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ecks57 - Posted - 11/11/2011: 22:48:37
hello first post here let me start by saying i know nothing about mandolins. I play the guitar and am a musician for a living but my step mom has had this Mandolin for a long time and said her father had it and gave it to her. i was wondering if anyone could tell any thing about this instrument buy these photos alone? the Mndolin does have a ton of weather checking on the sides and the back but anyway on to the pictures (and there are no markings on it that i can tell)
dmcowles - Posted - 11/12/2011: 07:17:01
Maybe it's just me, but I can't access your pics.
Buttonwood Bob - Posted - 11/12/2011: 08:25:17
When I saw the pictures, I said, "Eeks, Eaks." I wish step-mom could tell us more. Yours and mine look like the came from the same place, however, mine has an upside triangle insert in the headstock. A well-know N.Y. authority said mine was not as old as I was told when I bought it for $20 in a Thrift Shop but it is U.S. made, and at least as old as the 1930's; no numbers or ID inside. I refinished mine, and I often think it is my best sounding mandolin, and I have more than is reasonable to own.
Buttonwood Bob - Posted - 11/12/2011: 08:29:26
I forgot about the bridge placement in the picture(s) above. Before anyone else says, "Eeks" it is replaced and properly placed. What else can you tell Eaks and me?
Ben Venuti - Posted - 11/12/2011: 16:20:17
That mandolin was almost certainly made in Chicago probably in the 1920's. I would say pretty much that is the case with Buttonwood Bob's.as well. It (they) looks very much like mandolins that were distributed by Sears. Many mandolins were manufactured in Chicago for "the trade" meaning they were built to be sold by others, such as catalog companies and possibly even music stores and teachers and were unmarked so that the distributor could label them as they wished. This could have been built by Regal or one of the Kay/Harmony/Kaycraft/Stromberg-Voicenet companies or some unknown and forgotten instrument builders. I don't think either mandolin is of a high enough standard to have been built by Lyon and Healey or Larson. The back and sides appear to be Brazilian but I have seen faux painted versions of mandolins of that type that were done well enough that it took a good hard look to tell. If the inside is the same as the outside it's a good bet it's solid. These can be nice sounding mandolins and fun to play. I would guess the value at under $500 but more than $20!
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Buttonwood Bob - Posted - 11/15/2011: 06:04:17
Ben,
That was $20 back in ~1968 or 9. That would be close to $500 today. :-) So it seems.
Ben Venuti - Posted - 11/15/2011: 14:14:16
Used cars were always $200,never more than 10 years old with under 50,000 miles. I bought 46 acres of land for $2500. I bought a store front building on the lower end of South St in Philly for $8000. Candy bars were 10 cents a loaf of bread was a quarter. A pair of shoes $15 a good pair of shoes $25. The most you could pay for a top of the line new guitar was about $600. You had to pretty much buy a vintage mandolin in those days because somehow Gibson forgot how-- but then they weren't vintage,they were used. You might get a Loar for $200 in the 60's....I wish I had. The bad pay in those days seemed to cover way more than what would be considered good pay today----I don't think your too far off in your estimate. Those Greenspan types have a hokus pocus that says that we're not worse off but if your a working jerk and still have a memory you know they're lying through there teeth!
Charley Wild - Posted - 11/19/2011: 18:06:52
quote:
Originally posted by Ben Venuti
Used cars were always $200,never more than 10 years old with under 50,000 miles. I bought 46 acres of land for $2500. I bought a store front building on the lower end of South St in Philly for $8000. Candy bars were 10 cents a loaf of bread was a quarter. A pair of shoes $15 a good pair of shoes $25. The most you could pay for a top of the line new guitar was about $600. You had to pretty much buy a vintage mandolin in those days because somehow Gibson forgot how-- but then they weren't vintage,they were used. You might get a Loar for $200 in the 60's....I wish I had. The bad pay in those days seemed to cover way more than what would be considered good pay today----I don't think your too far off in your estimate. Those Greenspan types have a hokus pocus that says that we're not worse off but if your a working jerk and still have a memory you know they're lying through there teeth!
Great post! Especially the last sentence! I had a year old car and a two year old motorcycle that were paid for and a $78 a month mortgage and my wife didn't work! I had a used Gibson oval A that I paid $60 for. I have often wondered about that "better off today" stuff also.
Buttonwood Bob - Posted - 11/30/2011: 07:31:15
This nostalgia trip is fun. :-) I guess Ben is the youngster here with his 10 cent candy bars. There were ~no candy bars in my youth or bubble gum. WWII. Later they were a nickel, as were all "cold drinks". RC Cola was the biggest for a nickel; Grapette was the smallest. Pepsi was larger than a coke, too. "12 full oz. that a lot...Twice as much for a nickel, too...Pepsi cola is the drink for you." "Buy a Brock candy bar...Brock is a dandy bar, and a nickel is all you pay...Buy a Brock, today." Nice jingles. Radio ads were often jingles, never more than a minute long. "Dentene chewing gum, Dentene chewing gum...buy Dentene, buy Dentene....Like a toothbrush in your pocket" :-/ I started teaching at $3,600 a year. Married another teacher, and we made $7,200. We were rich. I bought a used MG TD. The next year I enlisted (to avoid the draft). $68 a month. Thereafter, I made $3,650, plus a coaching supplement of $200...Ah, but the finances declined since it was now $3,850 for the year, divided by three, and with an again pregnant wife who couldn't fit under the steering wheel of the MG, no matter how far the seat was pushed back. Still didn't feel poor. ...and furthermore, if my parents' generation could top that and then some.
Ben Venuti - Posted - 11/30/2011: 13:51:48
I of course was a kid and my pay reflected it. My Dad was not ,he was at the top of his game as I should be now, he was a locomotive engineer and never talked about it but I figured out he made about $15 an hour straight time in the late 60's and he had endless amounts of overtime. He had full benefits,no deductible, copay medical garbage plus a full retirement that he collected for 30 years. We were actually really well off. The days of just being a working jerk and getting something for it seem long gone. If you have a boss you need a union. In this tight economy the gas goes up 25%, my electric bill is up 30% from a year ago a loaf of crappy bread was $4.79 the other day --hey they're squeezing us and there is no money left to buy mandolins. I looked at my checking account statement--interest paid this year--55 cents.---55 cents!!, that's through November!!
ecks57 - Posted - 11/30/2011: 15:18:28
so the bridge on my mandolin was replaced???!
ecks57 - Posted - 11/30/2011: 15:27:04
here are some more pictures of the case and the book that came with it:
Ben Venuti - Posted - 11/30/2011: 21:12:05
That could be the original bridge. Looks correct for the period at any rate. I guess if you can find others in an internet search maybe you could compare. I don't really understand the post above about "replaced bridge" but Bob's photos do look like the bridge is different than what you think a mandolin bridge on a mandolin like that would look like--- also, the placement of the bridge on those photos makes me think it's pushed too far south but different factors come into play with age sometimes and the bridge belongs where the intonation is most correct, not necessarily where it was set when it was made.
