Hysterical Fender Mandolin Banjo

[MikeEdgerton]

I'm pretty sure Leo had nothing to do with this.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rare-Fender-Mandolin-Banjo-Banjolin-/151847604920?hash=item235ad292b8

OK, I'm positive Leo had nothing to do with this.

For posterity:

[Jeff Mando]

Looks like 50 years of crud, nicotine, and life on top of that decal.....must have been faked in the 60's....why?, we may never know!

Or maybe, some kid just had a decal laying around -- I put decals on everything when I was a kid -- :))

[allenhopkins]

The people who sell "reproduction" decals -- "for restoration only," of course -- have a lot to answer for in terms of the phony Fenders, Martins, Gibsons et. al. that show up on eBay and elsewhere.

Yet, when I had a local luthier make a "repro" 5-string neck for my '20's Gibson Mastertone GB-3 guitar-banjo, I'm sure he purchased a reproduction "Gibson" inlay somewhere -- not without sin, myself...

[MikeEdgerton]

I have Fender decals that I bought for projects I've yet to finish. I found them with a simple Google search. "The Gibson" pearl logo's are readily available. Most of the time these things end up on instruments that aren't even close to the originals (Like this one) but they could end up on a believable instrument I suppose.

Adding what appears to be 60 years of crud isn't as hard as you might think :cool:

[multidon]

People who aren't in the know might think the abalone Fender "inlay" on the head stock of my octave mandolin is a joke. But it's not!

For those who don't know, they actually did make octave mandolins and bouzoukis branded Fender for a few years. They were made in Korea and bear a striking similarity to Trinity College instruments.

[MikeEdgerton]

At least yours wasn't made a few decades before Fender was established.

[MikeEdgerton]

The seller has now changed his description. I told him what he had, he says he doesn't want to mislead anyone but now he's misleading:


This may be a super rare, Fender mandolin banjo. I have researched it and cannot find another like it. I am unsure of the vintage because there is no marking or model numbers visible of any kind. It could be a banjolin, or banjolene, mandolin, etc. It has 8 strings. Fender is clearly visible on the headstock, and that is the only marking. I will provide you with any additional specific images if you want to email me.It is obviously old and well wore out. It has chips, dings, scratches, etc.. (2) of the strings are missing. I assume it would be playable with a little adjustment and new strings. I don't want to mislead anyone, I make no claims of its history other than its old. Ships for 20 dollars to the US Mainland. *Based on feedback this may or may not be a Fender produced instrument. Do your research. It could have been made elsewhere, imported and had the Fender logo added. The logo looks authentic and period correct, but I do not know for sure. Fender could have tried to use their logo to sell these at some point, or some teenage misfit could have added the decal in the 50's. All this adds to the mystery! Is it a one off prototype from the custom shop? After speaking with a Fender factory rep, it could have been a Fender licensed import. Fender did offer their name to various instruments, although Fender has no official record of what these may have been.

The problem here is that even without the Fender decal it isn't worth what he's asking for it. It was manufactured before Fender guitar was a company.

[Jeff Mando]

Well, it's not misleading to any of the informed members of this forum, but to the general public, yes it is. And even though it is certainly old, that isn't enough of a selling point. Kind of like calling a Stella a Martin with the hopes of getting more money for it.

About 15 years ago, I attended a vintage guitar show in Newport, Kentucky at a hotel, not a very big show, but OK. Most of your typical type stuff with huge prices, of course. Well, one fella had the most amazing display of ES-175 type copies, all with the Gibson name, although none were actually Gibson, I'm sure none were even Epiphone, probably the cheapest of the cheap Korean or Indonesian stuff. Nothing looked right. All had been modified, sanded on, you know, D+ grade stuff. All the logos weren't even decals or inlaid or computer generated, most looked like they were cut from Gibson string boxes and glued on. Real sloppy. He wasn't asking much for his stuff, you know, $150 or so, so he wasn't really trying to pull a scam, at least not a good one! I'm sure he had never been to a guitar show before and was just bringing some guitars from his "hobby" to sell. Again, he wasn't fooling anybody, but I often wonder how blissful life could be operating that far outside of the "loop".

Of course, legally, another issue entirely. As long as he keeps 'em in his house, probably not a problem. But, selling something to the public at a guitar show or eBay, is asking for a copyright violation, even something so obviously wrong.

[allenhopkins]

Seller's grasping at straws. Ninety-nine-point-nine probability that the only thing "Fender" about this is the decal, and that's a repro too.

"Prototype from the custom shop," my a--.

[brunello97]

It could be a Larson. I'm not saying it is, but there is a possibility that it is a Larson. I've seen some Larson headstocks that look like this and they were known to make instruments for companies that went out of business before Fender got started. But Leo Fender knew about those companies which makes it very likely that this could be a Larson.

Mick

[MikeEdgerton]

Stop it you're killing me. :)

I just reported it as a counterfeit. If the seller isn't going to do the right thing we'll see if ebay will.

[jim simpson]

It certainly seems like the seller is not being honest based on his revised disclaimer. Not how we like to see sellers behave.