Favorite Mandolins You’ve Owned

[brunello97]

My first love: Gibson EM150, my first mandolin, which I painted an old boy's shed for. I still play it.

Schwab 5-string with dual humbuckers through a fender twin. Flange, chorus, fuzz, compressor.

Luigi Ricca bowlback: Not the best sounding of my bowls but perhaps the prettiest. And one that got away.

Vega built Ditson Leland: the one I had to fight Carlo Aonzo to get back.

We've been through a lot together.


Mick

[Bill McCall]

Hard to choose one child above the others, but this one is a lot of fun.

[Denny Gies]

For me my MAS ended when I got my Randy Wood F5..........period.

[Eric Platt]

Hmm. Not that easy for me.
My current Strad-O-Lin
The Brentrup
Gibson A Jr.

[Scot63]

1910 torch-and-wire F-4, it has the purest tone. I got it for a little less than these usually go for because its finish is so beat.

1910s Stahl bowl back, probably made by Regal. i got it through eBay, and it had no bridge, no binding, and I talked its non-mandolin-playing owner down to $70 rather than advertised $90. I just got obsessed with it. Had to put a couple of hundred dollars of setup/repair into it. It's the only mandolin in my collection that has a nickname: the Hammer, because it is super loud and has overtones to spare, especially in the bass.

1924 Weymann mandolute, cheapest trim version. I got this just a few months ago for a low price. It needed a bridge. I'm playing it a lot lately because it's got this woody, nasally tone that I find attractive in playing both jazz and classical music.

[Mark Gunter]

My favorite was a Collings MT, I do wish I still had it. I love both my current low-end mandolins, a Washburn A mahogany/spruce and an old Ibanez F maple/spruce. Others I did not love are long gone: Eastman F and a couple other low end mandolins that just weren't worth keeping.