Hi Y'all!
I think I'm in loooovvvveeeee!!!!!
Went to my lesson this evening, and my teacher mentioned to me that he took a mando on consignment into his shop this week and wanted to see if I was interested.
It belonged to a woman who recently relocated to our area after being widowed, and she needed to downsize. He said that her hubby bought it for her...she used to play but apparently doesn't anymore.
I say sure, let me see what you have.
He brings out a Weber Bitterroot F, honey/buckskin color. Serial # is 6282809, which as near as I can tell means it was made in Sept 2006. If anyone can tell for sure please let me know - I did find a link in an older thread here to Weber for serial number decoding, but it's no longer good. The top is, I believe, spruce. The sides are definitely maple, and the back is solid mahogany. You could tell that someone played it a lot....the finish on the back of the neck near the nut has been worn away, and there is a "spot" about the size of a 50 cent piece on the top where there is obvious finish wear from playing (no pick guard). There are a few minor scratches on the top as well, which I would expect from an instrument that was "loved" a lot and not kept hidden away in the case. There were no obvious cracks, splits, or repairs.
I got to play it, and it was like the heavens opened up and a chorus of angels began to sing!!! Ok, well, maybe not quite that BUT the sound was amazing. It played like the "butter" I hear about so many times on this board. No buzzing, easy to fret, and every note was crystal clear. I still consider myself to be a beginner player, but WOW it made me sound like I might actually know what I'm doing a little bit! 100000000 times nicer sounding than my The Loar, which is no slouch in my opinion.
It has the paper label inside (that's where I got the serial number), and it's signed by Bruce (forgot the middle initial) Weber.
I checked Weber's site and see that brand new versions with maple backs/sides are about $4000 MSRP. The price on this one was $2300, and my teacher was going to see if he could negotiate it down some. It has the original Weber hard shell case, and inside is the warranty paperwork (unsigned) and what appears to be an extra bridge. It was odd...it clearly was a bridge (think it was ebony), but there was no way to adjust it...the top part where the strings would lay appeared to move (pivot point in the center) but there was no other adjustment noticeable. The bridge that is currently installed is an adjustable ebony bridge.
Do any of you know anything more about these mando's? I did some searching via the interwebs and on the Café but didn't find a lot. I think, though, based on the name on the label that this is one of the Montana Bitterroots and not one of the Oregon ones (not that it really matters to me or apparently to anyone else in the comments I was able to find).
Thoughts/comments/suggestions? I value y'all's input!! I really wasn't looking to purchase a mando, but I'm really feeling like this blonde beauty needs to come home with me soon
Thanks!
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