I’ve been a Cafe member for a long time, but I’ve been away from it—and playing music—for the past 8 or 9 years. (When I left, I think Jim Garber only had 10,000 posts!) Stuff happens....
Back in late January of this year, I picked up my only remaining mandolin, my old Gibson A, and started playing again. No callouses, lots of rust, almost like learning all over again. Must be a little bicycle in the mandolin, though. The “getting back in the saddle” curve is fast and fun. Makes one think he might get good at this—THIS time, just before his 71st birthday. Mine, that is. It could happen.
So, I’m getting warmed up, conjuring old tunes, learning a couple new ones, and I think maybe I should reward myself with one more good mandolin in my life. I’ve had a good share of them—all but the Gibson sold. I hadn’t touched my Collings OM1A guitar for years, either, and I just didn’t have the energy to pick it back up. So, I’m thinking I should sell the guitar or trade it for an instrument I will play (a new mandolin).
This brought me back to the Mandolin Cafe, both for the great classified ads and the enormous wealth of information on almost everything remotely related to the mandolin. I placed an ad to sell/trade the guitar, specifying what I would accept in trade—a Collings MT, MO, or something of equal value.
I hope this is where my story gets interesting. I got several responses to my ad with trade offers for exactly what I had in mind.
What I didn’t notice was that my wife was paying particular attention to all this. She is a retired librarian. It’s not unusual for her to get interested—very interested—in almost anything. Anyway, I was right on the verge of making a trade—my guitar for a Collings MT—when she reluctantly asked me if I would please hold off on this trade until Valentine’s Day. It didn’t take too much thinking to see where this was going. She bought me a new mandolin for V-Day. She wouldn’t say anything else, so I began to wonder what in the world I was in for. I emailed the people who had offered trades and I waited, with fingers crossed.
On Feb 14, I got to open a very sturdy box from The Music Emporium. A brand new gloss-top, torrefied Collings MT, exactly the mandolin I was looking for! She somehow contacted a great guy from the Cafe (thank you, Tim!) and got all the help she needed to get the right instrument. I was—and still am—blown away by this fine instrument. It is beautiful and almost plays itself (but, unfortunately still sounds like me playing).
Amazing, right!?! But, wait...there’s more.
After a week, or so, I started thinking how I still had a fine guitar I wasn’t playing...and still had some good trade offers outstanding. So, after careful consideration, I traded the guitar for a like-new Collings Black-face MTO! (Thank you, Michael!)
I am now the very proud owner of two Collings mandolins, both wide-nut, both beautiful. It is so very cool to have these almost identical, but very different sounding, mandolins! I feel lucky and rich! Oh happy day!
I considered posting pictures of my fraternal twin mandos, but anyone can find them online. This post is sort of ridiculously long, sorry.
Bookmarks