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Phillip Tigue
Oct-26-2008, 12:09am
Not sure if it's already up somewhere, but I thought I'd share anyway.

http://macnichol.com/wordpress/2008/10/18/blemished-breedlove-mandolin-for-sale/

Phillip Tigue
Oct-29-2008, 9:42pm
By the way...I've noticed you don't see too many mandolin blems. New guitar blems seem to be a dime a dozen. Any reason for this?

Is it the craftmanship? quality control? lower supply compared to other instruments?

I'll take a Gibson with a ding in it...heh.

MikeEdgerton
Oct-29-2008, 9:55pm
By the way...I've noticed you don't see too many mandolin blems. New guitar blems seem to be a dime a dozen. Any reason for this?

Is it the craftmanship? quality control? lower supply compared to other instruments?

I'll take a Gibson with a ding in it...heh.

Lower supply most likely. Musicians Friend often has scratch and dent Gibson models.

fredfrank
Oct-30-2008, 7:03am
Mandolin blems are generally called 'Distressed Models' and are higher in price. Go figure.

:))

Phillip Tigue
Oct-30-2008, 9:56am
Ha! I guess it's all on the packaging.

That Bag O' Glass looks FUN!

Christian McKee
Oct-30-2008, 10:57am
When I toured the Breedlove factory I asked about blemished/B stock instruments, and they said it's very, very rare for their handmade models. If something is actually damaged it would be scrapped at the time, for the most part. I paid used prices for my Columbia model, and I love it, glad I got the "pre-rocked" price break... BTW, there are free weekly tours of the Breedlove factory (I think on Tuesdays) for anyone who finds themselves in central Oregon, just outside of Bend, it's a good time.

Christian

Phillip Tigue
Oct-30-2008, 3:10pm
Makes sense taboot. If the blem is noticed in house, then certainly it could and should be taken care of.

Makes me wonder then, why there's not many in the market.

MacNichol
Oct-31-2008, 2:50pm
Makes sense taboot. If the blem is noticed in house, then certainly it could and should be taken care of.

Makes me wonder then, why there's not many in the market.

Hello,

This is Michael Stone, the owner of MacNichol.

A couple of quick comments/thoughts:

-The blemished mandolin was sent out to me in perfect condition, but once in the shop, the shown ding occurred. I'm not a finish person, so I sent it back to Breedlove's repair experts, and although they fixed it to be smooth, they were unable to repair the cosmetic aspect. Thus, the lower price.

-As taboot mentioned, it's very, very rare for a handmade instrument to be blemished, and if it is, it's worth it to spend the time and effort to repair any blemishes, whereas with production models, it's simply not economical to fix the blemishes compared to reducing the price.

-My guess as to why there are many more blemished guitars than blemished mandolins is a combination of the things already mentioned in this thread, but one other possibility is the size of mandolins to the size of guitars. Guitars jut out away from your body and thus are more prone to knock up against things, whereas mandolins are small and much easier to move around. I do a lot of Breedlove's production blemished models and it seems as though there are a good number of acoustic bass guitars that come to me as blemished models that have gotten their headstocks dinged and scratched.

Phillip Tigue
Oct-31-2008, 10:06pm
I was good friends with a guy who ran a music store, and he hated people coming in and playing instruments all day. Said eventually the store wear got so bad on some of the guitars, mandolins, whatever that he got to where he had to drop prices on some.

MacNichol...how do you deal with store wear?

Just curious.

MacNichol
Nov-01-2008, 10:55am
MacNichol...how do you deal with store wear?


Phillip,

I do by-appointment only and thus keep out the casual foot traffic. Granted, this probably reduces my visibility some, but on the other hand, customers know that my instruments have been played by very few people. I've seen a number of other stores do this as well, and think that it will be a trend for stores that sell $1,000+ instruments. Another thing that I do is to have the customer sit down and then I hand him or her the instruments. I think that customers appreciate this because it transfers the risk of a ding from them to me. I know that I was always nervous of handling expensive instruments when I visited other stores, and would regularly ask the staff or owner to take it on or put it back on the wall for me.

The blemish was my fault while installing a strap button on the neck. It was one of those "D'oh!" moments in life.

In my own playing, I've adopted some habits that significantly reduce the number of little dings. My rules: Never walk with an instrument. The instrument is either in my hands on in its case. No tables within five feet.

On the other hand, though, some of those dings give an instrument character. I have a Guild jumbo workhorse that I've owned for over 14 years that has dings, dents, scratches, bumps. I can't imagine it without all that.