SeanMoyses
May-01-2004, 8:49am
Hi fellow mandophiles,In the U.K. one of the more highly sought after
mandolins are built by Mike Vanden. He has a couple of good endorsers
in Simon Mayor and guitarist Martin Taylor. I too wanted one of his
mandolins after having played one or two at some of the UK bluegrass
festivals and found a used one for 1400GBP (nine years ago this was
still a lot of money!!) and was proud to say "i own a Vanden".
However, a couple of years down the line, things started to turn very
sour. Firstly, the binding shrank and bits started to fall off.
Secondly the neck warped at the heal joint. Most disastrous of all
though was when the top sank on the treble side.This problem finally
cracked the top and made the instrument unplayable. I contacted
Mr.Vanden, explained the problems and asked if he, as the builder,
would satnd by his instrument and repair it (i offered payment of
course since i was not the original owner) but he said that he was
not interested and washed his hands of the mandolin saying "It was
one of my first". He did offer to sell me another used Vanden
mandolin for about 1500GBP but as you might guess, i was very annoyed
that the Vanden mandolin i had was,for all intents and purposes, now
scrap wood and told him to keep his mandolins (or word of that
nature).I have just had the mandolin professionaly rebuilt by Carsten
Schnoor in Hamburg, Germany and it is now, once again a fine
instrument.He told me that the reasons the mandolin originally fell
apart may have been that the neck angle was too severe and also said
that the original top was way too thin. So fellow mandophiles...let
me just say that all traces of "VANDEN" are now removed from my
mandolin and may this be a warning if you consider buying from him.
Sean Moyses
mandolins are built by Mike Vanden. He has a couple of good endorsers
in Simon Mayor and guitarist Martin Taylor. I too wanted one of his
mandolins after having played one or two at some of the UK bluegrass
festivals and found a used one for 1400GBP (nine years ago this was
still a lot of money!!) and was proud to say "i own a Vanden".
However, a couple of years down the line, things started to turn very
sour. Firstly, the binding shrank and bits started to fall off.
Secondly the neck warped at the heal joint. Most disastrous of all
though was when the top sank on the treble side.This problem finally
cracked the top and made the instrument unplayable. I contacted
Mr.Vanden, explained the problems and asked if he, as the builder,
would satnd by his instrument and repair it (i offered payment of
course since i was not the original owner) but he said that he was
not interested and washed his hands of the mandolin saying "It was
one of my first". He did offer to sell me another used Vanden
mandolin for about 1500GBP but as you might guess, i was very annoyed
that the Vanden mandolin i had was,for all intents and purposes, now
scrap wood and told him to keep his mandolins (or word of that
nature).I have just had the mandolin professionaly rebuilt by Carsten
Schnoor in Hamburg, Germany and it is now, once again a fine
instrument.He told me that the reasons the mandolin originally fell
apart may have been that the neck angle was too severe and also said
that the original top was way too thin. So fellow mandophiles...let
me just say that all traces of "VANDEN" are now removed from my
mandolin and may this be a warning if you consider buying from him.
Sean Moyses