Hey all,
I am in the market for a "new" mandolin and the KM-Dawg has caught my attention especially because I am in love with the Montelone Grand Artist, but come up $20,000 short of owning one. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone owns/has played a Dawg and what do they think, i.e. sound, looks, craftmanship? Also, does anyone know what they run for (price) and if any vendors in their area, or on the web, have one for sale? Just assessing my options. Thanks for reading.
James
i've owned an early (84) DAWG, and they are very nice mandolins for that price, being an almost exact copy of a Monteleone. although they were imported, they were the top tier in every respect. #i would say, if you are into the dawg style, or jazzier stuff, they are a perfect fit, as they play like butter, and have a very balanced tone. but beware they are not suited so well for bluegrass. they dont have the bottom end and cutting power that most bluegrassers are looking for. to be honest, most Monteleones are similiar. just a different unique sound. just dont expect it to cut over a banjo.
i still have an early (85) KM-1500 which was Kentucky's loar version. i must say it is an awesome mandolin, well deserving of the reputation these instruments have gotten over the years, and even though i now have a Nugget, a Paganoni, and an F5L, the 1500 is still a keeper.
i sold mine on ebay last year at this exact time, so you're exactly one year too late, for $2300. that was a deal, and most of the ones i have seen since are in the $2800-3000 range, just depending on the year and condition (early ones are more desired because of Sumi's hand) they are very rare though, and its best to just do a google search every now and then to see if you get any hits. mine came from a gypsy band in the netherlands and looked like it had a healthy gypsy life. i bought one for the same reason you are looking for one (kicking myself in the rear for passing on a real monteleone before they broke the $10K barrier) but for the situation that i was using it for, it just lacked what my other mandolins excelled at........taming banjos.
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BEWARE--- that DAWG that has been on ebay twice over the last few weeks is a SCAM, so dont go bidding on it. that was actually my old Dawg, someone stealing the old photos and description. see the thread from a week ago.
I have a nice KM-1500 for sale as well as scans of the original FRETS magazine articles on Kentucky mandolins posted on my website.
http://www.vintagemandolin.com/kentu...iclepage1.html
Best regards,
Charles Johnson
www.vintagemandolin.com
Hey Kudzugypsy, you said that the earlier ones are more desirable, what years are those?
Michael Lettieri
well i am far from an authority on these, and info is scarce. see the above linked article by frets mag for as much info as you will find out there. its been a while since i've read that article, so much of what i'm going to say may be in there.
to my understanding, monteleone when over to supervise the start up of the dawg models in around 81(?) and at the time there were a very small group of expert luthiers working on these instruments, the shop foreman being Sumi (cant spell last name) Japan's version of Lloyd Loar....the same luthier that now makes them under his own name. true to Japanese engineering they diesected a 20's F5 and had Monteleone set up the Dawg models. these mandolins were NOT cheap asian imports. they listed for KM-1500 at $1595 and the Dawg (KM-2000) at $1695. keep in mind that at the time you could get a real Mont for $2500 (1984), so the price difference was not all that substancial. it was just cheaper due to monetary exchange rates to build them in japan at the time because the dollar was stonger than the yen...i.e you could build a better mandolin cheaper than in the US at the time. (remember this is still the era where american manufacturing is at a low point) now forward a few years to the late 80's and the whole economic picture had changed. japans yen is WAY stronger than the dollar and it now costs MORE to build the same instrument in japan as in the US, which is beginning to get it manufacturing back in line. so, just as any corp tring to balance quality with profits, the mandolins started to decline somewhat in their quality. eventually, the japanese moved production to Korea in the early 90's, and now as we all know, the kentucky brand (no longer in the hands of the original owners) moved production to China. so basicly its the same old why is a loar more than a late 20's fern debate.
basicly when Saga started production on pre-war banjos and mandolins they really did strive to meet the original specs and feel of the pre-war gibsons, going as far as analysing original tone ring formulas (the first to really go hi-tech with this), and even getting wood from the original mills in Michigan where all the pre-war gibson maple came from. in the end they were just the victim of exchange rate economics.
as a note, the entire early Saga line of instruments are really killer instruments and hold with anything of that era. for all you who follow such things, there was just the holy grail of Saga instruments on ebay, an 81 Gold Star #JD Crowe banjo that went for $4600!!! that is more than you could get for a used Gibson Granada today!!! the Gold Star banjos have long had a reputation as fine instruments and the Kentucky high end mandos are just as good.
Great explanations concerning the Kentucky mandolins but I have to interfere concerning the Monteleone Grand Artist. I'm among the lucky ones who ordered a mandolin from John in 1981 and got it in august 82. I've been playing it since then and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I'm mostly playing bluegrass and I can ensure you that it really does the job. It is a powerful mandolin even at playing "Rawhide".
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!
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