Newbie question

[Dante221]

Hello All
Is Breedlove no longer making their American Series
mandolins? Having trouble finding any still available.
Thanks :)
Dante

[Mark Wilson]

http://breedlovemusic.com/blog/breedlove-suspends-usa-mandolin-production-for-2016

[lflngpicker]

I must say, as much as I haven't had the pleasure of owning a USA made Breedlove, I have certainly fancied the idea in a serious way several times. I think this is a loss to players looking for options in affordable, hand carved mandolins, built in the states. Reminds me of what Ovation and Guild did with guitars, moving all production out of North America in recent years. I believe both had to come back to the US for some of their line in order to maintain the support from serious musicians. You can't beat the US versions of either of those. Tell us it ain't so, Breedlove!

[Dante221]

Well I did it!
I just ordered a new Breedlove FF-VTG from Folkmusician.com.
Thanks to you Mark and Dan for the heads-up. I figured something was up
when these were so hard to find.
American Made...World Played!
Dante

[Mark Gunter]

My first visit to the Breedlove site this year, and I have to say, they've created a rather annoying new web design that features instruments swinging like pendulums when you mouse over the images.

[Steve Ostrander]

Lucky for me I got my American ff before the merger and before the overseas factory build. I love the sound and playability. I played a Crossover and I was not impressed.

[multidon]

There seems to be plenty of NOS Breedlove Americans out there. Elderly still lists them in stock, as does The Mandolin Store.

A few months ago I attempted to sell my FO American on our Classifieds. I tried to sell it for 1100 and it just sat. I reduced it to 1000 and it still just sat. These are 1699 street now by the way, and the ones you see are not nearly as nice looking as mine, which has some of the prettiest flame on the back that you ever would want to see. So I am forced to conclude that the market for Breedloves is soft.

It always seemed to me that Breedlove designed its mandolins for ease of manufacture rather than going by what mandolin buyers actually want. We all seem to expect a hand fitted dovetail neck joint or at least a mortise and tenon. Breedlove gives us a bolt on butt joint. We all love scrolls, which are difficult to carve, so Breedlove gives us a much easier to make hook scroll. We all love the traditional looking, tricky to carve f holes so Breedlove gives us the sleek, streamlined funny looking but easier to cut f holes.

It just seems to me that ultimately they misread the mandolin market, deciding instead to depend on their guitar reputation and hoping to sell mandolins to their guitar buyers.

[George R. Lane]

It seems to me when Two Old Hippies bought Breedlove they were probably thinking about outsourcing their mandolin production to reach the beginner market. With the acquisition of Weber they already had a foothold in the high quality mandolin market. I would expect they might discontinue the Breedlove mandolins and move some of the lower line of Webers' to China, namely the Gallatin and Bitterroot lines. I hate the thought of that happening but, the business and profits come before everything else.

[almeriastrings]

Breedlove did (past tense) have some really, really nice "higher end" mandolins at one point. They also had some amazingly good very 'traditional' styled OM and Dreadnought guitars. These things were (past tense again) quite simply beautiful, powerful and flawlessly constructed with top-grade materials. For whatever reason (possibly because they kept changing models on a constant basis) they never 'caught on' and if you do see them now, they are at really silly low prices... totally undervalued for what they are. Very sad, because they were making really classy instruments.... now, they seem to be a "brand". I use one of their erstwhile 'traditional' pin-bridge guitars as my main stage guitar, and it stands right up there as good as any of my vintage Martins... such a shame.

[multidon]

George, Bruce himself chimed in on a discussion of this topic some months ago and stated categorically that there are absolutely no plans to outsource any of the Weber production.

Of course when Weber was acquired by Two Old Hippies I am certain that Mr. Weber and Mr. Bedell signed a contract. I am also fairly certain that the contract was very long, with lots of legalese. I am equally certain Mr. Breedlove and Mr. Bedell also signed a contract. Each deal was a separate event and I would bet the provisions of each contract were different.

Judging by the behavior of both Breedlove and Weber since their respective merger, I would speculate that somewhere in the contract wth Weber, Bruce retained at least some autonomous control over his division, while Breedlove did not. I have no personal knowledge of this, but it seems like there has been a steady downgrading of the Breedlove mandolin line, starting with eliminating both the dark sunburst and natural finishes and replacing both with only that gawdawful orange burst. Then they started using plain wood with no figure whatsoever. Then they introduced the Crossover line. Even the most clueless could surely see where all that was leading. By contrast, since the merger, Weber has introduced an expanded line of carved top octave mandolins and upgraded their Bitterroot line. Only positive changes. I am pretty sure the cancellation of their flat top line came pre merger. I may be wrong. But certainly since the merger Weber quality has only gone up, not down. That is the reason for my speculation, and I admit it is only speculation, that as long as Bruce has anything to say about it, there will be no Chinese Webers.

[George R. Lane]

Don,
From my talks with Bruce he did sign a multi year agreement with Mr. Bedell and Bruce would have a say in how his mandolins would be produced. But all contracts come to an end and I suspect Mr. Bedell will do whatever changes he feels are necessary to him and his company. He has already done it with the Breedlove line and I have no doubt he will do the same with the Weber line. The Webers coming out of Bend are still as good as the ones from the Logan facility. I am just glad I got Bruce to build me the mandolin of a lifetime. Thanks to Bruce and all the folks who worked at the Montana shop.

[multidon]

Glad to find out my speculation about the contract was right! But I'll also bet the Breedlove deal had no such provisions. The changes began almost immediately there.

And yes George, you are right, contracts do come to an end. And if Weber ever did go down the path that Breedlove did it would be a sad day indeed. I am grateful to have my Webers also.