Anybody want a mandolin?

Michael Garnett · Post by **Michael Garnett** » 27 Jun 2005 10:13 am

Lloyd Loar signature Gibson F-5 for sale on Elderly.

$135,000
http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/90U-4291.htm

Wonder if they take a check......

-MG

John Troutman · Post by **John Troutman** » 27 Jun 2005 11:58 am

Do you think anyone besides Marty Stuart would pay that much for it? It is beautiful, that's for sure...

Jon Light · Post by **Jon Light** » 27 Jun 2005 12:05 pm

I'll take it. But first I've got to see if Elderly will accept a Nigerian bank check for $200,000 and give the remainder to my shipping agent who will come to pick it up.

John Troutman · Post by **John Troutman** » 27 Jun 2005 12:22 pm

Excellent work, Jon, excellent work...

Mark Herrick · Post by **Mark Herrick** » 27 Jun 2005 12:49 pm

At $135,000 maybe THEY are the Nigerian agents...

Kyle Aaron · Post by **Kyle Aaron** » 27 Jun 2005 1:08 pm

Imagine how many steels you could buy for that much! Probably as many as Bobbe Seymore, and then some.

Terry Edwards · Post by **Terry Edwards** » 27 Jun 2005 1:55 pm

Somebody needs to politely tell them that these mandolins typically go for about $128,000 if they really want to sell it.

Terry

George Manno · Post by **George Manno** » 27 Jun 2005 1:57 pm

$135K is a deal!

Gruhn Guitars in Nashville has one at $150K.

Who knew??????

George

James Morehead · Post by **James Morehead** » 27 Jun 2005 1:58 pm

Ought to have a case, strap, pic, complimentory set of strings for that. Oh Yeah, a Melbay mandolin book, too.

Carl Williams · Post by **Carl Williams** » 27 Jun 2005 2:30 pm

How 'bout throwing in free lifetime tuning and mandolin lessons from the Nigerian guy?

BTW, isn't this an Ebay price nowadays???

[This message was edited by Carl Williams on 27 June 2005 at 03:30 PM.]

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 27 Jun 2005 3:17 pm

In the 70's they were $25-50k depending on condition. $150k isn't surprising at all. D-45's are at about the same level.

Charles Dempsey · Post by **Charles Dempsey** » 27 Jun 2005 4:27 pm

Well, I'm probably going to get my tail jumped on, but at that price it's a collectible, not a musical instrument. Put it in an environmentally controlled display case filtered for UV. Give it a backup generator in case the power goes out. Bring the faithful into the holy of holies to see the shrine. Speak softly! And no pictures! The flash might react with the finish.

It sounds a bit silly to me, but I'm a musician, not a collector.

Charlie

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 27 Jun 2005 4:41 pm

Don't let a Chinese collector buy it-you may see some knockoffs cut by computerized tools accurate to within 1/10,000 of an inch!

on second thought...this may not be bad thing.

------------------
Mark

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 27 Jun 2005 7:25 pm

YIKES,
I think I just gave up the mandolin. Which might be a good thing on account of it's only slightly worse than my steel playing.
Duncan

Michael Garnett · Post by **Michael Garnett** » 27 Jun 2005 7:31 pm

Ricky Skaggs plays with the exact same model every day. Of course, I guess he could afford it. His is a 1923 model. I wouldn't be surprised if Chris Thile has one sitting around somewhere. I know he played one on one of his recent albums.

If you've got something that's in mint condition that ends up being the same model and builder as some monster's like Bill Monroe or Skaggs, it's going to be worth a lot of money. There was a similar model (1923) on Elderly that sold for $125,000. So that's not an unreasonable price.

-MG

Marty Pollard · Post by **Marty Pollard** » 27 Jun 2005 8:40 pm

In 1985 a friend of mine flew to California to look at and purchase a Loar F-5. He gave $24K and I thought he was nuts except it played GREAT and sounded better.

500+% over 20 years; wish I could get returns like that!

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 27 Jun 2005 9:46 pm

Let's put things into perspective. A friend of mine here in Oklahoma just sold his 4 bedroom brick house with 3 acres and a metal shop building for $40,000.

As part of my teacher benefits here, I pay $50/month to rent my house.

------------------
Gary Shepherd

Carter D-10

www.16tracks.com

John Phillips · Post by **John Phillips** » 29 Jun 2005 12:14 pm

[This message was edited by John Phillips on 29 June 2005 at 01:20 PM.]

