Mandolin Brothers Ltd. - What's New

Eastman Strings (new) T386 Thinline Electric

A full-size 16″ thinline
Laminate Maple Top, Laminate Maple back and sides
Versatile, responsive, with plenty of tone and attitude!
Dual Kent Armstrong Humbucker Pickups

Weber (used, 2009) Yellowstone mandolin

The reason this mandolin is called Custom Vintage is because it has some upgraded features. Immediately one sees (like a shining beacon) its “The Weber” headstock inlay with the large and flowery (well, it is a flower pot, after all) urn with the fern and below that the matte finish, shapely truss rod cover held in place by two nickel-plated Phillips head screws. The tuners are engraved plate with pearloid buttons and a recessed nickel Phillips head screw at the end of each button.

Weber (used, 2009) Yellowstone D-Hole octave mandolin

Per the Weber web site, every feature most desired by players is available in this exquisite, glossy-finished workhorse [actual horses are not typically glossy finish]. Sporting the rich, full sound of tone bar bracing, the Traditional Brekke Bridge, and the playability of a comfortably radiused ebony fretboard, the Yellowstone is fantastic in any forum. From your family's living room to a hard-scrabble roadhouse, the Yellowstone will always hold its own as a graceful bluegrass powerhouse.

Gibson (used, 2008) Alex Lifeson ES-355

#280 of 300 made

Collings (used, 2009) MF

being of standard description in the Florentine body shape (large body scroll and two body points, with smaller scrolls and a point on the headstock) except for one cosmetic feature and that's that it has the "Grey Fox" logo (the "o" in "fox" is two foxes) inlaid in mother of pearl near the center of the headstock.

Avalon (used) L-25C

Avalon Guitar Company is a spin-off of the Lowden Guitar Company. Until December 31st on 2003 the people who have been running what is now Avalon ran The Lowden Guitar Company but on that date title of the company name transferred back to George Lowden. The supervisors who built those guitar for so many years chose a new company name and it was Avalon. According to our beloved source of all things historical, Wikipedia: “Avalon (probably from the Welsh word afal, meaning apple) is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend.

Andrew White (used, 2007) Model E

Luthier Andrew James White who apparently hails from somewhere around Morgantown, WV (he doesn’t exactly say where he is on his website), has, on his list of artists who play his instruments Craig D'Andria, Andy Mckee and Kaki King. That’s pretty impressive right there but, then, so are his instruments. The striped ebony headplate is inlaid with a blonde wooden “W” with a line through the center section to create an imbedded letter “A” for Andrew.

Breedlove (used, 2006) 000/SSe Model Acoustic-Electric

This is a twelve-fret to the body, slotted headstock guitar that has some traditional and some modern features. The traditional include what many call African Mahogany sides and back, more properly known as Sapele (with the accent on the middle syllable, it is like the great Brazilian soccer player, Pele, but with the syllable “Sah” in front). The top is hand-selected Sitka spruce that is completely “clear” – meaning no visual aberrations. It is close-grained and displays a great deal of cross silking as the finest Sitka does.

Smith and Young (new) Model 11 (2)

Martin (new) 0-28K Custom Shop

Every so often a customer will contact us and ask us to get them a quote from C F Martin for a special or even singular guitar that this august Nazarethian Company no longer makes. We’re putting up on our website because we’re very proud to have such a fine guitar pass through our shop. If you would like us to have our friends in the Custom Shop quote you a price for your special project - as Carole and James say, “All you have to do is call.”

Gibson (used, 1957) J50

McPherson (used, 2007) MG4.5

This guitar is in “virtually new” condition showing almost literally no sign of having been held or played. It features the L. R. Baggs high fidelity (yet elusive) RTS-2 Element pickup system with the hidden volume control, housed in the Deluxe Ameritage “everything but a built-in bar” hard shell case. McPherson is fast becoming the favorite new brand subscribed to by the blissful patrons of this illustrious house of sonorous resonation.

Vega (used, 1930) Whyte Laydie No. 7 plectrum banjo

We present to you one of the highest grades of Vega banjo known to exist – the Number 7 Whyte Laydie. Fancy of appointment and aristocratically ornamented, and touting the world renowned scalloped brass tone ring that bears its name, this is the type of banjo plectrum players yearn to find their entire lives. That’s the good part. In reality, however, this banjo has a number of issues – one of the most important of which is that somebody has refinished the back of the neck in glossy sunburst, another of which are the small sections of missing binding.

Gibson (used, 2011) ES165 Herb Ellis

Per the Gibson web site: "Herb Ellis ES-165: Jazz legend Herb Ellis took a hefty slice of Charlie Christian-style bebop and sprinkled on some blues to create his own classic jazz guitar style in the 1950s. Through his years with the Oscar Peterson Trio and as a soloist, his guitar of choice has been a single-pickup ES-175, but now Gibson has dressed up Herb's signature model with split-parallelogram inlays" It has a single gold plated humbucking "floating" pickup attached to the pickguard so there is no penetration of the top to inhibit sound quality. A single gold high hat volume knob depends from the laminated edge, white-black-white, elevated pickguard.

Martin (used early, 1967) 00-21

Rickenbacker (new) 4003 Midnight Blue

The Rickenbacker List Price is $2159

Santa Cruz (new) 1929 00 Cutaway

Martin (used, 2008) M-36

We have always loved and welcomed the M-series guitar. From its earliest days during the famous Martin Labor Dispute of circa 1976 when the supervisors built the earliest examples, we have been of the opinion that this unique combination of a thin girth combined with a slightly larger 16-inch width body makes for an instrument that speaks in the voluble voice of a venturesome vole (a small, mouse-like rodent) that has been trained to sing lengthy operatic arias. Right now this piece is in the workshop being set-up, but it should be ready soon. Please call for more information. The price is $1747 at our Discount Price, $1695 at our Cash Discount Price.

Collings (used) 002MRG

This is a wonderful sounding 12-fret solid headstock guitar, whose headplate is Madagascar veneer bearing the iridescent Collings script logo in pearl; tuners are Waverly open-gear with metal butterbean buttons; the unbound striped ebony fingerboard (it has some lovely reddish brown grain running through) hosts 5 etched diamond inlays in frets 5, 7 and 9; the soundhole rosette is comprised of three concentric circles of multi-ply purfling, the center one of which is 9 plies of ebony and ivoroid.

Blueridge (used August 2010) BR361

This guitar measures 13 13/16” at the widest portion of the body, making it nominally a Size 0 or Concert Size guitar. It is a 12-fret slothead with squared slots in the peghead, having a fingerboard that measures 1 7/8” at the nut and just under 2 5/16” string spacing at the bridge. The back and sides are East Indian rosewood and the top Sitka spruce; the unbound ebony fingerboard is inlaid with 5 etched diamond inlays at frets 5, 7 and 9, the soundhole ringed in three concentric circles of layers of black/white purfling, the top in herringbone, the backstripe zipper design wood parquetry, the tuners are three-on-a-floral-etched-plate with open gears and ivoroid buttons.