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Thread: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

  1. #1
    FIDDLES with STRADOLINS your_diamond's Avatar
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    Default BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    BLUE COMET MANDOLIN https://ebay.us/3yj1bj

    SOLish & Cheap enuf at $43.50 (auction+shipping) with 3 days to go on the auction.
    NOTICE THE FILLED IN DRILL HOLES ON THE HEADSTOCK

  2. #2

    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    I tried to put up a post on this and it never went up. This mandolin is almost certainly one made by United Instruments of New Jersey in the late 1940s or into the 1950s. This company made many low grade instruments but some good guitars. United was based in the old Oscar Schmidt works and one of its trademarks was to nail on the tuner units and the tailpiece! Paul Hostetter posted up the headstock of a much nicer looking mandolin made by United and sold by Elderly- that conveniently had a United banner on the headstock. United made low cost parlour guitars that everybody likes to state were made by Harmony or Kay- they have MADE IN USA stamped inside of them. The company made Lee Gibbs Concertone guitars for Montgomery Ward and these are also attributed by sellers to those two Chicago makers. The United guitars all have a heel that is similar to a Gibson made guitar- and totally different to the shield shape used by Kay and Harmony.

    Here is the thread in Mandolin Cafe that has the photos that Paul Hostetter posted. The discussion was about tuners, and this United mandolin has Kluson units but you can clearly see they are nailed into the headstock!

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...rmony-Mandolin

  3. #3
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    It's not a Strad-O-Lin genre mandolin but it is awful looking.
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    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    Is there some variety of "resonator" mandolin with an invisible resonator? I looked pretty hard and I couldn't find the blasted thing anywhere.
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    Registered User tonydxn's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Moss View Post
    Is there some variety of "resonator" mandolin with an invisible resonator? I looked pretty hard and I couldn't find the blasted thing anywhere.
    Were you thinking of this one Roger? Sometimes sold under the Blue Comet name, also 'Regal Artistic Resonator' though it isn't a resonator at all.

  7. #6
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    Lots of Blue Comet-labeled mandolins were their faux resonator instruments. This one lacks even that kind of quirky appeal.

    You'll note it took nine bids to get up to $29. I predict a non-bonanza for the seller.
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  8. #7

    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    The seller is clearly not knowledgeable and has Googled "Blue Comet" and found the "resonator" mandolin, so he has used that in his description- seemingly unaware that his lacks the resonator. I am impressed that United filled the wrongly drilled holes. I have a circa 1940 Kay mandolin where the holes are offset across the headstock due to a drilling error on the wound string side but the tuners were fitted and it was sold regardless of this error!

  9. #8
    Registered User Roger Adams's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    Amazing. It has a strap which would indicate that someone actually played it!
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  10. #9
    Registered User Roger Moss's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    Quote Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams View Post
    Amazing. It has a strap which would indicate that someone actually played it!
    Or else the "strap" was used to hang it outside an outhouse for a few decades.

  11. #10
    Registered User Roger Adams's Avatar
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    Default Re: BLUE COMET MANDOLIN (Stradolin?) on eBay

    Quote Originally Posted by Roger Moss View Post
    Or else the "strap" was used to hang it outside an outhouse for a few decades.
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