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Hmm, some fella over at thesession.org posted in a thread there that he owns a "US made solid top flat top Kentucky mandolin, similar to a Flatiron...." I have never heard of such a thing. The guy is in the UK - could he be mistaken or did Kentucky indeed have a US made flat top model? Just curious, and late for work now - uh-oh!
Cheers,
Jill
The Saga company has their location as San Fransisco on the labels. Maybe that's where the confusion comes from. I had an argument at a flea market a few months ago with a guy claiming his low end Kentucky was US made.I have never seen a flat top though. ??
I think I've seen photos here of sunburst army/navy style Kentucky flat tops but don't think any Kentuckys were made in the US.
I've seen a few. IIRC, they were laminated or had laminated backs. They were supposedly going to reintroduce them a couple of years back and some prototypes were floating around the Web, including an all-solid model. As far as I know, they were all made overseas. I don't think Saga has anything made in the States.
Hi Jill - I think the model numbers were KM-100 & KM-100S, the former being all laminate, and the latter with a solid top only, and they were indeed imported as were/are the rest of the Kentucky line-up. (IIRC they were imported during Saga's Korea era.)
Here is an older listing at Elderly for a KM-100S, with pics: http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/90U-4006.htm.
Also, here is a discussion thread from 2006 on this model.
Ah just what I thought - hope that poor bloke in the UK didn't pay a fortune for his "US made" Kentucky!
Cheers,
Jill
No saga built kentuckys were ever built here in the u.s. Maybe it was a handbuilt copy of the army-navy built buy soneone who resides in the ole KY
Many of the Kentuckys had a label inside that said San Francisco, Ca. and had a "Made in <country of choice>" sticker on the back of the neck. One of these in the UK with the "Made in" label missing could easily be mistakenly identified as made in the US. I think that's what we're dealing with.
I would know if i could see a pic i have owned just about every kentucky mandolin made.