Re: What price level and up gets you a "lifelong keeper" mandolin
Originally Posted by
Southern Man
... for most people it is ... related to how much money they have to spend
While that's part of the equation, there's also how much money you feel comfortable spending.
Realistically, any of us who can afford a new car every so often (I run 'em to 100K miles or so) can probably afford almost any quality of mandolin short of the top 1% (Gibson-type Loar or new, say, Dudenbostel). But HALF the price of that new Dudenbostel gets you a wide selection of incredibly high quality, and all you have to do is keep your old car going for an extra 3 or 4 years.
Fortunately for me, even being sortta "comfortable" here in retirement, I'm also comfortable with the quality-but-moderate-bucks mandos that I have: '90s Flatiron F, '17 Gibson A-1, '50s Martin A, '20s Stromberg-Voisinet.
Amusing coincidence, prior to mandolicity, is the '72 "pre-distressed" D-35 that I bought in '90 as a stopgap until I found the just-right HD-28. Eventually, with none of the issues that '72 Martins are supposed to have, it became firmly entrenched as my "lifetime" guitar... ya know, the ole "pry it from my cold dead hands" routine.
So while I sort of might afford that Dude, it'll have to wait for the lottery winings!
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
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