mandolin

While this could be a little later than the '30s, I expect it's an early-'30s instrument. I'm also pretty sure it's German in origin, but this same style was made in France and Italy as well, so it's a little hard to be 100% on that. If you know better than me, please weigh-in.

My buddy Rick has been hot on getting this one fixed-up proper and a K&K pickup thrown in it. It had some issues -- a warped neck, too-low bridge, and missing inlay in that pickguard scene.

Now that it's fixed, I'm surprised at how well it projects, to be honest. It has a short 13" scale length and really light (32w-9) strings on it, but yet it's darn loud and has a good, clean drive to it and excellent sustain. The tuners are a little fussy, but he's going to have to deal with that for now as they're odd, European-spacing machines.

Repairs included: a board plane and refret with medium stock, new bone nut, fit/compensation of a vintage ebony bridge to replace a bad original, K&K pickup install, side dots install, setup, and replacement inlay for the pickguard. For that last bit I added green-stained oak to be "grass" and replaced the missing windmill sails with the pearl that would've been there to begin-with.

Setup notes: the neck is straight and action is spot-on at 1/16" at the 12th fret, strung with a GHS A240 set -- 32w to 9 gauges.

Scale length: 13"

Nut width: 1 1/16"

String spacing at nut: 15/16"

String spacing at bridge: 1 1/2"

Body length: 12"

Top width: 10 1/4"

Side depth: 2 5/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid flamed maple

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: unsure, looks like cherry but...?

Bridge: ebony vintage, comp'd

Neck feel: medium C/V, flat board

Condition notes: it's mostly-original, but has a replacement (period) bridge, new nut, new frets, and replacement inlay at the pickguard. I see no cracks and while the finish is mucked-up from use and storage abuse, structurally the whole thing is in great shape.