What is the most mandolins you've owned at one time?

Well, I'm not very far along in this mandolin game, so I only have one, a Silverangel. But I can imagine an oval hole, as well as a mandola some day.

I've been reducing my guitar inventory (electric, acoustic, amps, pedals, ...) lately, and am down to 6 electrics (+ bass, + pedal steel) and I think 7 amplifiers. I could conceviably get rid of 2 more electrics before I reach the bottom line, save destitution. (1: first good electric, owned for 40 years; 2 were built for me by my brother, the fourth is a very player-grade 1958 ES125T which sounds just killer, and has no value so is not worth selling anyway).

Acoustics I have one of each - 6-string OM, archtop, 12-string, resonator. As with mandolin and banjos, my "main" instrument (Martin OM-21) is good enough quality to be called 'professional,' if perhaps on the low end of professional. The others are good enough for how much I use them (Loar, Martin X, unidentifiable Chinese)

Most of my gigs these days are Dixie gigs on tenor banjo, so I just replaced, or added to, my 1928 Slingerland with a Prucha Pioneer - again, professional quality, but very, shall we say, restrained optics (for the banjo world). 5-string is not yet where it should be. But my goal these days is to have 1 instrument of each type which will do me for everything, realistically viewed, and which will kill my GAS. As soon as they pay me my royalties due for that as-yet-unrecorded triple-platinum LP or whatever it is these days, I'll go on a buying spree.

So, yeah, I have 1 mandolin. But I don't perform with mandolin.

steven

Now? 1 mando, 2 banjo, 2 fiddle, 2 acoustic guitar, 1 electric guitar, 1 electric bass guitar, hopefully soon I'll finish a soup can dobro I'm building. And harmonicas.
In the future? Who knows, but I've got some plans (and dreams)

Three now and a fourth soon ! Also a couple of fiddles, one of which is very expensive ! I have five grand daughters so each will eventually inherit one ! But not yet ! I hope ! :)

I'm not sure what you're counting as a mandolin, but I currently have 8 mandolin family instruments (3 solid body electric, 2 F5s, 1 hollowbody electric, 1 mandola and 1 octave mandolin), 4 guitars (3 acoustics 1 electric).

Statistical outlier? Perhaps? Contrarian? More likely. Right now I'm deep into electrics while the rest of the guitar-like instrument buying world seems to eschew them for acoustics. (I'm on the lookout for Fender FM-984 and hoping for a cheap 50's mandocaster at some point!)

Daniel

Well, if we start to include guitars, that's 3. Which is interesting as I considered myself exclusively a guitarist for 20 years. And none of these guitars were owned when I started getting serious on mandolin.

I briefly had 2 after I bought a new one and hadn't sold the other one yet. Just one works for me, but that doesn't mean I won't upgrade again at some point.

The most mandolins I’ve owned at once was four. Down to two now which are both pretty nice. A Rattlesnake F5 and a Kimble J. Would like to get an oval hole for something different.

When we moved into our current house (2004), I carried in over 30 mandolin cases. I was in the full blaze of the craziness!

Now, most were, "Made in Japan" solid wood, a-models. I was doing a bit of low-level horse trading and having a great time! I'd get one or two, change out the strings, braid a strap, give it proper action and sell it after carrying it to a few jams. I got great exposure to different sounds, how same models varied and the like.

Really enjoyed seeing some of the products from that time too!

Then I bought a mandolin of a somewhat different character - my first Flatiron. I started running through a few of the, "Nicer" mandolins too. That was fun, but the risk profile was a big larger. I mean there were a few multi-thousand dollar jobs that I just didn't like. It's hard to sell a, "Nice" mandolin that you think is lousy!

Different strokes, eh?

Now I have my 1920 A3, my 1983 1N, and the two I commissioned in 2010 - my Cohen and my Muth.

What else could I need (not that I don't look occasionally for a Sam Bush Gibson!).

f-d

Started the year with 9 mando family instruments, but have whittled it down to 7. All a bit different, and most lower cost instruments I bought before I could afford better stuff, so they’re not necessarily worth the hassle of selling, though I’m working up to listing a couple in the classifieds soon. Maybe. And, the mandocello may become an OM or mandola, or maybe a nice small bodied guitar...
I gave one of the inexpensive F5s to a friend’s kid who’s all about the mandolin, and may go that route with a couple more. I also gave my Martin Style A to my daughter, who’s now in grad school and out of the house...

