Mandolin & Mandolin Family

Announcing the return of the Gretsch New Yorker Mandolin! Styled after the 1950’s classic, these modern-day versions offer full-bodied tone, smooth playing performance and eye-stopping beauty you’d expect from none other than GRETSCH! The G9310 New Yorker Supreme features all solid mahogany top, back, and sides; mahogany neck; rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays, rosewood bridge; Grover® machine heads; vintage “clam-shell” tailpiece; nickel hardware; 13 7/8” scale; 1 1/16” nut; antique semi-gloss mahogany finish.  The Gretsch List Price is $399 (without the gig bag)

Kentucky has really outdone itself on this one:  Solid, handcarved and graduated select Adirondack spruce top, solid flat-sawn, handcarved, select highly flamed maple back and sides from northern Michigan, one piece maple neck with dovetail neck/body joint at 15th fret, bound ebony extension fingerboard with M.O.P. dot position markers, ivoroid binding on all edges, vintage-style ebony bridge, with small adjustment wheels, traditional 2-screw truss rod cover plate, mother-of-pearl nut, peghead inlaid with Kentucky® script and unique flowerpot inlaid in pearl.

About this model Gibson says that the F-9 has a no-frills design with a handsome satin Vintage Brown finish.   It comes with all the design features that give the F-5 its legendary tone, including a hand-fitted dovetail neck joint, solid maple neck, sides and back, a solid spruce top and a hand-tuned tone chamber.   Gibson goes on to say the following under the headline:  “Sleek Gibson F-9 makes legendary mandolin sound more affordable.”    They say (Click 'More Info'):  

Colorado Engelmann Spruce Top, red X bracing, quilted maple back and sides, ebony fretboard & bridge, bison femur nut, turquoise rosette/wave/dots, in pumpkin lacquer finish housed in a hard shell case.

The manufacturer writes:  "All JBovier mandolin models are built to my specs, in very small batches (4-10) then sent to me.  These are no longer the "entry level/factory" JBovier mandolins. Instead I like to refer to them as "affordable professional".

Traditional Kentucky A-model mandolins offer players that big sweet tone and easy playability, all priced within the reach of any budget-conscious musician. Saga has now raised the bar even further by upgrading the features of the KM-140 to include a solid top - making this already runaway best-seller even better!

This brand has been made, since 2003, by Chris Baird of Moab, Utah.  This is an extremely handsome and well-made mandolin finished in a “sunset” color sunburst, having an Adirondack “Red” spruce, wide-grained, carved top, a beautiful wood headstock overlay bordered in crème.   The fingerboard is neo-classical meaning that it has no inlays on its front surface but does have 8 side dots on the bass side in 7 fret positions (double dot at 12).

The teardrop shape of the American OF Mandolin offers much more than you would expect from its simple design.  The O style creates a boomy, deep range that speaks with clarity and authority in any playing situation you find yourself in. Composed of Sitka Spruce for the top and Western Maple for the back and sides, the OF has tone bar bracing which further complements the bold projection. Breedlove mandolins are said to be easy to play with a radiused fingerboard and oversize frets that allow for extreme comfort. The finish on this OF is a sumptuous semi-gloss vintage sunburst, both beautiful to the eyes and to the hand.  The Breedlove List Price is $1639

Solid Carved European Spruce Top, Solid Carved Maple Back, Solid Canadian Maple Sides, Solid Canadian Maple Neck, Vintage Profile Tone-Bar Bracing, Dot Fretboard Inlays, Unique Headstock Decor, Single-ply Ivory Binding, Genuine Bone Corners, Genuine Bone Nut...

The Gibson A-4 is the highest level teardrop shaped mandolin of its time.   This one is especially clean of condition and, although it is already 93 years old it seems ready for another 93 years of professional use.

premium solid spruce top, solid highly-flamed maple back and sides, a flamed maple neck, and an ebony fretboard and bridge. With an Abalone/ M.O.P. Florentine-style headstock inlay designed by Greg Rich, Vintage white binding borders the entire instrument with an added black and white inlay on the top, back, headstock, fingerboard and pickguard. The pickguard is the same tortoise-shell plastic as the vintage original, and a reproduction tailpiece with an engraved cover.  

Hand carved, nitrocellulose-finished mandolin is a tribute to classic design techniques. From the hand-carved, hand graduated AAA spruce top and AAA Flamed Maple back and sides to the abalone/mother-of-pearl headstock inlay, these mandolins were built to represent Golden Age craftsmanship updated for the modern era.

Made from solid walnut back and sides, figured maple top and neck, vintage steel hardware (the cover plate looks like brushed aluminum but it is no doubt plated steel), vintage-style open gear tuners, 1 ¼” nut width, 14” scale length.  NOW ON SALE!  WAS $1645 BUT NOW: 

Back in 1921 Gibson Musical Instrument Co. formally hired a gentleman named Lloyd Loar, who had worked for them in other capacities, to act as the company’s “Acoustic Engineer.”  Professor Loar was a musical theorist who had many ideas about sound transmission and distribution.   His theories, brought to practice at the Gibson factory on Parsons Street in Kalamazoo, Michigan actually (in our opinion, at least) changed the course of American musical history.  Presently in the workshop, it  is priced at only $105,000 at our Cash Discount Price.

This fine A-style mandolin conforms to the standard description of the style (interestingly we cannot see the dash or hyphen after the lower case "a" written in pencil on the label - most often they had a dash) having a teardrop-shaped body with an oval soundhole.  Said orifice is approximately 2 ¼" horizontal size and 1 ½" vertical measurement, which port is bound in ivoroid.  This is priced $1953 or at our Cash Discount Price $1895 but it is presently in our Repair Shop.

This National Triolian single cone mandolin,has the striking sunburst finish and remains in what may be excellent condition when it is made playable, and it has its  hand-made and painted, nicely crafted, rectangular hard shell case.This really is an incredibly beautiful piece and the condition, is actually not bad at all.   This would make an extremely fine musical instrument for a mandolin player seeking ultimate volume and prewar panache, or it could be a wonderful collectible to be stared at , fondled and cared for over the next 500 or so years.   All it needs is that tailpiece.  Hey – do youse perhaps got one?

Body: Solid Basswood, Neck: Solid Maple, bolt-on, Fretboard: Rosewood (.080" frets), Tuners: 2-to-a-side, Wilkinson J-805, String Gauge: .010", .015", .025", .039", Electronics: Dual JB-53 custom single coil pickups, 3-way volume and tone controls, Hardware: Chrome, Includes: Premium JBovier padded gig bag, Finish: Vintage Cream