One of the best ever

[Dave Hanson]

Just curious, a mandolin for sale in the classifieds is described as ' one of the best ever ' it's a Gilchist F5, if it's one of the best ever why does no one want to keep it ? it's been owned by at least 3 people including David Grisman, yet no one wants to keep it, seems strange to me.

Dave H

[M.Marmot]

Perhaps, this is because it is 'one of the best' but not 'the best?

This at least leaves the owner with the possibility of an upgrade which would probably be costly.

The financing of which necessitates the selling of this mandolin to raise funds for buying what may be seen to be 'the next level up'.

[objectsession]

Well, the current seller is a dealer . . of used cars -- maybe mandolins on the side? What I mean is it might have been bought to sell the most recent time.

And maybe other past owners weren't making good use of it anymore. Might as well pass it on to someone that will.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Maybe it simply means 'one of the best ever',because it was made by ''one of the best ever'' builders ?. Dave Grisman isn't widely known for the use of many mandolins other than his Loar,so maybe it didn't suit his long standing 'image'.As for the other 2 previous owners,any number of reasons might have made them decide to sell it on. I know of one Cafe member who's currently on his 3rd Gilchrist & i'm pretty sure that the first 2 weren't 'poor' instruments,
Ivan

[journeybear]

Oh, come on, now! Have you never seen or heard someone trying to sell something use hyperbole in order to impress potential buyers? Saying it's so doesn't make it so. You cannot be serious!

[Isaac Revard]

I was just reading the classifieds and thought the exact same thing journeybear. I thought "jeezz every instrument on here is the best sounding this or that" then I thought "well if I was trying to sell something I wouldn't say that the instrument was 'alright' sounding." I was reading the listing for that bozo guitar. The owner could be half deaf too...I am!

[Nick Gellie]

Hyperbole sells stuff so it seems. It mystifies me too that none of the three previous owners want to keep it. So maybe a Gilchrist does not have the mojo or staying power of a Loar. If it rested with one owner then I would say it was likely to have been 'One of the Best". Not so so it seems.

[davidb1]

Well, I have never played a "Loar", but I will say that Steve Gilchrist makes the best mandolins that I have ever heard or played..if only I could afford to purchase one , I would.

[fscotte]

It's the best ever, but clearly not the bestest ever.

[Demetrius]

What do you want him to say? This is one of the worst? Or this is on of the
mediocre ones? I think Grisman recording an album with it just 2 yrs ago is enough
of a testimony to say its a least great. I don't think Grisman woke up
the morning of the recording and went to go grab his Loar and said to himself...
No Wait! I think I'm gonna use that ok Gilchrist. Come on man, that guy has like
1,000 mandolins, clearly he thought it was the best mandolin for that recording,
so yes... I guess that does make it one of the best for something or he wouldn't have
recorded with it. And no I don't know the person selling this mandolin.
It's not like he's saying its one of the best and charging anymore for it, his asking
price that is completely normal for one of these.

[OldGus]

I believe it's a great one but this seller was kicked off of Ebay a while back also. If I remember correctly he sold some things he didn't really have... Dawgs wife's old mandolin for sale in the classifieds, one of the best ole ovals on the market. You can get that, this and at least one of Haynies old mandolins if not five have been for sale here in the past as well. Dawg wanted one of mine I had listed, it was one of the best for me...

[Demetrius]

Kicked off ebay? Ok well yeh that's a bit sketchy... Too bad

[fscotte]

Heh oh dear... and he was one of the best ever Ebay sellers...

[Bill Snyder]

The owner in question had multiple ebay accounts is memory serves me correctly. Sold many top tier instruments. There are a few threads on him if you look for them.

[fscotte]

"mitch simpson" "complaints" "instrument" google it.

[Willie Poole]

"Why didn`t at least one of the owners keep it"...How many Loars have been passed around and around in the past 15 years, quite a few and in most people`s eyes they are the best ever..., so there seems to be quite a few reasons why someone would sell "the best ever" mandolin, probably made a huge profit when it was/is sold...

A used car dealer? Maybe he took it in on a trade.....

Willie

[Atlanta Mando Mike]

Every "Holy Grail" instrument was sold by someone-the vast majority were sold multiple times. The argument that if it was so great it wouldn't have been sold makes no sense to me in this day and age when everyone trades and moves these things all the time. How many of us has have sold something we wish we didn't? Come on...

[billhay4]

This is just stirring up controversy in my opinion. The owner can have a thousand reasons for selling it as can the previous owners. Financial need, interest in making money, too many instruments to play this one regularly, desire to see it played by someone else, sheer whim.
If you really have concerns about the quality of this instrument, go play it. It's the buyer's responsibility to determine the quality of what he or she is buying. The seller just sells using the best methods he or she can. Raising non-issues about the precise language the seller used in his ad on the internet really doesn't further the matter one bit.
Bill

[Mandoplumb]

I have a Dearstone A-5 that is the best ever. It will be sold by my wife or children at some future date.

[journeybear]

I already offered my opinion, some time ago. But I guess I wasn't emphatic enough. There is no reason for this thread. No point to it whatsoever. Nothing to be gained from it, no lesson to be learned nor useful information gleaned from it. Well, other than that the seller may be a bit sketchy. But that could easily have been inferred from the ad's wording, without necessitating discussion. Posting this to begin with was pretty close to trolling, though it might have helped if there had been some humorous observation added. Sad to say, there was none.

I hope that's clear, now.

[mandroid]

Steve Gilchist as a builder seems to merit that title..
as witnessed by his mandolins appreciating in cost with every resale.

I expect David Grisman does not sell anything below cost.

[objectsession]

Posting this to begin with was pretty close to trolling

I took it as an honest question with some easy answers. I could see how it might be trolling. A lot of people say "I don't understand this" to express superiority, but I'd rather give the posters the benefit of the doubt in case they really want to understand something.

[MikeEdgerton]

This is one of the best ever threads I've had the joy to moderate. Just sayin'. Carry on.

[journeybear]

And I don't sense any sarcasm! Not a bit!

... I'd rather give the posters the benefit of the doubt ...

Same here, and I did, at first. But it seemed painfully obvious to me after a few posts that the OP missed an obvious and rather tired use of language, as did the first few responders. And even after I pointed this out, the thread wound on for a while, so I got a bit more blunt. I don't mean to give anyone a hard time around here, or most anywhere, but it just seemed there wasn't anything there worth discussing. I would have understood if the OP had used this as a setting off point for some humor, but that didn't seem to be the case. Hope I didn't put anyone's noses out of joint.

As you were ...

[allowishish]

This is one of the best ever threads I've had the joy to moderate. Just sayin'. Carry on.

how can you justify that statement when so many people have posted on it already and it's not even dead yet.
i mean if it was one of the best ever so many people wouldnt have passed up posting on here....
wait did i contradict myself?

also how has nobody pointed out that his location is supposed to be 'cleveland GA' ? sounds shady, everyone cleveland is in ohio....duh.