his is the 4th one of these mandolins I have restored and have found this model of mandolin to be, without exception, very nice instruments that play well and sound very good.  I’ve also pretty much got the restoration of these down pat. This one has a solid birch top, back, and sides and the sound definitely reflects that clear bight tonewood.  It  also has a poplar neck, original tuners and bridge and the ever popular white “Mother of Toilet Seat” covering on the headstock, fingerboard and pickguard.  It’s finished in black with a colorful “Serenader” decal. It’s a visually striking instrument.
 
This came with the neck loose, the top with multiple, severe splits, lose braces (every one!) and a back that was beginning to pop loose.  I re-humidified the instrument and was able to see that I would be able to close the splits. The previous owner had damaged the top when he steamed off the neck. These mandolins are easily repaired by removing the back and since this was already showing signs of the back separating, I removed the back and began re-gluing the braces.  Many were split, all were loose, but I was able to repair and re-use them all using hot hide glue.  I re-enforced the top beneath the fingerboard extension as I have come to do with this model.  They always fail there, but re-enforcing the area with a spruce plate stabilizes the top and makes them playable again. I also added popsicle braces on each side of the sound hot to re-enforce that area as well.
 
I re-set the neck angle re-glued the neck, again hot hide glue, the worked on the set up.
The original bridge had been lowered to make the action playable and it needed to be shimmed and fitted to to the top for maximum contact.
 
The completed mandolin has the clear, bright, articulate sound you’d expect from a birch mandolin.  It plays in tune with no buzzes anywhere up the neck.