very happy with my A5 mandolin built by Larry Muth in Regina, Sk. Google his web page and check his pricing. It's favorable and he does great work.
Now, in dealing with custom orders, prepare to wait at least a year. It'll give you time to practice and lord knows you won't want to buy another mandolin as your is being built!
f-d
¡papá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A
Nice looking used Skip Kelly A just hit the classifieds - NFI on my part:
https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/164018#164018
2018 Girouard Concert oval A
2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
1969 Martin 00-18
my Youtube channel
Ratliff Mandolins are very good, made in USA (Tennessee) mandos. You can get a new country boy for that price range ($2250 on website).
http://ratliffmandolins.com/new/
[QUOTE And, it's Kelley, btw.[/QUOTE]
Reminds me of the old Irish popular song "If I Knock The L out Of Kelly, He'll Knock The L Out Of Me!"
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
2018 Girouard Concert oval A
2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
1969 Martin 00-18
my Youtube channel
BTW the OP has Pulled the trigger on a Collings-A. I suppose we could still keep the discussion going... or not.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
I vote "not."
Discussions on "what instruments are made where," tread along the edge of nationalism. As such, they're vulnerable to politicization. And we know where that leads.
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
Blevins Mandolin Works.
I should have mine in February or March.
Blevins’s Mandolin Works.
Weber mandolins are made in Bend Oregon. They are great mandolins.
Peter Mix Carbon fiber ones were his Vermont company
collaborating with a Rhode Island carbon specialist.
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
<violates Forum posting guidelines>
Last edited by Mandolin Cafe; Jul-05-2021 at 6:42am.
When I learned my first mandolin chords in the mid 1970's, there weren't any good new mandolins being built in the US, except for the handful that were being made by individuals that I was not aware of, such as Randy Wood.
And with the suspension of operations at the Weber plant, Collings is now the only US company making mandolins in large numbers. And they are good mandolins. I do find it to be ironic that they have only been making mandolins for just over 20 years, while the company that developed carved top mandolins has not made mandolins in significant numbers for several years.
And some of the best mandolins being made today are built in Australia. But most of them cost well over the OP's budget of $2500.
I do like the growth in the number of small shop makers, wherever they are.
And I don't see anything wrong with a person preferring to spend their money in their country of residency.
Northfield is now producing far more solely U.S. built mandolin family instruments than Collings. They just happen to also have even more partially produced in China then finished here. Gibson may even be producing more mandolins than Collings according to Dennis at The Mandolin Store.
Mandolin Cafe - Since 1995
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Reminds me of a guitar I have, the short-lived Sigma USA stamped Martin D-35 copy from 1981. The actual model name was DR-35N. "N" stood for assembled in Nazareth. The guitar was partially built in Japan as a cost saving experiment, then shipped to the USA for final finishing, assembly, and set-up. Because 51 percent of the work was done in the USA, the guitars could be legally stamped "USA." The other Sigma guitars are not stamped "USA." Not quite as good as a Martin, but it is still a very nice guitar, IMHO.
Mandolin Cafe - Since 1995
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I think Northfield makes a great mandolin. I think they're made by skilled luthiers who are well treated by the company (and, I think, are employee owners). I could care less where they are made.
That said I thought they pretty much followed a North American woods and matching, China for assembly and finishing, North America for set up. I thought that process was pretty much the same for everything except the Calhoun and maybe the Flat top octave.
Girouard Concert A5
Girouard Custom A4
Nordwall Cittern
Barbi Mandola
Crump OM-1s Octave
www.singletonstreet.com
According to Northfield's website, only two models are built from start to finish in the US: the flat top octave, and the Calhoun. The Artist 4th Generation is partly built in the US. Then the unfinished body and neck are sent to Quingdao, where "The assembly is then completed with sanding and coloring steps performed by Yao Ling." Then the instrument is shipped back to the US for final finishing, hardware installation, and setup. http://www.northfieldinstruments.com...rthfield-works
As far as Gibson is concerned, unless Guitar Center has a large number of F-5G's and F-9's in stock, only a handful of new instruments are available through their other mandolin dealers, The Mandolin Store and Morgan Music.
And although all manufacturers are having trouble delivering new instruments right now, a brief and incomplete survey of some of the better known Collings dealers yields at least 28 new instruments currently available, with additional instruments on order. I don't see any evidence that Gibson is out-producing Collings.
Information we share is based primarily on two factors: information directly from the the people at the companies building them, and then the owners of retail stores that act as their reseller. Based on that I'm confident in the accuracy of what has already been stated. Information from multiple sources align. Counting instruments on web sites is fine doesn't reveal a single instrument tsold before being listed because a customer requested a certain model, and there's a fair amount of that going on.
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Made in Missouri https://www.bigmuddymandolin.com/
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