What’s going on with low inventory of mandolins at shops?

[rainy512day]

It’s been a good 5 years since I’ve spent any time gazing online at mandolins for sale at shops online. Is it me or is the inventory of mandolins really low? Seems like there are plenty of Eastmans and Northfields but not much selection of Collings and small builders. Even Carters Vintage seems pretty thin. Point me in the right direction if you know otherwise.

[TX2AK]

I was really debating taking a trip to Nashville to check out Carters and Gruhns or some other hotspot, and the consensus was that the inventory wasn’t worth the plane ticket there and back and hotel. I think that was 2 mos ago +\-. I see places with a few really nice ones spread out - those two, Fiddlers Green, Music Emporium, Morgan Music, the Mandolin Store, Acoustic Shoppe, etc.; but I’ve not found any single store or several close together with a huge selection. I envisioned a Mecca of mandolins somewhere, but have not found it, and got feedback from several who had recently been to some of the better bets saying it would be better to buy and try with a return policy than to book a weekend trip. My assumption, and it’s purely that, is that online sales are shrinking the brick and mortar inventory, like seemingly every other industry. Pure assumption, of course.

[darylcrisp]

the pandemic years hit hard and depleted inventory(many shops completely), build back has been slow, supply chain issues with instruments and parts, some of the shops/people building prior to the pandemic have less current production due to loss of skilled craftsmen, kinda like everything else.

the classifieds here on the Cafe has a huge inventory of different makes/models-i would probably think the largest out there now.

d

[Glassweb]

the pandemic years hit hard and depleted inventory(many shops completely), build back has been slow, supply chain issues with instruments and parts, some of the shops/people building prior to the pandemic have less current production due to loss of skilled craftsmen, kinda like everything else.

the classifieds here on the Cafe has a huge inventory of different makes/models-i would probably think the largest out there now.

d

I agree with Daryl... The Cafe classifieds are an excellent way to find the mandolin of your dreams. Both my Kimble mandolin and mandola were purchased off the classifieds several years ago and I have stayed with them ever since. I was in Nashville for a month recently and both Carter and Gruhn had very limited mandolin inventory compared to what I saw and played there seven years ago. I can't say why for sure, but as prices of quality mandolins continue to rise I would not expect players to do as much catch and release as they did in the past. Also the price of shipping and "trying out" an instrument has become a costly proposition. Even though the choices for mandolin players are greater than ever, there are really no inexpensive, quality mandolins when compared to the guitar market. $500 will get you a damn good guitar! Not so in the world of mandolins. Frustrating for all beginners no doubt... and their teachers (moi) for sure!

[tonyw]

the pandemic years hit hard and depleted inventory(many shops completely), build back has been slow, supply chain issues with instruments and parts, some of the shops/people building prior to the pandemic have less current production due to loss of skilled craftsmen, kinda like everything else.

the classifieds here on the Cafe has a huge inventory of different makes/models-i would probably think the largest out there now.

d

Indeed, Collings stopped production of their Waterloo guitars during covid, maybe mandolins too? It probably makes sense to concentrate on guitars, when mandolins are a tiny market, and more time-consuming to make.

[Mandobar]

Honestly, the selection is still better than it was twenty years ago. Entry-level mandolins are at least playable.

[EdHanrahan]

... Entry-level mandolins are at least playable.

1- Having started on guitar 6+ decades ago, even today's cheapest instruments are at least decently built. It's as if the bottom 30% of 1970's market just vaporized.

2- "Set-up" is continually emphasized around here. While all instruments need it eventually, today's super-cheapest are that only because the final hour or two of fine detail work was never applied to them. Sure, folks are hesitant to spend $100 for setup on an $89 mandolin, but set-up is why it didn't originally cost $250 or $350.

[mandroid]

No shops for anything but craft brewed beer out here..

[Caberguy]

I think there's a bit of an ebb and flow to it. I've only been watching the mandolin market fairly closely for a couple of years. But it does seem that there's a bit less around than there was even a year ago... 9 or 10 months ago I remember hemming and hawwing about buying one of several used Northfield F5S models that were available at various different spots, now there's nada.

It does seem like a bit of a down moment.

I'm sure it still has something to do with the pandemic, but I'm not exactly sure of what. Maybe emerging from the pandemic a lot of people moved their stepping stone mandolins and got into their keepers, or something like that. When I was watching it closely late last fall and into the beginning of the year, it did seem like there was more than there is now, and I still look at the classifieds pretty much every day, and most of the big shops at least a couple times a week... because I still kind of want me a nice scrolly mandolin, even though I'm otherwise pretty happy with my Flatiron.

