Need guidance, and medicated more

[spenser]

Good evening and let me first preface this with "I obviously need to be medicated but." I am the proverbial big man, fat fingers that needed to play mandolin. Took the guidance of the board and purchased the Breedlove FF several months ago. LOVED IT! TEACHER LOVES IT, wanted to borrow it for a gig that he had. All was well in Breedlove land until I played a Collings over the holidays. It was NEW LOVE, like the Red Rider BB GUn, Ferrari Coupe or Corvette or Blonde in the corner, pick one or all of the above or fill in the blank your way. Drop dead love, gotta have this or my life wont be complete LUST. Long story short now, and you all know where this is going, I now find myself thinking that the breedlove is too tinny, or not woody enough and boy would a Collings sure do the trick and I am cruising the websites looking for the Collings Wide Nut. So, do I need to be medicated? Am I nuts? What would the MT, which I am drawn to, sound like or compare to Breedlove or is Collings the it right now? And how does the A style compare to the F? Thank you all for enabling and supporting that "my name is Dave and I have a Mandolin Problem"

[mandolirius]

You are in the early stages of MAS. It's not fatal. If you want to move up, and it's not a financial burden, why not? There's a school of thought that goes along the line of "be happy with what you have, focus on learning to play, don't get above your raisin" and so on. Sooner or later you'll get something that you like well enough to hang onto for a while. In the meantime, if you have some disposable income then go for it. Trying different mandolins is fun!

[steve V. johnson]

Which Collings was it that you played that so completely tipped your life over?

Not that it's at all pertinent to your problem, I'm just curious. #The several other Objects of Desire were so nicely described...

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

stv

For what it's worth, you won't find many in this forum who'll try to talk you out of spending money.

[atetone]

Yeah,yeah,yeah,,,
You have it, you'll keep having it, and it doesn't go away.
It just gets worse.
Insidious, chronic MAS.
You just have to learn to live with it.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JEStanek]

Don't buy the Collings. You'll love it and then you'll play a X built by this sweet luthier with a z year wait list and you'll start alllllll over again.

OK. Now one person on the board has told you what you should do with your very own, hard earned money. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Actually, you've just been diagnosed with end stage MAS. Good luck! Have fun with it, man. I played a Collings MT once, it was a pretty powerful mandolin. KC Groves of Uncle Earl plays one quite well and earns a living with it. She's also got a heap of talent.

Just kidding about not buying a new one. If you can afford it, there are far more expensive hobbies, golf, yachting, horses, adultery. MAS is fairly benign in comparison.

Jamie

[spenser]

You guys are really no help! I thought that when I added the Mandolin to the guitar stable that GAS didnt change into MAS! The collings that I tried was an F style with standard neck. Never have tried the MT yet, nor the wide nut. My "friend" that let me try the Colllings is also big, and he said wide nut wasnt needed, and he seemed to be kind of right. Dont have large yachts, only the old man fishing boat and canoe, dont have many fly rods, just enough and havent bought a new one of those for years, and only have an even number of guitars, so I guess that an A would complement an F in this case! The thing that is really funny is that I am finding that I like the mandolin more than the guitars, and am actually considering trading one of the guitars, which are normal, non-high end stuff, to pay for the mando. You guys really are incideous over here,

[West]

Here's how I see it. #

Assume that a new mandolin costs $1500. #Assume that you have $1500 in cash. #Now, you can either hold on to that $1500 in cash, getting tiny bits of interest as the dollar falls against other currency, or you could put it into a mandolin, which you'll probably be able to sell at roughly what you paid for it at some point, and perhaps make a new friend doing so through the classifieds. #Either way, you've got $1500 -- one form is just more liquid than the other -- but you can't play a stack twenty dollar bills!

Even if you have to take out a loan, the math works out the same. #Your new $1500 mandolin would exactly offset the cost of the $1500 loan, leaving you exactly where you were before you bought the mandolin . . . but now you have something to play!

ti yuB ti yuB ti yuB ti yuB. #(Backmasking messsages a la the White Album straight to your subconscious.)

[C. Carr]

Could be worse. I played a Gilchrist at a jam last week. It belongs to my instructor, since he's seen how I treat my instruments I suppose he thought it would be safe in my hands. I am still lusting over that Gilchrist. As soon as I get my 9 year old through college............

Regards,
Charlie Carr
New Orleans

[clarksavage]

Spenser - it goes the other way, too. I thought "just one guitar" in the music room would round out my mandolins, octave mandolins and bouzouki. No. I just HAD to have the mahogany. Then I fell in love with a rosewood dread with red spruce top. It is my last instrument, I swear.

Clark

[shadco]

It was NEW LOVE, like the Red Rider BB GUn, Ferrari Coupe or Corvette or Blonde in the corner, pick one or all

The only cure...

Kill 2 birds with 1 stone. A Blond Collings.

We are here to help after all. ;)




http://www.pbase.com/shadco/image/91370144.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/shadco/image/91370146.jpg

[catmandu2]

As bad as I am about acquiring instruments...I couldn't resist the "blonde" in the corner. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Salty Dog]

As with many pleasures in life, it helps to rationalize starting with basic assumptions. #If you live to be 150 years old and play 8 hours a day, simply compute your cost per hour for this mandolin and you will see that you really cannot afford to do WITHOUT it!

[Daniel Wheeler]

I like the way you think salty dog!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Ken Feil]

Salty tou're a genius...thank you, I feel better.

Ken

[jim_n_virginia]

Get the Collins but do NOT sell the Breedlove. And 6 months from now when you want the next one do not sell the two you have. Keep doing this and you TOO can have a long sig line with all your instruments listed! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[billkilpatrick]

one of the catholic saints - augustine, i think - said something to the effect that he wanted to live a sin-free life ... but not just yet. i feel the same way about mas - i'm longing for the instrument that will allow me to forsake all others (oh happy day)- the one with the well-worn fingerboard that will go with me to my grave, many, many, many years from now.

[JGWoods]

Breedloves area phase.
You have come to the end of your Breedlove phase.
No surprise here says this former Breedlove owner.

(I liked my OO Quartz a lot too)