F5 mandolin Revoicing before and after by Ron Stewart

Today I'm showing you a before and after revoicing of a late 70's Aria solid wood F5 style mandolin. Also showing the mandolin inside after I have taken it apart to explain why a vast amount of mandolins from the 40s to today sound thin and have no body to their tone.
DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF! This should only be done by an experienced Luthier or repairman that has done this many times before! If you do have an F5 solid wood mandolin that sounds bad or not how you like, contact me! I'll be glad to quote you a price. Also any instrument repair/set up/ revoice/neck set/Martin guitar brace scalloping/neck sets etc. I work on all acoustic instruments.
ron.stewart....

[@waynesworldofmandolin3616]

Excellent job Ron! It's amazing how much potential you've discovered in those instruments that many of us "wrote off" years ago. That will make someone a crackerjack F5....

[@ronfonzerelli]

Thanks so much! I appreciate the kind words! There's definitely good in them but they weren't graduated correctly. Not unlike Gibson after late 30's. I've revoiced fiddles for years and Martin straight braces guitars (scalloping the braces). Thank you again for the kind words.

[@ronfonzerelli]

And sorry, just checked your channel! Hope you are doing well! I hope to have one you can play sometime. I just finished an Epiphone MM-70 from 1980 a client sent me, one of the vintage reissue Epiphone, vintage finish color etc, and it was a monster after revoicing.

[@redlinemando]

@@ronfonzerelli I recently played an 80's Epiphone mandolins that came to you from my area in London, KY. I played it before & after you re-voiced it & gave it a proper set up. In the before, the tone was nasal & brittle, but it had decent volume. In the after.......the tone was deep, VERY open & balanced with equally good volume all the way down the neck & across all 8 strings!!!!!!! It also has a nice "CHUNK" to the chop chords, all the way to the body!!!!!!! I've been hearing it & playing it about once a week ever since you worked on it & I'll tell ya straight like it is.....................the mandolin just keeps getting better!!!!!!! I would rather play it 10 to 1 over the expensive mandolins that are in this area!!!!!!! Excellent work & you'd never know that the back had ever been taken off!!!!!!!

[@tychormthorp]

Great video! Learned a ton about mandolin anatomy, thanks for sharing! A note, might crank the volume down on the sound effects a little, it was very distracting from the real meat of the video.

[@FreeSpeech101-pb3lg]

These sound effects ruin this otherwise informative video. Annoying to the extreme.

[@tommurray8987]

Loved the video. You are one of my favorite pickers.

[@jefftrask8651]

Wow!!! Theres an unbelievable difference. Nice work man.

[@bobbyhathorn8847]

Thanks for sharing this, Ron! It's amazing how much know-how can improve even a cheap instrument.

[@RedAkumaSan]

Great job, Ron! I'll let my bluegrass friends in the Pac NW know about it. I had Blue Bell and Aria mandolins back in the 70s. You're right about them needing work to sound good. I'm real happy now with my mandolin built by Everett Kettler in 1985.

[@ronfonzerelli]

Thanks so much W

[@bradzabelski]

Love this....I have an old Epiphone MM70 and after a brief conversation with Ron just now on Facebook I can't wait to get this done!!

[@ronfonzerelli]

Thanks so much and I know you will be glad you got it done!

[@RandySchartiger]

hey Ron didn't know you even did this kind of stuff! I've admired your banjo skills for years especially since I've gotten back into the banjer 1 year and half ago after a 30+ year lay off because f focal dystonia and RA. been inside a bunch of guitars doing similar work and you are 110% right it's not for the faint hearted! lol rock on brother and keep pickin!

[@ivanbower6814]

Thank you for this. It really is noticably better with your fixes. I've had a jethro washburn for some time now that I've always had mixed emotions about. This video complicates my opinions about the washburn.

[@ronfonzerelli]

If you decide to get it sounding better, get hold of me through Facebook. It will improve it a whole bunch.

[@PeeksPeakHobbyHomestead]

Ron, this is a great video all the way around. I found it really cool to hear how/why your revoicing works. I kinda want that mandolin really bad.

[@ronfonzerelli]

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. The mandolin is for sale. You can message me on Facebook if interested in purchasing it. Search for Ron Stewart.

[@bennyblanko3]

Thanks for sharing, and being pretty specific about what you were doing. You did a nice clean job, and it sounds great now! I wish you showed the actual back with everything carved and scrapped, and also the top before and after voicing, and then the tone bar install and thicknessing. But, you still inspired me a bit ... I've done a few of crappy fiddles, and they turned out great. I don't have any cheap mandos to mess with though (I have a nice flatiron f, and a decent old eastman A style with soundhole, not f's - not taking either of those apart as they sound really good). But, maybe if I come across a heavy Japanese mando for cheap.

[@bryancozort2068]

There's a feller in my parts with a '79 Epiphone MM70 that has to be the deadest sounding mando I've ever heard. He's played it over 30 years so you could say it's his signature sound.

[@ronfonzerelli]

I just did an MM-70 for a client about 3 weeks ago. It was an absolute monster mandolin after revoicing.

[@Life-of-Bluegrass_Music]

What did you sand off the inside of the top?. Besides the tone bars. The top is where all your movement and sound is created. The bars and top thickness is the most important. Top thickness is more important then back.

[@nonzer0value]

Hey this was cool and interesting. I didn't know this was a thing. However I did find the extra sound effects very distracting. But I still learned something so thanks. :)

[@turrafirmaguitarchannel]

Au contraire, the side effects take this video to the next level.

[@BenAdam-om2hr]

Bostin! What a difference! Bravo!

[@wsearp]

Sounds great to me....

[@kevineaster9006]

What would it cost me to have you do that to my M-900?

[@ronfonzerelli]

Hi Kevin, Can you message me on Facebook Messenger please? I'm happy to give you a price. It will make it a monster and worth every penny. Ron Stewart on Facebook

[@greavous93]

too bad you bothered to make this video to show how you fix up a lame mandolin but didnt bother to show any of the process. The back of mine doest magically pop off and did you make new or modify the existing bracing? We will never know. But you did do a great job of wasting my time with the monkey beating a log with a branch. That was great! Maybe next time you can cut the lawn for half the video. You play well.

[@v2807]

Uh…it’s basically an advertisement of what he can do for customers. It isn’t a do it yourself lesson! 🤣