ARTIST Thompson & Odell

[dlawson]

I was recently given this Thompson & Odell ARTIST mandolin. It is missing the tailpiece cover so I am trying to find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am also curious as to the value of this instrument. It is serial number 1113.

Thanks for your help.

Doug

[bmac]

The tailpiece likely uses a "cloud" tailpiece cover. these come up fairly often on eBay and sell for $20 up to maybe $40. You probably cannot just buy the tailpiece cover but will most likely have to buy the whole tailpiece unit. The same tailpiece was used on flat back mandolins. Keep your eye on ebay for bowlback mandolins as you can sometimes find them in poor condition with the tailpiece unit intact. The tailpiece was usually not unique to the manufcaturer of the mandolin but the same style tailpiece would be found on lots of mandolin brands. I would suggest buying a complete tailpiece as if you buy only a cover it may not fit your unit.
You can also find some which suggest clam shells these would be of the correct era as well. There is a modern Clam shell tailpiece available which is supposed to replicate the originals but they don't and I would suggest looking for an old one.

I am not knowledgeable about bowlbacks value but unless they are unusual they are usually surprisingly inexpensive. Although in pretty good shape yours does not appear to be an expensive instrument. I would guestimate $200 in good working order, but that is a wild guess and I would defer to the experts on bowlbacks who will show up shortly.

[bmac]

Here's a Vega with an cloud tailpiece. Vega bought out Thompson and Odell.. Maybe this site will give you a better idea of instrument value, if in good condition, though yours is less ornate.

http://antebelluminstruments.blogspo...-mandolin.html