Vintage Mandolin Info Very Much Appreciated

[michaelm101]

I was gifted a beautiful mandolin by my late best friend. It belonged to his Italian grandfather. The maker is Encore and it has a very thin neck. It has a rounded back made from light and dark woods glued together in an ornamental pattern. I have many resources on dating guitars, but nothing for mandolins, the reason for joining this forum. There is a 1/4" jack on the lower portion of the body...
Any info is very much appreciated!

[Ray(T)]

Relatively cheaply built, Japanese, instrument. Ignoring the jack socket, I'd say that it was probably built in the last thirty years.

[allenhopkins]

Encore was a Japanese export brand associated with Teisco, and mostly found on electric guitars; the Encore mandolins I found through Google were all electric solid-bodies. Teisco was in business as a separate manufacturer from the late 1940's until nearly 1970, when another Japanese company bought the brand. Encore instruments are still being sold in the US by JHS Inc., and are imports targeted to students/beginners.

The "Encore" brand has also showed up from time to time on domestically produced instruments, sometimes built in Chicago by Harmony; these would be probably built 1930-50, and wouldn't be related to this mandolin.

How an "Italian grandfather" ended up with an Asian-made bowl-back is an interesting question. The bowl is made from alternate maple and rosewood staves, which is a construction often found a century ago, but not that common now. The jack seems to indicate that there's a piezo-electric pickup installed, which could be verified by looking into the interior with a dental mirror.

Instrument seems to be in good shape, and an electrically-amplified bowl-back is unusual. Perhaps the Italian grandfather played in a cafe somewhere, plugging into a sound system; that would be my guess. Not a particularly valuable instrument, but nice enough. Japanese bowl-backs have a reputation as being "over-built," and thus less acoustically desirable, but you may find this one satisfactory.

[MikeZito]

I think Ray and Allen both hit the nail on the head . . . this mandolin has a great traditional look, but my best guess would be that the oldest date on this mandolin would be the 1990's - and even that seems like a stretch.

I have been on the hunt for a serviceable, affordable, Neapolitan-style mandolin to fool around with - and I would almost bet that this one would fit the bill for something like that . . . something nice to fool with, but not much real value beyond that.

Enjoy!

[michaelm101]

Thanks very much! Looks like it's going to hang on a wall somewhere around here...