Before refinish

Here's a pic of what it looked like when I got it. I was also told that this mandolin spent a little time as a planter.

Refinish of 1912 Gibson f2

Here are a few shots of a repair I just finished. This mandolin was given to me with a thick ugly brown finish of several layers. Underneath the brown I found St.Paddy's day green. The goal was to finish the top as a blonde,as it was originally, but with the badly stained spruce I had to go with a sunburst. The mandolin had been refinished by Gibson at some point as a sunburst so I didn't mind going back to that. It sure sounds nice now. Some of you may recognize this bit of bluegrass history from a very famous album cover. It's a trivia question, you'll have to figure it out on your own.