John Phillips · Post by **John Phillips** » 29 Jun 2005 12:16 pm

Guy`s these Loar mandolins are high dollar instruments and have been for some time,and they are increasing in value every day.I am told Bill Monroes Loar sold a little while back for $1000,000 plus change.Prewar Martin D-45`s are selling at $150,000 plus.Big money colletor`s are buying up these rare instruments because they are very rare and ar some of the best acoustic instruments ever built.

Ben Elder · Post by **Ben Elder** » 30 Jun 2005 11:33 am

There are moments (most of my waking ones) when I think a lee-tle ol' mando for $135,000 or $150,000 is a better deal than a ZB D-10 for $500. (Where's that gal with the fireplace poker? When she's through over t' Bill's, would you send her my way? I got the ZB out...)[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 30 June 2005 at 12:33 PM.]

Silvio Bello · Post by **Silvio Bello** » 30 Jun 2005 11:48 am

A mandolin for $135,000 ? Let's see, if I could pay $50 a month , it would only take...where's my calculator ?
Plus, we could give b0b a donation to the Forum ! That would be sweet !

Alvin Blaine · Post by **Alvin Blaine** » 30 Jun 2005 5:41 pm

I just happened to check out a '24 Loar F-5 this past weekend. Some old guy at a festival in AZ had it there and let one of the bands play it on stage.
I played better than some I have seen, but it didn't sound any better then some of the $5000 mandolins I've played.
There are less than 200 Loar F-5's out there, so that has some to do with the price. In the past year of bluegrass festivals I have seen five of them and been on stage with two.

I have a picture of me playing on stage with Byron Berline, and he was playing his Loar.
They are nice instruments, and at the time they were very well made, but I still don't think that a working instrument should be worth that much. Maybe one that 100% perfect to go into a museum.

Alan Shank · Post by **Alan Shank** » 1 Jul 2005 11:33 am

"Well, I'm probably going to get my tail jumped on, but at that price it's a collectible, not a musical instrument. Put it in an environmentally controlled display case filtered for UV. Give it a backup generator in case the power goes out. Bring the faithful into the holy of holies to see the shrine. Speak softly! And no pictures! The flash might react with the finish.
It sounds a bit silly to me, but I'm a musician, not a collector"

My brother saw Ronnie McCoury last week at a Bluegrass festival out here in Grass Valley, CA. He plays and endorses Gilchrist mandoline, which I believe sell for something like $18-20K. His parents had just bought him a Loar for $120K. I suspect he will play it. He is, BTW, my favorite Bluegrass mandolin player that I have heard.

A couple of years ago, I bought a Loar copy mandolin from the late Cliff Sargent, who built mandolins for 40+ years. He had a Loar, and he did an MRI of it, so he could get all the dimensions, thicknesses, etc. right. I played his Loar briefly when I was trying out some of his new mandolins. It was very nice, but actually I liked his own mandolin, which he built for himself, better. For some reason, that mandolin played like butter. I asked him what made it play that way, and he said he didn't know, some of them just come out better. I like mine fine, but his was just awesome. I paid $7K for mine, but would have paid $10K for his. It was not for sale, however, at any price. I'm not sure what happened to it after Cliff's death; I think his son has it.

Cheers,
Alan Shank

Alan Shank · Post by **Alan Shank** » 2 Jul 2005 1:40 pm

"A couple of years ago, I bought a Loar copy mandolin from the late Cliff Sargent, who built mandolins for 40+ years. He had a Loar, and he did an MRI of it, so he could get all the dimensions, thicknesses, etc. right. I played his Loar briefly when I was trying out some of his new mandolins. It was very nice, but actually I liked his own mandolin, which he built for himself, better. For some reason, that mandolin played like butter. I asked him what made it play that way, and he said he didn't know, some of them just come out better."

Here's another mandolin reminiscence (sp?).

In about 1969 or thereabouts, I went to a New Year's Eve party at a friend's in LA, whom we called "The Mailman." Herb Steiner was there and had his Gibson F-5, which is from the 30's, I believe. At the time, I was playing a 1915 F-2, a round-hole model, that used to belong to Roland White. It was pretty clunky to play. I took Herb's mandolin into the bathroom and played it for about two hours! Compared to mine, it played like "butter," too.
Cheers,
Alan Shank