Mystery F5? Any ideas who made it.

[MikeEdgerton]

That's actually the OP's mandolin.

My mandola can be found here.

[Folkmusician.com]

Looks very similar to Eastman's, but not an exact match to any of the models.

[Eric Hanson]

Ping
I found a great inexpensive mandolin, bought in Houston at a Guitar show, then sold on Ebay for a VERY affordable price. Took it to a local Luthier. He too was pretty impressed. The shading of the stain is really nice. The maple is nothing to rag about (no figure to speak of). But the spruce is VERY tight grained.
It came with a solid tailpiece. Possibly an upgrade. Same truss rod cover as pictured in the OP’s. Tuners of lesser value, but worm over, which is cool. Bridge is needing to be set to the top due to gaps underneath. Thus being dropped off at the luthier.
I am really looking forward to hearing how it sounds after this is cared for.
I will post pics after I get it back.
I too would love to have some way of IDing the mandolin. I would love to be able to have a way to keep track of it in the event of someone being less than respectful of OPP.
It will be an awesome travel mandolin to have on/in hand!

[MikeEdgerton]

I suspect the OP's came from an importer in the Houston area.

[Marty Jacobson]

I suspect the OP's came from an importer in the Houston area.

Yeah, they've had some pretty decent looking mandolins and mandolas posted to ebay in the past.

[MikeEdgerton]

I have one of the Mandola's. Really decent. Gary gets some real crap but he also gets some spectacular stuff. I agonized over buying a few of the mandolins with the fiberglass cases just to flip but decided not to.

[EvanElk]

I'm quite sure the mandolin is not a Sullivan. It does look like a nice find though!

[Eric Hanson]

Mine came without a case.
I got it back tonight from the luthier. He mentioned that the finish is quite thin. He made measurements of the top and back with a thickness gauge and found them to be quite consistent with Loar specs. Worm over tuners. Beautiful shading.
The primary thing that had to be done was to set the bridge to the top. Once finished he said it was like turning on the "ON" button.
Sorry. No pictures yet. I will try to get them posted soon. I need to be home on a day when it is sunny outside to get a decent shot.

Curious. Who is the importer? It would be great to send a few I know their way so they too can get a decent instrument.

[MikeEdgerton]

He doesn't always have them and he sells under a few different names. On Reverb he is GL-Music Store. I'll see if I can find his eBay store name. It doesn't look like he has any decent mandolin stuff. He told me that the mandola I bought (Bernie Daniel's bought one too) were made by his brother in Korea. He gets some strange stuff but on occasion he has some real gems.

[Seter]

I have sold a few instruments to him. I think he scours for any deals he can get, locally and internationally, and resells, so there are multiple sources for the instruments he sells. You can always tell it's him by the tile floor.

[MikeEdgerton]

I've never seen Gary sell anything but new but I guess anything is possible. He will be the first to tell you that he knows nothing about the instruments that he sells that he is simply a distributor. If you ask him how an instrument plays or sounds that's the answer you get. I do believe he buys bulk overstock stuff from overseas. He had four or five of these mandolas at one time. He had a lot of Mandocello's (if I recall) that had a diamond shaped sound hole that sold for about $100.00. I'm actually intrigued by the fiberglass mandolin cases he had. I think he only has one or two of those left. When he's gt something decent it's generally a good deal.

[MikeEdgerton]

He doesn't have this mandolin anymore (he is selling the case) but it's pretty decent looking. No idea how it sounds.