My Mando cost more than the car!!!

[Aran]

Yep, just shooting the breeze here at work talking about maybe getting an F4 style mandolin for more celtic/folk settings. When one of my colleagues exclaimed "Man have you not spent enough on mandolins already???" Anyway made me think about it, then realised that my car cost less than the mandolin..... Still got MAS for an F4 :grin:

I wonder how many others out there deem the mandolin of greater importance than the car???

2001 Subaru Outback...

2009 Weber Bitteroot..

[swampstomper]

300 Euro bicycle. No car. Lebeda, Prucha, and Ithaca Stringed Instruments mandos. You do the math...

[sgarrity]

The value of my truck doubles when I toss my A5 in the back seat!

[Tom C]

It will not depreciate like a car.

[JeffD]

I have a car just like that! :grin:

[bassthumper]

:crying: i got a fever and the only prescription is...MORE WEBER!!!!!!!!!!!:whistling:

[John Rosett]

'09 Kentucky KM-505-paid $450.
'86 Ford Aerostar van-paid $250.

[JEStanek]

It's all about priorities. What works for you and what's important. I like inexpensive cars and inexpensive to moderate mandolins. Some people spend $300 on a bottle of wine or scotch as that is their pleasure. I can't comprehend spending money on football jerseys, golf paraphanalia, or bass boats. I will throw money at books, movies, concert tickets and museums.

We all need a way to feed the spirit/soul/guy inisde.

Jamie

[Chunky But Funky]

2003 van with 130,000 miles on it and two Collings mandos here! I had a saying for my musician friends with fancy cars when I was upgrading that collection: "Less car and more guitar". :mandosmiley: I bought two Bourgeois guitars while running a used Saturn up to 154,000 miles while my friends played their Epiphones & drive BMW's, Acura's & Lexus'. No car payment for 2-3 years can finance a nice instrument. It's all a matter of priorities, I guess. Most of their cars are now gone, and I should have the instruments the rest of my life, if all goes well. That is how I justified the purchase of most of my recording gear as well. OK...I quit trying to justify any of it. :whistling:

Doug

[terzinator]

I've always thought about this when someone says, "what do you need a $3000 (or whatever) mandolin (or whatever) for? You're not a pro! How can you justify that?!"

And then I see they're driving a $38,000 Lexus or something. Buy a $35,000 Lexus, I say, and buy a $3000 instrument with the difference! (I drive a 7-year-old VW jetta, just so I can justify nice instruments!)

[sunburst]

My last three cars cost me $4000, $5000, and $5000. I drove the first two of those about 100,000 miles each, and so far I've driven the current one about 30,000 miles, so I've driven nearly a quarter million miles for $14000 purchase price, and I've done it with power windows, sun roof, cruise control etc..
Why oh why does anyone buy a new car, and why does anyone spend more on their car than on their instruments?! I won't even go into the relative longevity of the two or the value retention.

I have a very nice vintage banjo (I play banjo) that I've had for about 10 years. When people wonder why I spent so much on my banjo I sometimes ask them; "what did you spend on your car and your banjo 10 years ago, and what are they worth now?".

[Aran]

Your right John, it's a no-brainer really....

Right then lets see about finding a nice F4

[John of Patcham]

C'mon all you Ferrari-driving Loar-pickers, you're keeping very quiet on this topic!

[rockies]

Well, I live in the rocky mountains where the main hobbies are fishing hunting and snowmobiling. I have friends who questioned my having a mandolin worth several thousand dollars. These same friends have a crew cab truck ($60,000), 4 snowmobiles (average $12,000 each), trailer for two of the snowmobiles ($2000) plus suits etc etc total (his estimate) $110,000 for his wife and 2 chidrens hobby. This gives approx 4 months riding on weekends (weather and snow conditions permitting) and depreciation is about 20% plus per year and maintenance costs are horrific.
So it all depends what your hobbies are. I believe you put as much as your budget can handle into that hobby to obtain the tools that will give you the most pleasure and in the case of really good musical instruments they will hold their value and in most cases appreciate.
Dave
Heiden A $7500 vs 2002 Honda Accord about the same.

[Austin Koerner]

Clark Two Point > '95 civic

[sunburst]

C'mon all you Ferrari-driving Loar-pickers, you're keeping very quiet on this topic!

