Adding to the Lafferty discussion I have seen much of on these forums...I have had a yearning for an octave mandolin for several years now. I was in Gnashville a while back and went to Carter's. I played a bunch there in a wide price range, and found that I wasn't really knocked out by the sound/style/playability till I got the the $13,000 mark (the Gilchrist was really nice for well over $13k!)...so I did not leave the store with an octave mandolin that day. I have since seen a few of the highly rated used Clark OMs on the classifieds here lately in the $6-8000 range and I starting putting expendable instruments of mine up for sale to potentially fund a purchase, but nothing is moving, so no cash flow. Then a Lafferty F-style came up for A LOT less than the Clarks and I figured I would take a chance on it. The seller listed it as "made in the US" and it looked pretty nice. I did not notice this when I viewed the supplied photos, but the upon receipt my eyes immediately fell on the 3 screws attaching truss rod adjustment cover and the manner in which the headstock binding terminates under the nut. This, plus the look of the volute on the back of the headstock, immediately scream Made in Asia to me. I examined the body interior and all of the work looked very good. I have read about the Lafferty instruments that ARE made in the US by a couple of small shops and speculated (based on the seller's "made in the US" claim) that perhaps an Asian made neck was married to a US body, but that seemed unlikely. I finally contacted Dennis at TMS and he explained that they had "3 or 4" of these made in China, but then decided against putting them into regular production. The prototype status of this instrument solved the mystery for me of this having no interior label, date, model designation...not a pencil mark or anything inside of the instrument. My reason for the post is because of many other threads on these forums about Lafferty instruments and the confusion over/discussion about their origins. It seems they offer models in both US made and Asian made versions. I have no legit beef with the seller as it was consigned to a retail shop and this shop was merely repeating the info supplied by the consigner. Addressing the instrument itself, I am a couple days into having it in my possession and not sure if it will fully satisfy. There is the usual "budget import" high spot on the fretboard at the body join, and lack of fine truss rod adjustment, eliminating the attainment of low string height. The strings on it are light and I am awaiting arrival of a heavier set, so there is plenty of string-on-frets rattling when I dig into it and I have the action jacked up higher than I'd like. If I keep it I will undoubtably yank the frets and plane down the high spot on the 'board and probably install some higher-grade tuners. Dennis at TMS did offer that "we sold them for like 2499. If that was built in the USA it would be a 5 or 6k instrument". In closing, you will either see further posts with me raving about this great deal on an octave mandolin and how you should seek out the other 2 or 3 that reportedly exist...or you will see it listed in the classifieds...the jury is still out.
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