15-5735 John Monteleone (used, c. 1985) “Style A” mandolin, #93, excellent plus condition with non-original hard shell case.
Considered by many people including his own wife and Jon Singer to be The Finest Archtop Builder in the Known Universe, John Monteleone continues to lead a quiet life in relative seclusion on his 1,125 acre estate in the Catskills in a structure that greatly resembles Bran Castle in Romania, which was once the home to a Count Dracos after he made short work of Freddie Brasov back in, well, let’s see, I think it was 1460. Little is known of Brasov except that he was an ardent mandolin player (“Hey, let’s meet at the castle tonight and play some jazz tunes of the 1420s. Bring your flail in case we have to beat off a horde of zombies.”). Bored nearly senseless by nightly walking the production line in the east wing where dozens of well-trained artisans in elf clothing fabricate Grand Artist and Radio Flyer models by the thousands, John felt that his line needed a bit of zest and so one day he designed and produced a model he called “Style A” which, unexpectedly, has a teardrop or “pear” shaped body featuring two sweeping S-shaped soundholes. The center of the soundholes is the precise spot where the two-piece carved ebony adjustable bridge is placed, below which is the proprietary, quick-load Monteleone gold-plated one-piece tailpiece and this component is etched both with his logo and the words “Style A.” The abbreviated pickguard (just a wisp of a thing) is polished ebony while the headplate is also polished ebony and inlaid with a script “Monteleone” logo at a slight angle. A plastic truss rod cover is held pin place by two roundhead gold screws; tuners are etched-plate, gold plate and pearloid button capped. The ebony fingerboard with its twice scalloped peninsula with 8 partial frets, bears 7 mother of pearl dotmarkers and is gently radiused to ease your way into that unseasonably warm evening. Top and back are bound in grained ivoroid; back, sides and one piece neck are three-dimensionally flamed maple finished in an hypnotic, let’s all fall in and tread water clear coat of glossy lacquer. This mandolin barks so loudly you’ll think you own a quarter-ton huskie, and yet its upper mids and trebles are so lyrical you may feel that this is the instrument chosen by the Bell Bronze Halo-Equipped Greeting Committee for your entrance into the Great Bragiole, yet when played in an unthreatening manner the sound is so sweet and flowing you’ll think somebody failed to fully turn off the nitrous oxide all-season multi-room humidifier. The condition is “virtually unplayed” with just a suggestion of fret contact. This is a mandolin about which to shout from the parapet “It’s mine! Mine, I tell you!” until dusk when Uncle Vlad comes out. $14,429 or at our cash discount price $13,995.
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