:grin:

[Ronny Stecher]

My car takes me to my work.
My instruments take me to my heaven.
Good call!

[Jill McAuley]

3 mandolins and a banjo>2 bicycles

The most I've ever spent on a car was $2000 for a '95 Isuzu pickup 5 years ago..

Back in Ireland I paid the same for my Suzuki Vitara as I paid for my tenor banjo (900 euro).

Cheers,
Jill

[Mike Bunting]

Cars are only a means of transportation that overuse our natural resources far beyond their actual value, with a mandolin we can actually create and share ourselves with each other.

[mandroid]

5 bicycles, 2 I ride most , more mandolins by number ..
1 carbon mandolin, no point in a CF bike for a heavy 60 year old.

[James P]

I use my truck to create and share myself with my clients. :)

And it too doubles in value with my mandolin inside it. The truck made it possible to buy the mandolin. That would've taken forever the other way around.

[CES]

So far I have inexpensive cars and instruments, but then I'm a self proclaimed cheapskate. The MSRP total of my instruments exceeds the actual value of my 1995 Tacoma (with a LOT of miles), but what I've actually spent on them exceeds the truck's value by only a little...

And I love my truck. No power anything, including steering; amenities include a tape deck, 5 preset FM stations, and A/C (which does work, and if it goes may be the reason I finally break down and buy a new-to-me truck given the summers here in NC). I've had the thing since my junior year of college, and can remember when my wife referred to it as "The good car." At the time she was driving a '91 Protege...her car is now practical but substantially nicer :).

I'm probably going to be upgrading to a nicer A-style mando in the next year or so, though, so we'll see how long this holds up...

[John Rosett]

Why oh why does anyone buy a new car, and why does anyone spend more on their car than on their instruments?! I won't even go into the relative longevity of the two or the value retention.



Somebody has to buy the new cars so that the rest of us can buy used ones after they devalue.
To those people, I say "Thank you for your sacrifice!"

[sunburst]

Yes, I've considered that more than once through the years, so I don't want to spread the word too much about the value of buying used cars.
And by the way, for those who say the value of their car (or truck) doubles with the instrument in the back, that's appropriate, but the value of my car with the banjo in the back goes up by a factor of more than 10! I think my priorities are very well balanced...
Oh yeah, my pickup truck cost me $550 about 15 years ago and it still pulls the camper, takes trash to the dump, and brings in construction materials just as well as ever.

[GRW3]

My mandolin is worth more than my '96 explorer. It means more to me emotionally too. Of course, I grew up in Houston and that's a place that will make you think of a car as an implement and little more.

[hank]

Takes some Gold to make a Golden Era.

[Narayan Kersak]

My truck was free...a liquidation from my dad's old company...so when my mando is shotgun, does that make it go up in value beyond infinity percent?

[Matt DeBlass]

My Bronco cost me $500 from a neighbor, and I've put twice that in repairs into it (still makes it a quarter the cost of most used cars around here), the mandolin I'm playing now was only about $150, but when I throw my guitar, PA system and assorted mics and other odds and ends in the back, I'm well over the cost of the truck. As it should be. I don't like cars, they don't make me happy, instruments do.

[grumpycoyote]

Not the mandos yet, but my combined instrument value just about equal my motorcycle and car put together. The instruments surpass by far if you count the cost of the studio room for recording.

Volvo with a couple hundred thousand miles and an '08 harley sportster I bought new...

[sunburst]

Best not to get into total value of musical equipment. If we go there, everything else I own combined cost me less!

[Lou Scuderi]

Trek 9000 bike-a few hundred.
Old Wave A5-about 5 times the bike
Taylor guitar-about 3 times the bike
von Aue Cello-about 6 times the bike
Strathmore bagpipes-about 3 times the bike

Yeah.

Hell, even my 6" f/6 telescope cost a bit more than the bike!

[Matt DeBlass]

I'm not sure how to describe the value of my bicycles, because nothing on them is stock (I'm a shop rat), but I'm sure if I bought them new they'd exceed my car pretty quickly. Fortunately I'm into singlespeed and fixed gear riding lately, which saves a lot of my limited funds.

[Mandolin Mick]

Doesn't everybody's mandolin cost more than their car???