[tjmangum]

No shops for anything but craft brewed beer out here..

And those are starting to shut down too! Craft beer market is down and in the valley, here in Oregon, quite a few have shut their doors in the last few years. But your right, mandolins are few and far between at music shops in these parts.

[Mandobar]

Not everything for sale is listed on-line.

[Caberguy]

Not everything for sale is listed on-line.

But if they're not online, are they really for sale?

Obviously I'm being a bit facetious, but, only a bit. If they're not online, how are we supposed to find them... can't go to every shop and every bluegrass jam and ask around. So, for most practical purposes, everything for sale is listed online.

[Mandobar]

But if they're not online, are they really for sale?

Obviously I'm being a bit facetious, but, only a bit. If they're not online, how are we supposed to find them... can't go to every shop and every bluegrass jam and ask around. So, for most practical purposes, everything for sale is listed online.

There are lots of reasons for not listing some instruments. One is inventory moves fast, another is lack of staff. Stores also have customer “want lists.” And while you can’t go to every store, etc. if you develop a relationship with certain shops and or other players opportunities present themselves to acquire instruments you may never have encountered otherwise. Networking is a wonderful thing, especially if what you are interested in isn’t “off the shelf” and readily available.

[Mandolin Cafe]

It’s been a good 5 years since I’ve spent any time gazing online at mandolins for sale at shops online. Is it me or is the inventory of mandolins really low? Seems like there are plenty of Eastmans and Northfields but not much selection of Collings and small builders. Even Carters Vintage seems pretty thin. Point me in the right direction if you know otherwise.

Not seeing "really low," whatever the definition of that is. During the pandemic, yes. Now? Lots of places where lots mandolins are for sale. What are your specific examples and how did they surprise you? Not doubting you feel that way but the numbers from our perspective don't back it up. Without specifics there's nothing to go on.

[Crazyquilt]

As far as Collings goes, I think they only have one person doing mandolins at this point, and I understand they've generally reduced staff in the last few years. Getting my MT-O took a lot longer than I expected.

[Mandobar]

They only have one person who has other duties as well. It’s my understanding that he took over the wood selection task from Bruce VanW when he retired.

[Mandolin Cafe]

The Mandolin Store is carrying a pretty mind boggling inventory of high end individual builder mandolins, tons of Northfields, a growing number of Gibsons which is going to increase, and some new Webers soon. A Gilchrist F, several Kimbles, Ellis, Pava, Aleyas and easily the largest inventory of Eastmans on the market. I shot Dennis a text this morning asking him if the store had ever had a better inventory and he said right now is the best its ever been. Zach is doing a pretty bang up job in our opinion.

Carter Vintage, which was sold some time back to North American Guitar, has reduced their mandolin inventory by probably 50%, not a surprise when their focus is and has always been on that market and the former owners were about the biggest name for the instrument. But those mandolins went to some other listing locale. Music Emporium which used to carry 40-50 mandolins, usually 30 of those were new Collings, is reduced by that fewer amount of Collings and are typically carrying around around 25 right now, only 4 Collings as of this morning of which 3 are used. If Collings was still pumping out tons of mandolins their inventory would be about the same. If you look at their guitar inventory, they are loaded to the gills with Collings guitars--53 as of this morning.

Elderly, unchanged.

And lots of places are listing their store inventory on both the Cafe and Reverb. Nary a single mention of eBay.

Someone mentioned looking for a used Northfield and how quick they disappear. The Mandolin Store got in two last week and both sold in less than a day. Lots of movement, stuff is still selling briskly.

[Josh Levine]

Definitely starting to see more of the ultra high end mandolins appear (Gil, Nugget,etc) for more reasonable prices. Guessing that is a reflection of the greater market but who knows.

[doc holiday]

They only have one person who has other duties as well. It’s my understanding that he took over the wood selection task from Bruce VanW when he retired.

When I visited Austin november last year, Kym Warner of the Green Cards had joined the Collings team as the resident mandolin guy.... I did see number of mandolins in the works, albeit that the main focus currently is keeping the lights on with acoustic and electric guitars and Waterloos and mandolins are trickling out in smaller numbers and sadly the great cases are gone.

