Anyone wants to look, there was an early production KO mandolin on ebay, closing w/o sale a day or two ago. It's #126, ebay item #300501469941 for sale by the original owner (by report). I suggested he consider the cafe classifieds, so it may show up there sometime soon. It has the really (to my eye) beautiful sunburst finish that I've seen on these early Breedloves. Hlebowi2 has #197 (also a KO, I think) and I have #143 among these early items. My mandolin instructor was taken with how even the sound level was across the range from treble to bass. Not a bluegrass instrument, according to his tastes, but he thought it would make a great studio instrument. I think Howard said to me that #197 has the "Columbia" name printed on its label. The 13x example I saw pass by ebay a year or so ago and my 143, along with the recent ebay 126 do -not- have this name on the label. A Breedlove customer service guy told me that the KO was one of the most ordered items after the winter '98 NAMM show, and these mandolins went into production and sale before they thought of the "Columbia" name and applied it to the series. Same source said that as part of product development, the early production items had personal attention from Breedlove principals, as their "Master Class" mandolins do now. I thought it was interesting info. NFI on the ebay item and hlebowi2's instrument. However, I own #143 and regard it highly.