[Gerard Dick]

My Chevy Blazer, purchased used cost twice what I paid for my Weber Yellowstone. That was a while ago and although the truck is still alive, it is now worth less than my Kentucky 350.

[Mercier]

It's all about priorities.

You got that right Jamie, my pedal bike is worth over 2 grant, i much prefer my movie room to any movie theater, but i believe that cars are over rated and i much rather bike under the rain than throw away my money on a car (without getting into the environmental factors).

Mandolin wise, i'm not affected by the MAS yet, but it will probably come as soon as i find a teacher in the area. Then it will take a place in the ladder of priorities bottom, middle or top, only time will dictate ;)

[Coffeecup]

I suppose somebody has to be in the other camp. My mandolin didn't cost as much as one tyre on the car, or if it comes to that, a full tank of fuel. It still sounds OK for my standard of playing though.

[journeybear]

I was laughing about this until I remembered that I spent $900 for my 1917 and $800 for my 1978 Chevy Astro van. :disbelief: Never really thought I'd be in that category, but I'd forgotten how little I spent on the van to begin with. But in addition to depreciating and requiring a fair amount of repairs plus general maintenance, that van cost a lot more than it was worth, whereas the mandolin has cost maybe $100 or so for set-up, installation of Fishman bridge, and a few sets of strings. So when the van got junked after sitting for a few months, it didn't bother me all that much. I get around by bike just fine anyway. For farther trips ... well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. ;)

It's safe to say, though, that total automotive costs have far exceeded total musical costs over my lifetime. And it's also safe to say that I've gotten much more enjoyment from mandolins than cars. They get much better gas mileage, too. :)

[woodwizard]

A lot can be said about buying a used mandolin as well as a used car. savings, savings, savings.

[Paul Kotapish]

This reminds me of the old story about the Texas rancher visiting a farm in the west of Ireland.

Looking out at the modest two-acre holding, the Texan tells the Irishman, "Back at my ranch in Texas, I can get in my car at sunup and start driving across my spread and not reach the far edge of it until sundown."

The Irishman nods sympathetically and says, "I had a car like that myself one time."

[fishtownmike]

Mine cost as much as a 72 pinto on fire:).

[Dan Hoover]

well i only have 1 mando,that was a present from my parents back in 79-80?? i am picking up the bowlback this week,that was $350...my truck was kinda sorta free..from the biz i was in..i kept it...my wifes car is hers,not mine...i have nothing to do with it,till it needs oil,tires,whatever...i do have a 69 nova,that has no engine/tranny..i got that in 78?wiped it out,sold it,bought it back in 97...but? if you start adding up all the cars/bikes/trucks i've had in the last 25 years...forget about it...i guess i have to catch up on some mandolin buying..i better practice more...

[Mark Gibbs]

Well not more than my wife's car but definitely more than my Chevy Astro Van with 193,000 miles. Runs as good today as when it was new. The fact that it has been paid for for 15 years allows me to keep my wife in new appliances and all that good wife stuff. And as long as she is happy that gives me the go ahead for custom made mandolins and expensive camera equipment. :mandosmiley: Anyone interested in photography? www.photomark1.smugmug.com Have a look-see
Mark

[Jack Roberts]

1975 BMW 2002. worth maybe 2500. 1915 F4. Worth ????
Neither are for sale.

[Mike Snyder]

Those are BOTH pretty sweet, Jack. Myself, my Toyota is probably still worth more than my Gibson, even with 160,000 miles on it. I love my truck, and I love my F5. By the way, the 160 large are on the truck, not the mandolin. I'm not sure of the milage on the F5, but it's a one owner vehicle. Your milage may vary.

[Coffeecup]

I'm not sure of the milage on the F5, but it's a one owner vehicle.

Better check, it might be due for a timing belt change.

[8ch(pl)]

I have 2 Mid Missouris , one Samick A, one Vega Mandolin-banjo, one Vega Tenor banjo. I have about $1600 total tied up in them, a lot less than my car.

I treasure the mandolins, particularily the Mid Missouris, the car is just an expensive mass of matter that I need to get back and forth. I only treasure it when I am on my way to play music. if it ever lets me down there I will not feel kindly toward the car.

Cars have never mattered much to me.