[tenreasy]

I am just starting on Mandolin. Seem to be few choices. Eastman mandolins are plentiful; but I am not interested in their sound. Other than that next up are new Northfields starting just under 3K. Used Collings A are 3K. Then luthier built for 5K & up. A used luthier built is $500 off new price. Prices more than doubled in the past 4 years. Folks that bought luthier built mandolins 4 years ago are selling for a bit less than new prices, so sellers are getting nice profits.

[joh]

The Mandolin Store is carrying a pretty mind boggling inventory of high end individual builder mandolins, tons of Northfields, a growing number of Gibsons which is going to increase, and some new Webers soon. A Gilchrist F, several Kimbles, Ellis, Pava, Aleyas and easily the largest inventory of Eastmans on the market. I shot Dennis a text this morning asking him if the store had ever had a better inventory and he said right now is the best its ever been. Zach is doing a pretty bang up job in our opinion.

Carter Vintage, which was sold some time back to North American Guitar, has reduced their mandolin inventory by probably 50%, not a surprise when their focus is and has always been on that market and the former owners were about the biggest name for the instrument. But those mandolins went to some other listing locale. Music Emporium which used to carry 40-50 mandolins, usually 30 of those were new Collings, is reduced by that fewer amount of Collings and are typically carrying around around 25 right now, only 4 Collings as of this morning of which 3 are used. If Collings was still pumping out tons of mandolins their inventory would be about the same. If you look at their guitar inventory, they are loaded to the gills with Collings guitars--53 as of this morning.

Elderly, unchanged.

And lots of places are listing their store inventory on both the Cafe and Reverb. Nary a single mention of eBay.

Someone mentioned looking for a used Northfield and how quick they disappear. The Mandolin Store got in two last week and both sold in less than a day. Lots of movement, stuff is still selling briskly.

And it seems that Gilchrist is already gone! Listed for less than 24 hours I think? The same happened to a Gilchrist listed at Morgan Music a couple weeks ago, too.

I agree that inventory and rate at which they're moving mandolins at TMS is impressive. I bought a mandolin from them a few months ago and it was a very quick and hassle free transaction.

[Mandolin Cafe]

Yes, both of those Gils sold in a flash. We have a console where we can see and backtrack any ad placed or removed so we see sales in almost real time. Stuff appears and disappears sometimes before we get to see it, but the ad text and any image of the ad placed stays in our logs and file storage. So if there is an ad and we have the ad number or the ad owner's email and it expired 15 years ago we can still dig up all of that information. That's good... and bad. Cost me just recently when I found a 23 Gibson snakehead I sold to a guy in 2009. He still had it and sold it back to me, all precipitated by my buying a nice empty vintage case from a friend. I had no interest in filling until suddenly I did.

[Bill McCall]

That's the old 'you don't know what you need till it shows up'. Apologies to Joni Mitchell.

[ralphio]

try SPBGMA in January in Nashville. Large number of mandolins in one place.

[rcc56]

The market changes.

If you walked into George Gruhn's shop in the 1980's, he would have 10 or 12 prewar Gibsons in stock, along with a few other mandolins from the same period and maybe a couple of newer instruments. The Ma and Pa shops might have a just couple of imports, generally Alvarez, Washburn, Epiphone, et. al. Generally speaking, the imports were not as well made as what we see today. A small shop that specialized in acoustic instruments shop might have a Flatiron or a Unicorn. There weren't a lot of folks interested in mandolins, and they tended to sell slowly.

During the 1990's, interest in the mandolin rose. Gibson had bought up Flatiron, and stepped up production. Import brands increased production also. Small shop instruments started to appear in greater numbers, and some folks started taking a shine to antique mandolins. Inventories and sales went up.

Around 2000, Collings and Eastman came on the scene, and Weber became a major manufacturer. More independent makers appeared. This gave us more to choose from, and inventories continued to increase. Then, when the economy soured in late 2008, we started to see a glut of instruments on the market. We got used to seeing mandolins everywhere, and the Nashville dealers might have had 80 of them in stock. By the time the pandemic hit, inventories were at an all time high, and we got used to it.

Then, most manufacturers cut production drastically. Weber was sold off, Gibson wasn't making many instruments, Collings concentrated on filling their orders for guitars, and the production of imports was disrupted as well. Independent builders did the best they could with the materials they could get. People were sitting home with more spare time than in the past, and they were buying instruments. Inventories dropped significantly, and that brought us to where we are now.

Although Eastman, Kentucky, and the other import brands seem to be getting back on their feet, but the US manufacturers and the independent builders are still lagging. I think it likely that it will be a long time before the major shops will have many dozens of mandolins in stock.