Mandolin vs Guitar price????

[godot]

Why is a high-line mandolin more expensive than an equivalent guitar. I have been looking at Collings mandos and many cost more than my Martin D-45. The Martin has much more "bling" and both are American made? Thanks for your input....

[sgarrity]

Carved, arched top versus a flat top.

[Relio]

I was told by a top builder that an F style mandolin takes about twice as long to build than an A style mandolin. Guitars have a lot of straight pieces of wood, mandolins have a lot of curves. I'm thinking curves take more time, which equals more labor, hence higher price.

[CarlM]

Compare them to an arch top guitar of comparable quality. Then the guitar will be similar. Or compare to violins which require a similar amount of work.

[T.D.Nydn]

Compare them to an arch top guitar of comparable quality. Then the guitar will be similar. Or compare to violins which require a similar amount of work.

Seriously,,,have you seen the prices of custom jazz guitars!....

[UsuallyPickin]

A great deal more "hand work" is needed in the carving and assembly of a mandolin most especially and "F" model.

[CarlM]

Seriously,,,have you seen the prices of custom jazz guitars!....

Yes, I was being understated, hoping the original poster would look and find out for themself. A friend of mine has a son working for Benedetto.

Fiddles could have the same shock. Compare the price of a Lloyd Loar signed mandolin to a fiddle signed by Antonio Stradivari or Guarneri del Jesu

[Caleb]

Mandolins are just cooler than guitars, so they cost more.

[Mandoplumb]

Mandolins are just cooler than guitars, so they cost more.

+1

[jmagill]

All else being equal, the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. Hard to get a big sound from a little box, so you pay for it.

[Ausdoerrt]

All else being equal, the bigger the box, the bigger the sound. Hard to get a big sound from a little box, so you pay for it.

And yet my $200 The Loar is louder than a majority of guitars I've played with, some significantly more expensive...


I'd like to throw in another theory - it's all about the economies of scale. The guitar market is much larger, there is more demand, so the product is cheaper. Once you get into the niche/custom market (like archtop/jazz guitars), the price starts to climb.

It's really the same with electric guitar vs electric violin - the latter is 2/3x more expensive for no reason other than the fact that it's a niche market.

As popular as the mandolin can be in certain circles/areas, I'd say the mando market isn't even in the same ballpark as the guitar market.

[sunburst]

Why is a high-line mandolin more expensive than an equivalent guitar.

We've been through the whole "equivalent" guitar thing around here several times, and it has already been mentioned that a jazz archtop is a more direct comparison to a carved mandolin. Now consider this: most archtop guitars are more or less equivalent to an "A"-style mandolin. Most "high-line" mandolins are all dolled up with curlicues and pointy decorations all over them. Imagine a jazz archtop guitar with points and scrolls and imagine what that might cost.
So the answer to the question "Why is a high-line mandolin more expensive than an equivalent guitar[?]" is: they're not, not by a large margin.

[T.D.Nydn]

I heard or read somewhere that it takes like 300 hours to make a F model mandolin...is that true?...

[samlyman]

The OP specifically compared Collings mandolins to his Martin D-45 guitar. If you compare an MF5, MF5V or MF5 Deluxe with the D-45 there is not that much difference in price!

[Marty Jacobson]

Also, there's the String Scale Factor. With mandolins, you're getting two whole extra strings. So the prices should be compensated accordingly. A $1200 guitar costs $200 per string, whereas a $1200 mandolin only costs $150 per string.

[Mandobart]

I'd like to throw in another theory - it's all about the economies of scale. The guitar market is much larger, there is more demand, so the product is cheaper. Once you get into the niche/custom market (like archtop/jazz guitars), the price starts to climb.

As popular as the mandolin can be in certain circles/areas, I'd say the mando market isn't even in the same ballpark as the guitar market.

Yes, this is the primary driver. There are 100 to 1000 guitar players for every mandolin player, so the sales volume is also 100 to 1000 times greater. As volume goes up, competition goes up, costs drop, etc.

[darrylicshon]

I've paid $2000 for an electric guitar which is a good amount for an electric, but i want one that cost 5k don't see me buying it anytime soon. Acoustic guitars if you look around can cost just as much or more. If you pay 2k for either a guitar or mandolin it should be a really nice instrument. Seems like any custom instrument cost way too much

[jmagill]

And yet my $200 The Loar is louder than a majority of guitars I've played with, some significantly more expensive...

Bigger and louder aren't necessarily the same. Just sayin'.

[P-E-Z]

That is on target when the production goes up cost goes down. Sometimes by a lot.

[Canoedad]

That is on target when the production goes up cost goes down. Sometimes by a lot.

See, 12 gauge vs. 410 Shotgun Shells

[allenhopkins]

I heard or read somewhere that it takes like 300 hours to make a F model mandolin...is that true?...

Probably not if it's made by a manufacturer; Eastman (e.g.) wouldn't be making any money charging less than $1K for an instrument that took seven person-weeks to make. Even at Beijing wage scales.

And please note the discussion here centers around carved mandolins, either A-models or F-models. These are the most expensive currently-made instruments, but there are other mandolins, flat-tops and canted-tops, that don't involve carving and are comparably priced to flat-top guitars of similar construction. A Big Muddy M-11, mahogany top, lists on Mike Dulak's website for $765. An all-mahogany Martin 000-15M goes for $1.7K at Guitar Center, 2.5 times the price.

The lowest-priced Eastman carved A-model, the MD-305, goes for $475 at the Mandolin Store. The lowest suggested retail price on an Eastman arch-top (carved) guitar is $1,125, which is again between 2.0 and 2.5 times the price of the mandolin.

So, "apples to apples," carved guitars are significantly more expensive than carved mandolins, and flat-top guitars seem also to be more expensive, by a significant factor, than flat-top mandolins. Which isn't all that surprising.

And of course there are economies of scale, as mentioned above; once you're churning out thousands and thousands of very similar instruments, the way Asian firms manufacture guitars for the export market, your marginal unit cost drops. Even the big Asian makers aren't making mandolins in one percent of the volume that nearby factories are building guitars.

[MikeEdgerton]

Here is a thread from 2005 explaining this that has a few different builders in it. To be totally honest, I asked the same question myself many years ago.