What did a mandolin cost 100 years ago?

[Jim Garber]

IMO, the whole thread is idle chatter.

Hah! Step back and look... this whole forum is idle chatter to some of us.

[acousticphd]

I have a few jpg's of old Gibson ads, including the catalog advertisement of the basic Gibson A style for $39. I assume that would have been from the early '20s or late teens. This page shows a 1917 Gibson catalog, in which the list/sale prices were $44/$25 on a basic A-style (pretty good mark-down!):
(http://www.acousticmusic.org/userfiles/file/pdfs/historical-data/Gibson/Gibson%201917%20Catalog%20J.pdf[/URL]

The 26:1 ratio would appear to fairly accurately predict the current price of a vintage teens A-style (~$1000), but I think underestimates what one would cost new today, if it were still being made. If we took a new Gibson A9 as a barometer, the 100 year index would be closer to 50:1 since the 19-teens.

[Astro]

So we actually do have a comparative analysis built right into Mando history.

Just compare the 1920's sale price of the Gibson A (and earlyF) to a 2012 Gibson A and F.

Seems to be pretty close to 100:1.


ps: Was there ever suppose to be a purpose for a forum other than "idle chatter" ?

[JFDilmando]

It has been posted before in other threads, but the listing above of the cost of a '23 model T ford, was just about the same as the price of a Loar mandolin... $250.... thinking of it in terms of yearly wages.... it was expensive... average annual wage was $1236 in this decade.
So in comparison, if one makes $100,000 today, you could expect to pay, 20k or so for the top of the line.. and low and behold, the top luthiers of today, as getting just about that for the F models they are creating.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I'd agree with Allen and Bill since they bought their's then...

[Turnip Mountain Picker]

According to the documetory about Bill Monroe, he states he payed $50 for his famous mandolin in a barber shop in Florida, I cant remember what year but the early 40s

[Mike Bunting]

150.00