Hi Everyone!
Ive just discovered this site and I’m already blown away by the breadth & depth of knowledge of members, so I am hoping you can help me out.
(Before I go any further, let me apologize in advance for the length of this post!! It’s a long one...you’ve been forewarned...so read on if you dare!! 😁
I recently purchased 2 Mandolins in an online auction...and I know NOTHING about Mandolins. 😊
(Wait!!! Don’t leave ALREADY!!! HAHAHA)
Here’s a bit of background that may help provide some context for questions I’ll be asking later! 😉 (and Yup...there’s a few!)
My mom & dad love Bluegrass & have gone to festivals all their lives. But.....my mom just recently passed away and I think it’s going to be really hard for my dad to go alone, although I know he still wants to. It has always been such a big part of their lives and now that there’s a big emptiness I’m glad that he has something he enjoys so much and gives him something to look forward to.
Hence the reason why I think that ‘out-of-the-Blue’ a month ago he asked me if I still had my guitars and said, “I think I want to learn how to play.”
😳Hunh??
He had dabbled with the banjo but as I pointed out to him (as kindly as I could!), “Dad, your hands are the size of massive bear claws!! Your fingers are almost as wide as the frets on a guitar!! I don’t want to discourage you...but... I honestly don’t think you are even going to be able to press a string without your finger touching the strings above and below it. They’re just...too big!”
A couple weeks later I happened upon an online auction for a very well-known music store in the area whose owner was retiring. It was a complete dispersal of the store and some of the owner’s private collection of instruments, so I thought I’d check it out.
I saw the 2 mandolins, (which I’ve always loved the sound of and always thought I might like to try & learn to play), so I started doing a bit of research. I learned that, just like a guitar, it was possible to play some very simple chords with just one or two fingers, so I thought ‘perhaps’ a Mandolin would be a better option for him seeing as there are only 4 (8) strings instead of 6- and it would be okay if his big ole’ finger pressed the string below because it was supposed to!
So I ‘casually’ mentioned the idea & told him about the auction....and got a “hmm” noncommittal response.
So, I sent him the video showing the three simple chords and how many songs he could play with just those 3 chords!
I told him that I had always thought about maybe learning how to play as well, and ‘hinted’ how he should bid on one of the mandolins and I would bid on the other and we could learn together!👍 (just so I could gauge his reaction and see if he WAS interested).
Again, not much response...(but I wasn’t sure if it was because he wasn’t interested in the Mandolin itself, or if it was the thought of having me around more often that influenced THAT lack of response..🤣🤣🤣hahaha)
...but anyways...the auction was closing in a few hours and both of the Mandolins still had fairly low bids, so I kept trying to find out as much as I could about them.
The one was a Sigma/Martin, a brand which I am relatively familiar with as I have a 12 string. I read as fast as I could, and looked at as many pictures as I could find to see if I could determine the model, as I figured I probably couldn’t go ‘too’ wrong with a Sigma, especially for a beginner to learn on. (The other Mandolin I was bidding on had no strings/tuning keys, but from the research I was able to do within those few brief hours I decided it ‘might’ (?) be a worthwhile purchase as well, so I decided to bid on both of them. I ended up getting both- for what I thought were decent enough prices ($250CAN for the Sigma and $100CAN for the other one) and only realized when I got the invoice that there was ALSO a 15% Buyer’s Premium added on, which was then taxed 13% sales tax, and then the bid itself was taxed the 13% sales tax....so...uhhhhh...yeahhhh...it ended up being a ‘weeeee’ bit more than I had expected...($325CAN for the Sigma and $130CAN for the other one..but ...oh well...🤷#♀️...what are you going to do?!)
(***BTW... I will post the pictures and inquiries I have about the other Mandolin in a separate post. I look forward to hearing the feedback about that one as well, as I discovered it is a bowl back that was made by a recognized Italian Mandolin maker in (I think) the mid 1800’s!) Very cool! 😊
But first I have to deal with the Sigma since it may (or...may not) be my dad’s Christmas present. 😊
So...this is what little I can tell you about it..(please forgive if I use incorrect terminology to identify parts... it’s a steep learning curve over a couple of days for someone whose never even SEEN a Mandolin up close before!😁
1. According to what I’ve read here on the Mandolin Cafe site, I understand that Martin originally made their own mandolins, and then decided to have Sigma produce them for them from 1970 to about 2007. Mandolins made during that time usually indicated somewhere on the instrument that they were ‘Made by Sigma for Martin’.
The majority of that time they were built in Japan, (70-83), then moved production moved to Korea (84-94), then onto Taiwan and Indonesia until 2007.
The most desirable models are the original ones made by Martin themselves.
I’m a little confused by conflicting opinions about quality because I thought I read somewhere that the models built in Japan tended to be better quality than the ones produced in Korea, Taiwan & Indonesia, but then I also read that the models made in Korea were the best quality? Anyone?
After 2007 Sigma went into production for themselves and from that point forward only the Sigma name appeared on them, correct? Or did the Sigma name appear by itself on any of the models they made for Martin?
Are any of the ‘Sigma’ only models noted for being fairly decent entry models? (And if so, pleeease tell me THIS is one of them!😂😉
The Mandolin I have has the Sigma name and symbol on the headstock in Mother-of-Pearl inlay (I don’t believe they are stickers of any sort. )
2. However, I cannot find ANY labels, markings, or evidence of previous labels, so I don’t know what model it is, or consequently, what year it was manufactured. Isn’t it pretty strange for it to be completely void of any kind of identification??? Has anyone ever encountered this before? ‘Could’ it mean that someone disassembled it and rebuilt it??? Is that even possible to do??
Would I be accurate in guessing that because the Sigma name alone is on it, that it was ‘probably’ built sometime after 2007 when they parted with Martin. And, if that is the case, it means it was likely built in Indonesia, and thus is not very good quality? (I hope I’m wrong!! 😕
3. I’m also going to ‘guess’ it’s an ‘A’ type model (just because it looks like other ‘A’s! Lol) Is there a number that would accompany the ‘A’ (or whatever letter it is) as well?
4. It has ‘f- holes’ (which I read are often the type used for Bluegrass...so I managed to get THAT right! 😁 yay! Lol)
5. The fret markers are plain metal.
6. There is a Fleur-de-Lis type design on the tuning key mounts
7. I ‘think’ it is Sunburst on the back (?) although it doesn’t look as vivid to me as most of the Sunbursts I saw.
8. It has a solid-coloured front- which I didn’t see in any pictures I looked at.
9. I don’t think it is ‘carved’ but rather pieced/laminated together 😕 (I tried to get a picture down inside the f-holes to shown the inner edges.
10. I don’t know what kind(s) of wood it is made of.
11. I don’t know if there’s been any work done on the nut, the frets or the bridge, or if any of those parts need work.
12. I tried to get pictures from the top & bottom looking at the distance from the strings to the frets, but I don’t really know what I should be looking for here. (I remember reading something about how to determine the ‘action’ but I’ll have to revisit it).
13. I know nothing about the tailpiece - except that it’s there! 😊
14. There’s no evidence of delaminating/coming apart along the neck.
15. The back has a slight rounding to it (which ‘seems’ to be the design- I don’t ‘think’ it’s warped or bowed.)
16. The front seems to be raised a little higher under the strings, with shallow dips above and below the strings near the f-holes. (I couldn’t capture the subtle waves with the camera. But I’m hoping that is the intentional structure of it and that it isn’t a result of some kind of damage!!).... BECAUSE....
PART 1/2 (Had to split this into 2 posts! )
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