US strad at craigs

[bennyb]

Howdy O wise ones,
Below is a US strad(local craigslist) looks like all Mahogany. I'm not collecting, but if it was a "real" Strad-o-lin I'd probably get it just to have one. Looks like it's in good shape(maybe even very good) with case(not pictured). Reasonable price. What's the collective thinking on this? NFI, yet

[jaycat]

What is that logo on the headstock -- do you have a close-up?

What is the 'reasonable price' they are asking?

[bratsche]

Looks like a very decent deal and price to me (I looked it up), especially if it's made from solid woods and has a case; you can't go very wrong. I sold my Strad-O-Lin for more than that via my local CL recently, and it was only a laminate one with black painted back and a cheap gig bag (it just wasn't getting any use - I prefer an oval/round hole, and I needed the $$ and the space mine was taking up).

US Strad is pretty much the same as Strad-O-Lin, IIRC, considering that that is only a label name, and they were actually made by various different manufacturers.

bratsche

[bennyb]

Here's the headstock: and here's the link... I read up on the threads re US strads, and my takeaway was that it was later branding(ie, maybe 50's), and that mahogany plates were more likely to be laminates. Although it does look remarkably like the mando on the cover of instruction book.

[jaycat]

For $150, I'd grab it, assuming it plays OK.

[spufman]

Price makes it worth checking out, for sure. I know I would.

[Ed Goist]

That tailpiece is probably worth close to $100.

Vintage US made mandolin like this are a real roll of the dice...They can be:
* Awful and unplayable, or
* As good or better sounding than modern mandolins costing ten times as much, or
* Anywhere in between.

[bratsche]

Tailpiece doesn't look like the "cloud" - more like some sort of clamshell; hard to tell in low-res pic (A CL pet peeve of mine)...

bratsche

[bart mcneil]

The tailpiece is really not that valuable. The two piece Waver;y "Cloud" tailpiece is the one which commands the bucks. But even those can be found for much less than $100 if one has patience and bothers to research consistently for maybe a month. I have found it less expensive to buy a whole damaged mando for parts and have gotten a couple nice damaged but repairable mandos and their parts.

good price on the Strad. $150 will get you a mando worth keeping, in my experience. It will equal mandos costing $500 tonewise.

[Jim]

My Strad-o-lin is my Favorite, $150 is a good deal for one of these.

[MikeEdgerton]

That model is one of the last years they were made in the US and is probably laminated. I have yet to find one of the mahogany models that was solid.