View Full Version : Say it ain't so
Here, check this (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10179&item=3747335605&rd=1) out. It looks like a cheap import.
Feel free to correct me, I can take it.
Jim Hilburn
Sep-09-2004, 3:49pm
It ain't so.
grandmainger
Sep-09-2004, 4:17pm
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif That's one bizzare looking scroll.
John Rosett
Sep-09-2004, 4:30pm
i had a 70's hondo f5 that looked exactly like that, right down to the funky flowerpot. i've also seen the "vivi" (not "vivi-tone")logo on some other cheap import guitars.
the one i had was all plywood, and probably the worst mando that i've every played. the good part is that i only paid $50. for it, and once i put a seymore duncan humbucking pickup in it, it didn't sound too bad...
john
Bill Snyder
Sep-09-2004, 7:35pm
ViViTone was Lloyd Loars baby, but from from reading THIS (http://www.siminoff.net/pages/loar_contributions.html) on Roger Siminoff's site the ebay mandolin does not fit the description or the picture Siminoff has.
The ViViTone line continued on after Loar left and perhaps this mando is from that later period.
Don't think I'd be interested in bidding on this one.
Philip Halcomb
Sep-09-2004, 8:24pm
If Loar started passing off stuff like that I would have to say the man either had a drinking problem or lived the latter-part of his life in a padded cell... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Strado Len
Sep-10-2004, 8:50am
Vivi is to Vivi-tone as Givson is to Gibson.
Strado-Len is correct. It is not a vivi-tone. It's a cheap import. This is almost fraud.
TommyK
Sep-13-2004, 11:35am
My money is on Harmony.
I have a Stella made by Harmony Est. 18(something). The underlined portion is important because that was added to the Harmony tradename when it moved overseas. If you look at the back side of the headstock, there is a round label that looks like a baseball. My Stella has the same label. It indicates 'made in Korea' and an inspector's (?) number penned on it. Harmony made instruments in Chicago until the 1970s when it sold out and moved the name overseas. I estimate my Harmony was made in the late 70's. This one may be of the same vintage. I bought it for my kids to plink around on. I paid $25.00 for her on a garage sale. It was worth every dime!... all 250 of 'em. It sounds like a $25.00 guitar so I got my money's worth.
The way the description is worded, to me, sounds like a bit of interesting Loar history followed by, "oh by the way I have this mando to sell." The bid is up to $103. and may be worth it from a collectability (?) standpoint. However, you can buy a brandspanking new oriental mando for about the same AND it will have a new set of strings!
Oh my, someone's gonna pay at least 280 for this piece of crapola. On the one hand, I feel like it's almost fraud, but he's answered questions for all to see, and the label doesn't say vivitone, and he's stated that in his response, so...
thistle3585
Sep-14-2004, 2:53pm
I live 10 minutes from Edinburgh. I'm going to email him and see if I can go over and look at it. Any specific questions you want answered post them by 6 pm.
Oh, heck I don't think this is worth it to email him, I don't think it's a fraud like those we've seen, I think it's a textbook example of caveat emptor. ( buyer beware) And some misleading ad copy.