Flatiron A5-JR

[AeroJoe]

A late 80's, early 90's Flatiron Signiture Series A5-JR came in to our local music shop on consignment Fri. 4/17. I was there Sat. 4/18 around lunchtime, to pick up some strings and saw it hanging on the wall...this was not like others of this model I have seen before...first, it does not have those chrome, flat-button metal tuners on it, it has silver-plated ones with those double "shafts", and absolutely no sign of these being added (or others removed.) "The Flatiron" is in pearl (instead of a decal) on the headstock, which has an ebony overlay as opposed to being same wood as the neck, it is tone-bar braced, has a back and sides of flame maple that more than a few Les Pauls would kill to have for their tops...and the most beautiful /brazilian/ rosewood fretboard I have ever seen with large frets, (as opposed to an ebony fretboard), all hardware is silver-plated, not nickel. I was told by a fellow picker, although he had seen this model before also, he had never seen another like this one...anyone of you own/seen another one like this?
Bruce Weber ("Handmade in Bozeman, Montana USA") signiture is on the label. //<It had been actually unplayed since it was made...no fret wear, the original strings quite the very nice shade of dark brown, still on it//>. Secondly, the case... the case is a hardshell, shaped one, but is not similar to the TKL's or others like this...it has red stitching around its perimeter (I am guessing to imitate the pre-war "red line" cases Gibson used in the '30's) and it is unlike a TKL or similar hardshell shaped cases; there is no real case pocket, just a square U-shape support brace with a small flap to front-lift open a square-shaped, almost box-like pocket (the key was <still> taped to the bottom of this pocket...I don't think there is room anywhere in the thing for a set of strings at all unless you could fit them under the headstock...a set of relatively flat packaged J74's might fit under there, but a set in a box like XP-74's, no way.....The most impressive thing about the case is that the inside material is not the red, green or purple fuzzy stuff that tends to pull away from where it is glued to the cases's inner insides...it is some sort of velvet-like material, padded on the inside...I tried to pull it loose from the sides and could not, it is obviously well-made..anyone know who may have manufactured this case?

I have always had a preference for F-style mandos...always.

Until I played this thing...

I plan on calling Paula Jean Lewis tomorrow to hopefully get a precise date of manufacture, but if any of you have or have seen one like this or similar to it, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

[pickinNgrinnin]

AeroJoe-

Did you get the serial number on this Flatiron? Let me know and I can probably tell you when it was made. Sounds like a nice one. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[AeroJoe]

Yeah, I found out today it was made in October of 1991, that the fretboard was optioned-ordered in Brazilian, the tuners are the same ones they put on all their high-end models in the Signiture Series back then, this one is no exception. The instrument also has a gradual medium brown (center) to dark brown outward (towards the sides) shading, as opposed to just being solid brown, like the ones I have seen of this model. When I talked to the original owner this afternoon, he said he prefered the Brazilian over the ebony and was adament about it...he had had one Gibson A-model mandolin already that had an ebony board and it had split from the 15th fret all the way to the 24th (dryness???). He said he never really played the Flatiron, he always wound up playing rhythym guitar whenever he went to jams/festivals and was not a really good mandolin player, that's why he brought to be placed on consignment...this one (and one other instrument) so he could raise the funds to buy a new Martin Vintage Series D-18. He still has his Gibson, he said it was all the mandolin he needed if he got the urge now and then to still play a little mandolin. He said he'd mail me his copy of the thing he filled out to request what options he wanted on the Flatiron. Nice guy, I hope he follows thru with that. He never mentioned ordering or wanting the hardware (tuners, tailpiece and tailpiece cover) silver-plated (as opposed to nickel) he said it just came that way. It was originally ordered thru Mandolin Brothers.

I did ask about the case...he said he had never seen one like that either and was going to keep it, but the case his Gibson was in was fine and he did not want to part with it even though it had a few worn areas on the inside of it.

I don't think this mandolin has enough upgrades to be a true custom instrument in the real sense of the word... but it does have a enough upgrades and options to make it a different instrument from the standard ones I have seen (and I have not seen too many of them, maybe 5 or so, the last one I saw was up at Galax this past year), that's why I was wondering if anyone else had come across one like this.

Thanks for your thoughts and replies... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[bjh]

This certainly is intriguing. I have a D18V to sell and I could use a mandolin. Where is this store?

[danmills]

Is this (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3719883347) the same instrument on EBay? It sure sounds like the same description. Twenty bids in the first 36 hours. Still reasonably priced, but maybe not for long.
-D