2009 Bob Abrams Trillium Irish bouzouki value

[Borgar]

Hi. This is my first post here. I am hoping someone can help me, or direct me towards an answer. What is the market value for a mint condition Trillium irish bouzouki produced in early 2009, with the following specifications?

Back & sides: Claro Walnut
Top: California Redwood
Neck: Mahogany
Faceplate, fingerboard & bridge: Ebony
Fingerboard radius: 16 inches
String scale length: 25.4 inches
Pickup: Fishman
Tailpiece: Randy Allen cast bronze

Thank you in advance!

All the best,
Borgar

[Borgar]

The bouzouki was initially bought from Bob Abrams in 2009 for 3100 USD.

[Mandobar]

It's impossible to assess market value without detailed pictures. I sold two recently through The Music Emporium (TME), and we set the pricing relative to what other instruments of the kind were selling for. However, there was no top sinkage on either instrument (I have seen quite a few of these with tops that sink due to lack of humidity), and the market was quite hot. Things seem to be cooling a bit (before every mandolin that went up for sale danced away immediately. Not so now). This is even more so for the larger style instruments, but Ian would be the best person at TME to consult with.

Someone sold an older model Trillium through the classifieds here for around $2k, the ones at TME sold for over $4k. Granted the $2k sale was an estate sales os some kind. So, sometimes it's not what is being sold, but who is selling the item.

[mandomentch]

[QUOTE have seen quite a few of these with tops that sink due to lack of humidity[/QUOTE]

Are you saying that you've see quite a few Trillium instruments with "tops that sink"? That would be news to me......

[Borgar]

Thank you for your answers. Is it a shared impression in the forum that octave mandolins and bouzoukis don't sell as easily now?

- - - Updated - - -

I can post detailed pictures shortly.

[Jim Garber]

There are three Trillium instruments currently listed on the TME site. Usually they mark ones that are sold and remove the price, so I assume that these are not the ones that Mandobar owned. The cittern is the only one with similar long scale like the OP’s. That one has been there for quite some time and the price has been lowered $400. I bought my 1995 OM from a good friend and based the price on what had been sold on reverb and other sites that listed prices. I think the design had changed a bit from the newer ones but it is a fine instrument with excellent tone and sustain.

I think the price you ask would depend on how quickly you need to sell it. I would also recommend that you list it here in the classifieds and be aware that you should not post a listing in the forum and that should it sell donate 2% of the selling price to the Cafe.

[Mandobar]

[QUOTE have seen quite a few of these with tops that sink due to lack of humidity

Are you saying that you've see quite a few Trillium instruments with "tops that sink"? That would be news to me......[/QUOTE]

Bob,

More recently the Koa octave that was sold at TME. The ad at TME notes the top as “settled, under the bridge.”

There was also a redwood and walnut octave there about a year ago. Obviously humidity, or lack thereof, plays a large part.


Jim, the mandola and cittern were mine. The longer scale instruments are harder to sell. Unless the headstock says “Brock,” LOL.

And yes, Borgar, mandolas, octaves, and mandocellos are harder to sell.

[twaaang]

Mary, are you saying the mango-bodied, 19-inch scale Trillium mandola was yours? Mine now, though naturally you still have visiting rights! So far it has bumped one mandola, and a CGDA tenor guitar. -- Pasul

[Mandobar]

Yes, Paul, that was mine. I had two at one point (one that had belonged to Andy Irvine for a few years), but I bought a Patrick Toole octave a few months back and have been playing it almost exclusively. Actually, it has replaced my guitar at sessions.

[twaaang]

Doh! I make that same typo so regularly I'm ready to just change my name to Pasul . . .