The Doc Is In and She’ll Fix You Up

Here’s a little peek inside the doctor’s office, “Brooklyn Lutherie”.   I was there this weekend to pick up Doyle’s mandolin, that I had broken when I infamously knocked it on Steve’s floor, breaking the pickguard.   In the process, I learned that:

• The owner of the shop,  Mamie Minch, wrote the Huffbunny favorite: Border Radio.
• Doyle’s mandolin was identified as a Martin 2-15, and made between the years of 1928 and 1937, thirty years older than originally diagnosed.  Apparently an early experimental plastic was used in their construction, which over decades tends to off-gas, corrode metal and become very brittle.  Guilt-wise, that’s making me feel simultaneously worse and better at the same time.
• When a wooden instrument needs humidification, you can place a damp sponge in a ziplock bag with a few holes poked in it, and leave it in the case with the instrument.
• There a few things in this world cooler than a 20-something Brooklynite drilling right into an antique guitar with all the confidence of a pit crew mechanic and precision of a brain surgeon.