Mando count > Guitars for now: 3 acoustics and 2 electrics.

1 Electric bass, a cheap open back 5 string, and a tenor uke round out the count. Believe it or not, I do play them all, and will do much more bass and guitar when our youth praise band cranks back up next month.

Thank you everyone for making me feel like I am GAS-free! I have one F model, and one oval-hole A, as well as 2 fiddles and that's it.

2 mandolins
4 electric guitars
3 acoustic guitars. I started on guitar before mandolin.

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Originally Posted by MikeZito

For some reason I am having a hard time picturing somebody who is a tuba hoarder . . .

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Originally Posted by Mainer73

Thank you everyone for making me feel like I am GAS-free!

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You don't need us to help you with that, you just need to lay off the beans for a while! ;)

Well, I've only got 4 mandolins; my first a Kentucky KM180S, my second a Flatiron Festival A, my third a Flatiron F5, and my fourth an Eastman 514 oval hole. That's in addition to my Flatiron Mandola and Eastman Mandocello.
I also have my first "real" guitar, an Eko Ranger 12, a Taylor 414ce, a Martin Shenandoah D-3532, a Loar archtop, and an Ibanez archtop electric.
Also have a knockoff P-bass.
Just sold my banjo, poor thing.
I think I'm good for the foreseeable future.

Three.

I felt a need to have spares, so I have three acoustic 10-strings and two electric 10-strings. (Nothing with only 8 strings.)

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Originally Posted by LKN2MYIS

Hmmm. Sounds like your wife is a member of the Cafe...........

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My wife only has one mandolin, so she doesn't frequent the Cafe. She does have 4 guitars and 3 banjos though.

I have 2 electric mandolins and 6 acoustic ones. And a few guitars.

And a banjo. Sorry:cow:

Four mandolin-family instruments. I practice a one in-one out policy, so I have to want one badly enough to part with one I have, to get it. Some might not like to do that but it works for me. I don't like to accumulate things and would rather get the most out of the ones I have. That said, I have no desire to drop down to one. Four works for me.

1

Don't ask about basses and guitars.

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Originally Posted by Marty Jacobson

Fewer than Jim Garber.

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Don't tell and don't ask.

I play out of two locations that are about 100 miles apart, and I don't like lugging instruments on my weekly "commute." So I have an f-hole, an oval hole and a mandola in each location. I don't consider that as requiring an intervention.

My collection of certain things, though, might. (Preamps, for one. Never met a preamp I didn't like.)

Let's see - my original Ibanez F5 (recently sold), my TJ (Cricketfiddle) F5, Morris F4, Mandobird VIII, Stahl banjolin, regal resonator mandolin, TJ A4 10 string mandola, Michael Kelly Octave Plus, TJ octave mandolin, Eastman MDC805 (now converted to a 6 string guitar), TJ 10 string mandocello. So loosely speaking I've had 11 at once, but the sale and conversion brings it down to 9. Once I got the good custom built ones I quit playing the Ibanez and MK. I was able to sell the Ibanez to someone local learning the mandolin - I was willing to sell cheap but didn't want to pay to ship it. I'd do the same with the MK but no one has shown any interest.

Seven.

Gibson A-4
Gibson F-2
Flatiron Festival (Nashville made)
Eastman 415 gold top
Fender 4 string electric (1962)
Fender 5 string electric

Wait, that's six.

Six.

Oh, Collings MT

Seven.

Currently 12 – which is the most I’ve ever had at one time.

c1900 Midland #3401 Bowlback
1906 Martin Style 1 Bowlback
1919 Martin Style C
1916 Gibson A
c1920 GH&S XS Banjo Mandolin
2014 Kentucky KM-500
2003 Weber Custom Beartooth Traditional
2008 Weber Custom Vintage A
2009 Weber Custom Vintage A (yes, I have two)
2009 Weber Custom Yellowstone F
2011 Weber Gallatin Octave D-hole
2014 Weber Bitterroot F

One less than I should have.