Gibson F2 and F4 mandolins.

[Todd2]

I'm in the market for an F2 or F4 still looking I've missed out on 2 good deals so far

[jmagill]

I recently watched a David Grisman live video where he was sitting in his living room and showing/discussing his mandolin collection. He's owned so many instruments over the years. One thing he said that stuck with me is, "Either an instrument has IT or it doesn't. And I can tell from the first strum." I'll keep that in mind whenever I'm trying out a mandolin. It seems like it should just grab you right away.

I've found this to be true also... with one caveat.

Once I was evaluating three vintage F-4s from the 'teens in a music store in a quiet room off the main floor. I had them in front of me, with a pencil and pad of paper, and I was going back and forth between them taking notes as I went along and ranking them in my head.

All three had dead, discolored strings and a layer of dust you could see by rubbing a finger across the surface – they'd hung in the store unplayed for a long time. So I asked one of the sales guys to restring them for me, which they were happy to do.

As they brought them back to me, I tuned them up and put them through their paces. As I went back and forth, the mando in third place started to sound better to me. After another 20 minutes of playing them, it was my first choice, and it came home with me.

No matter how good they are, instruments that haven't been played for an extended period can 'go to sleep', and no instrument is going to show you what its true voice is like with dead strings on it, so make sure the strings are in good shape and the instrument is fully 'awake' before you make any judgements about it. Then, those first few strums can tell you everything you need to know.

[Jack Roberts]

I've never bought a mandolin with its market value, now or potentially in the future, as a factor in my decision making. I bought an F-4 after playing it for about 6 months when it was on loan to me by its owner, and I finally gave him the typical selling price for an F-4 in similar condition. My other mandolin is an A-1 which I purchased for a price well above the typical selling price because it has such an amazing sound.
The F-4 is for playing at home. It has such a beautiful sound when I play out of old violin books or Bach. The A-1 is very loud for an oval, and I played that in gigs (when we were doing gigs). I sold my F-holed bluegrass cannon from Collings to Phil Salazar as he really admired the sound and playability: he is a professional bluegrass musician and I am not.
I guess my point it that musical instruments are better purchased as something you will enjoy yourself or use in the business of making music rather than as an investment. You'll make a lot more (or lose a lot more) in the stock market than you will with a mandolin. But you can't play Bach on shares in Tesla on a quiet evening after everyone else has gone to bed.