MAS strategies

[Jack Roberts]

I have been saving a small amount of money each week in order to buy two different instruments from two builders with waiting lists.

Custom built instruments aren't inexpensive, and I am not wealthy, but I have accumulated some money by now, about 1/4 of what I need.

To you victims of MAS, do you buy lesser, resell, add more money and buy higher, or do you save for what you want. What is the strategy you employ to enjoy your disease?

[Wesley]

I've sold very few instruments over the years. I've been lucky enough to save for what I want. One of the things I like to do is save all of my spare change evey day and put it in my piggy bank { I'm not kidding }. That way I can tell my wife "It's just spare change". The cokes in the machine here at work only cost a quarter so I can easy come home with two or three dollars every day. It adds up. And from time to time when I talk myself out of a purchase of some sort I'll put that amount in my credit union account that is strictly for musical toys. I'm about halfway toward getting my Weber Mandola.

[Jack Roberts]

Which Weber Mandola? I was lusting after the "Bighorn" mandola. But I am now half way to a Coombe Mandola.

Jack

[Lee]

Oh my, a Coombe Mandola, I'm drooling. I played a Coombe A5 and it was the best sounding mandolin I have ever heard, barr none. Will yours be an oval hole or F hole model?

[Jack Roberts]

I've saved half the money and waited about 1/3 the way. So I've got a ways to go. BTW, it's oval. I am also saving to buy an f-holed Red Diamond.

The Coombe mandola is for classical music, the RD is for bluegrass. I play a '58 Gibson A-5 now, but I would never sell it. It is a "player's" instrument, being of no interest to a collector, but worn in enough that it sounds better than almost any new mandolin I've played in the music shops, with the exception of a Sam Bush F-5 and an amazing Collings I came across.

I guess the collings is the reason for my question. With a little effort, I could buy the collings, and sell it later to buy the Red Diamond and the Coombe, when the waiting list is done. But if I buy the collings, I would never have the money to but the other two, or even one of the other two, unless I sold the Collings. So what should my strategy be?

[mad dawg]

I don't have an effective strategy for dealing with MAS yet. My wife can't comprehend that we all need far more than one mandolin, so not only do I have to hide any funds I build up for a purchase, but I would also have to hide the new mandolin once I get it.

BTW, I forget who posted it a while back, but the best strategy I've ever heard for hiding new purchases from a spouse, is to keep buying mandolins with the same finish. Unless you make a mistake and let them see your collection all at once (or heaven forbid, you have your new acquisition shipped directly to your house), they might just assume that the brand new mandolin you are playing is the same one you have always had. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[onlyagibsonisgoodenuff]

I don't know about buying a Collings just to resell it, you might get it and like it so much you'll want to keep it. That's what happened to me. I have borrowed money from the credit union to fund mas, but that's because I'm lousy at saving money. At least I knew I HAD to make the payments.