ID the wood on this Sovereign?

https://imgur.com/gallery/Z3qYK2Y

Just picked up this handsome old Sovereign in Sacramento, and I’m stumped (pun intended) on the wood they used here.

My best guess is Koa based on searching around but I don’t see the lateral flaming at all. Mahogany or oak perhaps? I’m curious.

In the pictures you can see a line of red grain pass out of the heel—it almost looks like that dark stripe of grain is common to all the pieces here, like it was made from a single block, which I found interesting.

It’s in really great condition besides some deterioration to the rope binding that I’m going to repair. The OHSC is pretty clean too, and it sounds great with those vintage Gibson strings holding place until I can snag some 90/10s. Very musical highs, with nice punchy barking low end.

Any guesses on the value would be appreciated. But mostly curious what this wood is!

Also how should I clean up the binding? I’m thinking some careful super glue for penetration and stability but I don’t want it to leak into the side/top joint and give someone fits later.

Thanks!

It's probably Koa- the binding on the mandolin is typical of what you see on "Hawaiian" style instruments. I have an old Regal that is pretty much unrepairable that I want to show my luthier some time as a practical joke- but he's not been well, so I don't want to scare him- it's made of birch dressed up to look a lot like Koa and it has that "rope" binding as part of the masquerade. However, I think this is definitely a Koa instrument. Has that Sovereign badge been hammered on "on the piss" as we say in the UK- sort of less than horizontal?

Here's thread on one- in far better condition than mine which has a massively warped top. I sincerely hope that George Gruhn- or one of his employees did not attribute this to Weymann!

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...he-Vernon-quot

Oh interesting! I didn’t know rope binding was part of the Hawaiian craze. I hope that birch fella there didn’t pass as a Weymann as well! I’ll have to take another look at the name plate, I think the picture looks more crooked than the artifact but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a little cockeyed.

The funniest thing about this mandolin is that the back brace right under the sound hole and the back lining is the same wood, but the upper braces and lining and the lower back brace are all spruce or birch I think. They wanted you to think it was fancier at a glance methinks! Maybe that’s how they constructed their spruce top mandos so they just kept to form for this one, but that one back brace! Seems fishy to me. Ha. It’s still a Stella at heart I guess.

Would 500 be overly optimistic if I dialed it all in? Not finding much on Sovereign trade price but the all koa thing—(if it is, it’d be old growth right?)— is cool enough for me. Just curious as I might want to trade sometime.

Nice looking Sovereign! I was looking through my instrument photo file and recalled that I used to own a Sovereign (with pearloid fretboard):

It looks like koa to me.
And Oscar Schmidt did indeed build some koa instruments.

My Sovereign is mahogany and has great tone and volume. It did not cost a lot and has its original Bull's Head case which is also in great order. I imagine as your mandolin is koa then it will attract a premium but it would be hard to suggest its value, I consider myself lucky to have got mine for such a low price.

I concur on Koa. Pretty mandolin.

+1 on Koa. Absolutely. Nothing else has quite that grain pattern.

Another Koa here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CFielder

https://imgur.com/gallery/Z3qYK2Y

Just picked up this handsome old Sovereign in Sacramento, and I’m stumped (pun intended) on the wood they used here.

My best guess is Koa based on searching around but I don’t see the lateral flaming at all. Mahogany or oak perhaps? I’m curious.

In the pictures you can see a line of red grain pass out of the heel—it almost looks like that dark stripe of grain is common to all the pieces here, like it was made from a single block, which I found interesting.

It’s in really great condition besides some deterioration to the rope binding that I’m going to repair. The OHSC is pretty clean too, and it sounds great with those vintage Gibson strings holding place until I can snag some 90/10s. Very musical highs, with nice punchy barking low end.

Any guesses on the value would be appreciated. But mostly curious what this wood is!

Also how should I clean up the binding? I’m thinking some careful super glue for penetration and stability but I don’t want it to leak into the side/top joint and give someone fits later.

Thanks!

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I agree, it looks like Koa !