Re: My mysterious JBovier Knock-off
Unscrupulous types who counterfeit paper money, don't make $1 or $5 bills. They make $50's and $100's. That's where their profit is.
I'd expect that a "mandolin counterfeiter" would build a "Gibson," not a solid but not top-rank brand like JBovier. Still, if you started out to copy an instrument, but didn't have access to a Gibson to copy, you might copy whatever was available, including the logo.
I'd have to guess the profit margin on a counterfeit JBovier could hardly be worth the cost and effort that went into making the copy -- especially when the result was a good-quality instrument, implying that the copyist had to obtain good materials, and put in a lot of work to produce the instrument.
Any chance it could be a factory "second" that somehow escaped, or a mandolin that was grabbed "off the line" by an employee who sold it privately, before it went through the final steps of its manufacture?
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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