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Hey Everybody. Found this mandolin at my local flea market, but seller couldnt tell me much about it, and cant find much about it online. Looks like the headstock says "Draughn". No inside label. Can anyone shed any light on this mando? Who is the maker? What type of woods are you thinking? Anything at all would be very helpful and appreciated!
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Mike Draughn is referenced in this thread: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...hlight=Draughn
He’s also mentioned on the umgf: https://umgf.com/looking-for-my-firs...in-t97698.html
Woods? I’d say the top is medium to wide grain spruce, species impossible to determine. Neck is flamed maple, back is 2 piece bird’s eye maple, left side figure much better than the right. Let’s start with the obvious on this one. Workmanship is extremely rough. Headstock scroll looks like it was chewed out (and was broken off and glued back on). Same for the body scroll, very rough, and same for the binding job and inlays. I suppose it could be made to be a decent player, but I find the amateurish construction details off putting to say the least. So it would not interest me personally, unless I could get it really cheap, like less than a hundred dollars. Given that circumstance, I might be tempted to get it and try to correct at least some of the construction errors myself.
The tuners appear to be Schaller worm over tuners if that matters to anyone other than me.
On the other hand, I love the headstock inlay, which seems to represent a partially excavated Austrolopithecus skeleton.
Seldom find these paleontological references in mandolin construction, IMHO.
By the way, there is a Mike Mike Draughn on Facebook that has a profile picture of an older gentleman playing the guitar. No idea if it's the same person.
Good point about the tuners Mike. And, on closer inspection, it doesn’t look to me like the tuner closest to the scroll is able to be turned without bumping into the scroll. Probably should have had worm under installed to start with. Another builder mistake, or ill advised “upgrade”?
I'm going to guess the builder just bought the wrong tuners. I have to assume he built the thing looking at another mandolin. An inexperienced person wouldn't catch the tuner difference between worm over and under.
I googled "mike draughn mandolin" and there was a mention on the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum in a thread where the OP was asking recommendations for a starter mandolin. This was from April 24, 2010. One member said he had for sale a used handmade F5 by Mike Draughn, a local builder, for $500. Unfortunately, it didn't say where he was local to and I couldn't tell from his avatar....
oops, looks like pheffernan beat me to it!
It’s pretty that’s for sure. Those tuners are probably an addition, they partly cover the signature which is a shame because it’s nice to see a mandolin that has a head inlay that ‘fits’ with it’s tuning pegs.
Though I’ve seen some really expensive mandolins where the inlay looks like it was designed for a different sized headstock.
Any tuner placed in that hole would have partially obstructed the logo. I'm sure the tuner holes are original and I'm willing to bet the tuners are as well.