Nugget/Collings Tim O'Brian Model

[JiminRussia]

I see that Mandolin Brothers is starting to adertise the Tim O'Brian model. Has anyone seen one of these. have you played it? I would be interested in any inormation that you may have on it. Is there a web site that has photos and specs?

[64lusso]

I asked this very same question about two or three months ago, at that point no one had taken delivery of one but a few had played the prototype (or demo model) that had been making the rounds at some of the shows. Most of the comments seem to indicate that there aren't going to be a lot of them made, I think there may be between five and twelve in the first run which should get delivered this year. I signed up with Mando brothers and am second on their list but they couldn't give me any idea when I could expect to see it.

[JiminRussia]

According to the blurb on the Mandolin Bros. web site, they are expecting one in any day now and they only have one deposit for "right of first refusal", or is it "first right of refusal? Whatever.... They also say that there will be twent-four of these made per year with Collings gettting half of them for distribution to their dealers. I expect that they will go pretty quickly even at around five grand per copy. I was just wondering if nsayone had had one delivered yet.

[Scotti Adams]

SOMETHING COMING (SOMETHING GOOD): Information about The new Nugget/Collings Tim O’Brien model mandolin: This new model will be priced at $5500 or at our Cash Discount Price $5335. The whole story, as we understand it, is this: #24 will be made this year. #Mr. Nugget gets 12 to sell on his own. #Collings gets 12 to sell on their own. # Since only 12 will be available this whole year and since Collings has around 65 dealers (I would imagine, anyway) most Collings dealers will not be able to get one at all. #We have already reserved one (with the quietly spoken possibility of "maybe two"). #We know that at this time we wrote these woids we have one (only 1) $100 right of first refusal deposit on a Tim O'Brien model. #If you were to provide deposit #2 then, if guy #1 passes when the time comes for him to buy the mandolin, OR, if we were somehow able to glom 2 of the 12 mandolins instead of just one, then you would be the second person in line to get one. If, however, we’ve received Deposit 2 then you’d be Deposit 3, or 4, or 5, or whatever. It could be a while. As an unrelated example we have around eleven (11) deposits on Kim Walker guitars. Do you feel . . . . lucky? Cited by Mandolin Bros.

[wallflower]

I was recently at the Collings shop in Austin. #I can attest that there is no way they'll make 24 Tim O Nugget/Collings mandolins this year. #They might have two or three that are being made right now. #I think maybe one or two have been delivered since last year when they were announced. #Apparently the proto-type was made with an Engleman top. #But I don't think the regular production models will be made with Engleman. #I think they are all red spruce.

An interesting side note: #They said that the MT's are being made with Engleman tops where as the MF, MT-2 and MF5 are all made with red spruce tops.

It was certainly interesting to see how they make their guitars and mandolins.