SRSLY, if I paid $12,500 for a Mandolin, I don't know if I would play it...would You?
www.mandolincentral.com/rwproto.html
www.mandolincentral.com/rwproto.html
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California
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Wed, March 29, 2006 - 6:01 PMI think mandolins are the single-most consistently overpriced things I know of (except maybe Greek bouzoukis). -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Fri, March 31, 2006 - 6:46 AMI agree about bouzoukis (the Greek ones, that is, not the Irish ones)! Especially given the shoddy design and workmanship of so many of them. Sure, they have the fancy pickguards and the sweet inlays ... but often NO binding and NO truss rods. A few years later, the neck is warped and the glued tops and staves are pulling apart!
Back to the original point ... a $12,000 mandolin (12 grando mando?) is insane. I'm sure it's a GREAT instrument and all that, but ... is it 12 times better than a $1000 mandolin? 120 times better than a $100 mandolin? No wonder people in other countries hate us. Especially the mandolin players, ha ha.
I've been blown away by the prices of some high-end octave mandos and mandolas, too. They're not like guitars, where you can spend anywhere from $90 to $9000, with an infinite spectrum of options in between. Octave mandos come in JUNK ($100 from Lark in the Morning), INTERMEDIATE ($500), HIGH-END ($1000) and CUSTOM-MADE (you don't want to know!). There's really nothing in between, say, JUNK and INTERMEDIATE, or in between INTERMEDIATE and HIGH-END. I would LOVE to someday move up from my $500 Trinity College octave mando, but ... not on my salary.
Just thinking of playing the 12 grando mando makes me shudder. You wouldn't want to wear a shirt with buttons, or a belt with a metal buckle, or rings on your fingers ... I wouldn't even dare take it out on the porch to play! What if a ray of sunshine falls on it or the temperature sudddenly changes by a couple degrees?!? No thanks, my life is complex enough as it is ... -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Fri, March 31, 2006 - 8:57 AMFreshwater mandolins (and bouzoukis, mandolas, etc.) seem to be a nice exception to the rule regarding pricing of these instruements. I recently purchased a new mandocello from him for a reasonable price, with the cost only going over $1,000 because of the extras (hard case, piezo pickups, shipping from Scotland to Texas, insurance, extra strings). One nice thing is that, for no additional charge, he threw in a seperate nut and bridge, with matching string set, to turn the whole thing into a 10-string bouzouki (cittern?) if I ever wanted to.....since evidently the current nut/bridge are held down by string pressure alone. The downside is.....no truss rod, but the neck is very sturdy and my long-time repairman says "it don't look like it's going anywhere any time soon."
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Tue, August 22, 2006 - 7:35 PMI don't mind playing or owning a really nice mandolin -- but these days the thought of trying to carry one on an airplane is really a scary one.
Dave -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Tue, August 22, 2006 - 9:09 PMWny do you specifically say an airplane? The pressure? The temperature? The banging around in the overhead luggage compartment? The possibility that some ham-fisted security guard at Logan is going to take it apart, piece by piece, to make sure that there's no plastic explosive or shampoo inside? Just wondering.
I just came back from Turkey and successfully carted around a baglama saz (long-necked lute) through three flights and all the accompanying xrays, conveyor belts and security checks. My only close-call involved a German tourist on the flight home who kept pounding her daypack into its (unpadded) softcase. Anybody with half a #$%&-ing brain could have looked at that thing and seen that it was a musical instrument! But not her ... -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Tue, August 22, 2006 - 9:49 PMHaving to check it because of carry-on limitations. I usually carry on a fiddle and a mando, and have been increasingly harrassed by the airlines (especially Delta) to check one of them.
Dave -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Wed, August 23, 2006 - 5:15 AMThe stupid thing is, they probably wouldn't say a thing if you put both cases in the same box or duffel bag. On my last few flights, Alitalia definitely wasn't adhering to their own size limits for carry-ons ... people were lugging all kinds of bulky stuff up into the cabin ... Fiat engine blocks, bandoneons, genetically engineered pygmy elephants ... Seriously, though, on one flight, the flight attendant offered to stow my saz in a larger compartment (one reserved for flight crews, I think) 'cos she was afraid that it would be knocked around otherwise. -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Wed, August 23, 2006 - 9:12 PMProbably not. On the other hand, if they did, I'd wind up having to check my fiddle in a non-flight case.
I've been flying with multiple instruments for many years, but the airlines are edgy right now...
Best,
Dave
www.reinerfamilyband.com
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Fri, April 7, 2006 - 7:57 PMIf you buy it , I will gladly play it. I have 14 mandolin family instruments. From 1909 F4 Gibson to a 2001 $200 Kentucky km 140. There are places that I won't take the the F4 . I will no longer bring the F4 to Gettysburg Pa., I play my 1967 A 50 there ,it's too hot and humid there in July and August. If you are in upstate NY near Vermont border I have large PIckin Party Sept. 7,8,9,10. . I do the same in Pahoa Hawaii in Feburary , the $200 Kentucky does the flying thing. -
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Re: The price of a good mandolin
Wed, October 4, 2006 - 4:39 PMI have a 700 dollar Michael Kelly and I am very happy with it. I take it on the plane in it's box and I play it everywhere. I don't know what a more expensive mando, (12 grando mando) would do for me and my sound. It would just make me paranoid about playing it, let alone traveling with it.
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