Flatiron Sighting

[George Henry]

I examined a Flatiron Festival F today at the Knoxville GC. It had been advertised as a 2008 model and many players concluded that it was a Chinese model. The mandolin is clearly an American build and the serial # starts with 01....., indicating a 2001 model.

The mandolin is typical of Festival models, nice spruce top and maple with good curl everywhere else. Single binding on sunburst top, no binding on brown sides, back, and neck. Very clean condition overall and little evidence of play. The truss rod needs adjustment. The mandolin sounds good but tight.

Probably a good buy in light of comparable Gibson F5 G.

[Mike Snyder]

Kind of an orange/red sunburst? I had an '01 Festival many years ago. Never really had a chance to mature before the neck joint failed. Very rare and not a thing to worry about. These are really nice mandolins. Gibson provided me with an F5G when they declined to fix my Festival. The Flatiron Fs represent great value. Can generally be had well below the price of a comparable G and have the larger frets and short extension found on many best mandolins built today. I miss mine for the reason that it was unique. Neck joint failure in Gibson-made mandolins is very, very uncommon. Price should be somewhere around $2100.

[mrmando]

They don't have it priced as a Chinese mandolin ...

http://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Gib...-F-Mandolin.gc

[George Henry]

They have priced correctly. GC had advertised it as a 2008, thereby creating the confusion.

[Mike Snyder]

Yeah, that does not have the distinctive reddish-orange sunburst of the typical 2000-era Flatiron Festival. You'd need to know exactly what you are getting to drop 2K on that.

[pheffernan]

I examined a Flatiron Festival F today at the Knoxville GC. It had been advertised as a 2008 model and many players concluded that it was a Chinese model. The mandolin is clearly an American build and the serial # starts with 01....., indicating a 2001 model.

I was under the impression that the year of a Nashville-era Flatiron was indicated by the last digit followed by the first one, not simply the first two digits.

[addamr]

She's gone gone gone, and cryin won't bring her back.

I hope whoever bought get a great mandolin. I wonder if it will surface here on the cafe? It will be interesting to hear the story.

Adam

[George Henry]

She's gone gone gone, and cryin won't bring her back.

I hope whoever bought get a great mandolin. I wonder if it will surface here on the cafe? It will be interesting to hear the story.

Adam

I examined and played the instrument. I think it needs a serious set up and some serious play to determine whether it is a good deal or not. A mandolin is more than a pretty face.

[Jim Franey]

There's a great 83 Flat Iron on the classified page !
It's looks great !
Steve Carlson made it 👌

[Jim Garber]

There's a great 83 Flat Iron on the classified page !
It's looks great !
Steve Carlson made it ��

Yes, that would be one of the first carved Flatirons made. Ad is here with picture below.



They only made two models back A5-1 and A5-2. The A5-2 later became the A5-Artist. Mandolin Brothers had one of each early one and I played both back in '83 and still have my A5-2 from back then. There were far fewer mandolin makers back then so this was a wonderful find. It still sounds and plays great. Main difference between the models was more binding on neck and headstock, fern-like inlay on the headstock and flamier maple on the A5-2.

Here's pics on my '83:

[Jwblanton]

I was trying to get to Knoxville to play that thing. The manager said something was weird with the accounting and he couldn't ship it to Chattanooga so I planned to drive up. It was ordered Monday night after we had corrected the date for them. I hate that it got away but I'm sure someone is enjoying it. With a 45 day return policy, keep an eye out, it might show back up.