[Mandoviol]

I don't own a car, so....yes!;)

[JEStanek]

I have more in my car than in mandolins, for sure.Since I have an hour commute each way to and from work my car is important in that it be fun, effiecient (40+MPG, Baby!) and have a decent enough sound system for NPR or my iPod (connected to the news and my music). It allows me to compartmentalize my work day so I don't bring (as many of) those stresses into my home. So my car is an essential tool for my work which is more than key to my mandolin and other hobby funding. Interestingly, my beetle can fit 2 mandolins, an OM, and a guitar and some sweeties for CBOM-o-Ramas. Very key!

Jamie

[Randi Gormley]

Well, if we're talking value vs cost, then my combined mandos are worth more than the 96 Saturn with 254,000 miles on it that I own by my 20-year-old son drives. probably one of them is worth more, come to think of it. But I'd have to say that my 2000 civic with 143,000 still is worth more than any one of my instruments, cept maybe my son's violin. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who buys used and drives them into the ground! (the cars, not the instruments).

[Paul Cowham]

I was happy to read this post.., I have spent a lot of money on hand made stringed instruments this past 2 years but the fact that many people would have spent more money on cars kind of justifies this in my mind :mandosmiley:.

Hand made instruments are unique beautiful objects that improve with age, cars are not.. I am now the proud owner of a heiden mandolin, a bourgeois guitar and an octave mandolin made by this guy: http://powellguitars.com/about/
my car gets me from a to b (which I'm not denying is useful) but the instruments provide much more pleasure :)

[allenhopkins]

[1] My '06 Honda Element cost more than any of my instruments, by at least a factor of four.

[2] But, my mandolins taken all together are currently worth more than my car. I have mandolins I bought 30+ years ago, whose value has increased substantially in that time.

I need the car to get to places where I play the mandolins. I need the mandolins to play when the car takes me there.

A Lloyd Loar costs more than my house did in 1976, by a factor of more than two, and probably costs almost as much as I could sell the house for now. I need shelter and transportation more than I need mandolin(s), but luckily, I don't have to choose one over the other.

[Dusty]

It is not hard to justify what we want be it a car or a mandolin, and a good instrument can be a good investment, although who's selling? I've had beater mandolins and I've had to walk when the car quit. After much thought and reflection, I think I will try to get the best I can in both. And, as Allen alluded, it's nice to sit in a warm house.

[re simmers]

I'm selling my '88 Ford Pick-up to pay for a 'portion' of another mandolin.

If my wife would allow it, I'd keep the Ford and sell my Camry to buy a new Randy Wood F5.

Bob

[journeybear]

... I've had beater mandolins and I've had to walk when the car quit ...

The thing is, you can play a mandolin while you're walking (especially if your case has a shoulder strap), but it's hard to get a good workable tone out of a car, even if it's been well-tuned. ;) Plus they tend to take up too much room on a stage.

:whistling:

[JEStanek]

I dunno Journeybear. A well tuned tractor can be a reliable addition to any rhythm section. Less likely to have an annoying partner than a regular drummer.

jbN-jO11vKg

Then again, who wants to be upstage by something that smells like diesel, cow manure and soil.... or a tractor.
Jamie

[journeybear]

I knew this dang thing would show up again! I still say, he's solid and steady, but unimaginitve - utterly lacking in syncopation. And what a stage hog! Takes up as much room as the rest of the band. Also, try as you might, you just can't get him to play quieter. :mad:

Also, FWIW - I bet it cost more than all the other instruments in the band combined. And all that for just one tempo. Though, of course, he can get everybody to the gig. So in a sense, he's carrying the band ... :whistling:

[Patrick Gunning]

I've followed this formula well:

$800 1918 Gibson A > No car, then 1989 F150 with peeled off paint + bad clutch (2004) (free)
$3500 Arrow G > 1989 F150 (with new paint + clutch in 2005, lol) ($1800 for repairs)
$1900 Collings MT > 1989 F150 (2008, worth less than 1k)
$3500 Voight F5 > 1997 Ford Explorer (200k miles) (free from Dad, Bluebook 2.5k)

[John Ely]

Until just a little while ago, every instrument I owned was worth more than my old car (Except that $100 Chinese fiddle). But the car died and I had to get a new one. But in just a few years, it will be true again. Cars depreciate quick, instruments last.

[JeffD]

Then again, who wants to be upstage by something that smells like diesel, cow manure and soil....



Ooops. Time for a shower.