I had no idea.

[taptuned]

Seen an ad in the classified for a Chinese made Flatiron Festival F

I always thought they were made in. Boseman Belgrade or Nashville.

[MikeEdgerton]

Gibson reintroduced the brand on a mandolin built in China. We referred to them here as the "EpiFlats".

Many past conversations about them can be found here.

[Mark Wilson]

I had no idea.

I'm guessing there's been a few buyers of used pac rim Flatirons that were disappointed to figure that out afterwards. There was one on CL local, had it priced just under the real thing

[JEStanek]

I'm not entirely sure they were disappointed but just moving along the food chain or trying something different. As always, being an informed buyer will help you maximize your spending dollar.

Now debating how wise it was for Gibson to slap the Flatiron name on an import, well, the results and longevity of production speak to that well.

Jamie

[George R. Lane]

Seen an ad in the classified for a Chinese made Flatiron Festival F

I always thought they were made in. Boseman Belgrade or Nashville.

It is spelled Bozeman.

[soliver]

I'm curious how the quality of the Chinese made Flatiron compares to the US made models? I know they are supposed to be rebranded Epiphones, but how do they end up sounding in the end?

[almeriastrings]

I've only heard one - not too impressive. Nothing like 'the real thing' at all.

[texaspaul]

The Chinese ones that I tried did not live up to the original but I thought they were better at the Eppiphone MM 50. I guess you sometimes get what you pay for as I remember about 20% more thN Eppi.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Interesting quotes in our 2014 Steve Carlson interview.

If you go back to one of my early Flatiron brochures which embodied my own ideals of building instruments I reference the imported F-5 mandolins of that time with scrolls that were not even close to correct. I talked about the artistry of the F-5 scroll as it relates to the Fibonacci spiral and those intriguing aspects common to all great instruments that are aesthetically pleasing to our eye because they reflect the core design components of nature, ie. the building blocks of our universe.

I derogatorily mentioned in my brochure how these import mandolins took this beautiful scroll and its elegance and stopped before it ever got started due to poor shaping and poor binding. This is circa 1985. Now fast forward to Gibson eventually pulling Flatiron out of Bozeman and sending it to Nashville which led to the start of Weber Mandolins. Half of that Flatiron crew went with Weber and the other half that went with me still works with me at NC Solutions and now ZETA Violins here in the Bozeman area.

It was only two years ago I happened to see a brand new Flatiron. Here I am standing in a music store in Bozeman staring at an import mandolin with the name Flatiron on the peghead and the scroll stops before it even gets started. It's just this piece of wood or something made to resemble a mandolin, and this is in the town where 10,000 mandolins were meticulously crafted. It was a very disturbing experience.

Lot of water under the bridge long ago. If you're just finding out they are no longer made in the U.S., you're a long way behind the curve. Nothing wrong with that, but this is not a new development.

[Willie Poole]

There is a lot of speculation that the Nashville Flatiron Festivals will increase in value, I guess time will tell, people that aren`t up on the facts may not realize they are buying an import when they see one for sale...I wonder what the labels inside say?

Willie

[MikeEdgerton]

The Nashville Flatirons are different from the Chinese Flatirons.

There are some label pictures in this thread.

[Br1ck]

Gibson has no reverence for the brand or its history. Just a marketing tool for them. I cringe when I see a guitar forum thread raving how good their Epiphone Texan is. They have never laid eyes on a real one. I imagine it is the same with the Flatiron old vs new.

[F-2 Dave]

It is spelled Bozeman.

Unless you're speaking of groovy sound systems, then it's Bose, man.

[MikeEdgerton]

Gibson has no reverence for the brand or its history. Just a marketing tool for them. I cringe when I see a guitar forum thread raving how good their Epiphone Texan is. They have never laid eyes on a real one. I imagine it is the same with the Flatiron old vs new.

The Epiphone purchase was decades before the Flatiron purchase under a totally different management team and yeah, they basically did the same thing with both brands but then again, they own the brands.

[NursingDaBlues]

Gibson has no reverence for the brand or its history. Just a marketing tool for them. I cringe when I see a guitar forum thread raving how good their Epiphone Texan is. They have never laid eyes on a real one. I imagine it is the same with the Flatiron old vs new.

It’s a common business practice that maintains the integrity and propriety of the primary line, as well as helps to quickly expand market share. You buy out the competition, and then incorporate whatever R&D, tooling, resources and distribution channels that will benefit the primary line. Then relegate the purchased line to secondary or tertiary status as a (hopefully) entry level product. In these cases Gibson got Flatiron and Epiphone, which got rid of some of the better competition at the time, gave them some of their luthiers, added to their distribution channels, maybe got a little proprietary R&D, expanded their market share, and enabled them to have some price point products that would not interfere with the integrity of the Gibson-branded product line.