What is a fair price for a Flatiron Performer A style mandolin? Any owners of this model please give feedback on the tone, playability, etc. Thank you very much!
Printable View
What is a fair price for a Flatiron Performer A style mandolin? Any owners of this model please give feedback on the tone, playability, etc. Thank you very much!
Since no one else has chimed in I will give you my 2 cents. I think they are a sleeper. They are built on the same benches as Gibson mandolin at the time and even have a Gibson label. For some reason it seems that because it says Flatiron that it is a lesser mandolin? Seems they are discounted about 20-25% compared to a comparable Gibson. Since covid has inflated prices I may be off a little on price but I would think depending on condition, setup and tone they would sell in the $1200-1600 range. I would much prefer them over the Gibson A9's that followed them. I have owned four of the Nashville Performer's and one Festival F5. They were all good mandolins and a couple very good. Build quality was not what you would get from a top builder of today and the tops could be a little thick. But you had some good luthiers at Gibson at the time. Nut width varied between 1" and 1 1/8". All were good intermediate mandolins but a couple stood out both in fit and finish and sound. Playability when set up properly was good or better but not quite on par with some top tier mandolins I have played. If you get one in good shape for a fair price should be a good mandolin and should hold it's value .Good luck in the search.
Thank you so much for your feedback!
I should receive the Flatiron Performer A mandolin this week. I wanted an f-hole mandolin to go with the 1924 Gibson Snakehead A Junior I have. I am excited to get it.
I have an Artist A5 that I love. Keeps up playing Django and Bluegrass music easily. It is x braced and has a great chop.
I picked with a guy a few weeks ago who had a Performer F and it sounded good as well. His had tone bars.
I agree that the Flatiron A style is a great bang for the buck mandolin.
Nice. Those A-5 Artist mandolins look and sound great.Quote:
Originally Posted by seththedude