Re: Parting with a beloved mandolin
After going decades accumulating instruments and never disposing of any, I've started doing some trade-ins to get truly unusual, not-many-of-a-kind instruments. This has necessitated trading in some I truly loved, and owned for 30-40 years or more:
1. A 1957 Martin D-18, braces shaved by the late Eldon Stutzman, that sounded really good, and that I bought in the early '70's. It, along with a Guild F-212XL 12-string guitar, and a '20's Martin Style 2 ukulele, went in an even swap at Bernunzio's, for my Stahl mando-bass, Larson brothers made. I have another Martin dreadnaught, a 1970 D-41, plus the "hybrid" 00-28G/00-42 conversion that's my main gigging guitar, so I figured I didn't need three Martins. But I'd done a thousand gigs with the D-18, though it had been a "closet queen" since I got the 00-42, and I really felt a pang when I turned it over. The pang was eased a bit when John B allowed me $3K on it, about 10X what I paid for it 40 years ago.
2. Acquiring my second Larson brothers instrument, a Stahl mandola, also involved trade-ins: an Eastman DGM-1 Giacomel clone, which I'd owned for awhile but never really played as much as the price would warrant, and a '30's Regal tiple, nice koa back and sides. Plus a few hundred buxx. No strong emotional attachments to either, though the Eastman was a very nice axe, and I hope someone else is enjoying it now.
Long ago, I traded the Gibson 'teens A-1 I found in my late grandfather's attic, on an F-2 of similar vintage, but that was back in the days when Eldon S wouldn't sell you a Gibson mandolin unless you traded one in, and the A-1 was all I had. I've kept the other family heirloom mandolin I found, a B & J Victoria bowl-back probably make by Lyon & Healy, and still play it now and again for historical music gigs.
Careful about getting emotionally attached to things, because things, by their very nature, come and go. My mandolins will, I presume, out-live me, and some other hands will get music out of them when I'm perhaps learning the harp.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
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