Unfortunately the Cafe has probably given this instrument more value than it deserves. As much as we would like it to be some sort of holy grail there are just too many sketchy things going on here.
Unfortunately the Cafe has probably given this instrument more value than it deserves. As much as we would like it to be some sort of holy grail there are just too many sketchy things going on here.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
This is a nice mandola but 10 K!?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Vin...9Zy:rk:33:pf:0
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
RARE & UNUSUAL could probably apply to the label; it's pretty unusual and possibly so rare as to say there's never been another like it.
Anybody notice how crisp the lettering is on his "better view close-up" of the label as opposed to the "weathered" label inside the instrument? I wanted to mention this in the original thread, but decided to hold my peace. The "close up" shot shows lettering that is perfectly printed and almost looks embossed; also, the paper appears to be that course old type of paper that shows fibers, but doesn't appear weathered at all. Either it is a different label altogether than the one inside the instrument, or this guy has heavily photoshopped that image.
Surely I'm not the only one who got that impression on the first go-round?
Glue looks fresh.
First image, top edge of label, seems label has been applied over existing scratches, gouges. Am I being too suspicious?
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
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"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
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HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
- Advice For Mandolin Beginners
- YouTube Stuff
My apologies, that original thread was locked down, I probably shouldn't have posted here ... please delete if my post is inappropriate.
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
----------------------------------
"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
----------------------------------
HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
- Advice For Mandolin Beginners
- YouTube Stuff
It was locked down because of the OP saying he was going to sell it. No problem posting the labels.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I guess I lost interest, didn’t know it had been locked down.
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Purr more, hiss less. Barn Cat Mandolins Photo Album
The last time it happened, I was out at a big, fancy, expensive restaurant and the girl I was out with (she was wearing one of those really deep plunging neckline dresses) took a fork and scratched her back right in the middle of that place! I was so embarrassed...
With greatest respect to the memory of the late Billy Ray Latham. May he laugh in peace.
To be fair, dropping the handful is preferable to spraying coffee all over a coffee shop, isn’t it?
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
I think we're going to have to draw straws to see who has to take you out for lunch Tim
Last edited by MikeEdgerton; Oct-12-2018 at 7:10am.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Any time buddy!
We will have to go someplace elegant!
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
WWW.THEAMATEURMANDOLINIST.COM
----------------------------------
"Life is short. Play hard." - AlanN
----------------------------------
HEY! The Cafe has Social Groups, check 'em out. I'm in these groups:
Newbies Social Group | The Song-A-Week Social
The Woodshed Study Group | Blues Mando
- Advice For Mandolin Beginners
- YouTube Stuff
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Last edited by your_diamond; Oct-12-2018 at 1:40am.
Regarding labels, I notice that a 1931 label shows GIBSON, Inc. rendered as I have typed it. This was an era when punctuation was not "more honoured in the breach than in the observance" like it is, today.
This a label from a 1939 Gibson archtop guitar. It was pointed out by a Cafe member in the earlier thread.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I still think the Gibson relationship with Virzi was done by that time. Beyond that I'm amazed that I wasn't able to find any ready documentation of Gibson using that name. They obviously did for a long period of time.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I think you are probably right about Virzi and the Gibson connection- it was probably over by 1931 if not quite a few years earlier. Personally, I think the instrument, which stylistically reminds me of central Europe is early 1930s at the newest. I wonder if the Wall Street Crash and the subsequent Depression derailed various activities and collaborations as the reverberations from those financial cataclysms were great. Although it may be a US made instrument, it could be a less expensive European manufactured item kitted out with American hardware, after its arrival. I would have thought that if it had been made in the USA, there would be some knowledge of it among members of this board as it surely would have been part of a reasonable production run. From an UK perspective, US made instruments were very expensive in comparison to what could be sourced from Germany, Czechoslovakia or Italy back in the 1920s and 1930s. It would have been the same in the USA- your profit margin would be much greater if the instrument was made in Europe.
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