Got lucky, rolled ebay dice 3x and got my ideal mandolin

[Greg P. Stone]

Because of my history with Tacoma guitars, my first mandolin wasn't much of a gamble. The Olympia OM-6SW I bought has many virtues and was a great starter instrument for $230. But, in order to get even volume across the strings I had to go to a pick which quieted the A and E strings. Also, my suspicion that the 1 3/32" nut was too narrow for my hand was confirmed when I started doing jazz chords and couldn't get two fingers on adjacent strings without muting adjoining strings.

After trying many mandolins I determined that 1 3/16" seemed ideal. On my second go I bought a Pricetone for $1400. Fretboard was comfortable, tone was good but the carbon reinforced neck seemed to be losing the battle against string pull and this very early Lewis Price effort had some major finish problems. The seller broke his promises and it took a paypal dispute to get all my money back.

The purchase of my Ike Bacon started poorly with a 3 week wait after payment and a paypal dispute before the seller would deign to answer my question as to where, when and how it was shipped. Based on his answer I informed him that the mandolin must still be at the post office where he had dropped it with a prepaid postage label. He picked it up and actually shipped it to me. Things got worse as I opened the case to observe a collapsed top, notched frets and missing tips on the points.

Despite these faults I quickly determined that the tone and volume were very good, even with the collapsed top. The neck was to die for; if I wanted a neck designed for my hand no one could do better than this chubby V combined with the 1 3/16" nut. I was charmed by the super thick ebony fret board and the steel reinforced neck was laughing at twenty years of string tension. So I shipped it off to Barry Kratzer for a new top, tips and some frets. The original purchase was $500 and I'll end up spending more than another $1000 before I'm done. As a big bonus I've become email friends with Ike Bacon, an 82 year-old retired farmer.

[Kevin Winn]

Still, he persisted....

$1500 for your ideal mandolin is a bargain. Congrats!

[Greg P. Stone]

Ike told me that over the years he sold the 40 mandolins he made for $1500 to $1800 and was proud to have delivered what he considered to be $4000 instruments for less than half that price. I'll give my opinion once I get it back. The value to me is mostly personal fit but based on the tone with old strings and collapsed top he's probably right.

I don't like to promote racial stereotypes but the clueless seller is a banjo player.

[Astro]

I think you are the bravest mandolin buyer I have ever encountered.

[Bill McCall]

Ideal mandolin, for now......

[Greg P. Stone]

I think you are the bravest mandolin buyer I have ever encountered.

I grew up in Charleston. I need to get back there in the not too distant future.

I had some bad luck and some good luck. I'm trying not to let that effect my judgement of each mandolin.

[Greg P. Stone]

Ideal mandolin, for now......

Yeah, we'll see. I've only played about three dozen mandolins. None of the others were even close to how good this feels in my hand. Some day I'll pick up another one that feels this good, and then I'll be tempted.

[Mando Mort]

congrats! Cool user pic too.

[Greg P. Stone]

congrats! Cool user pic too.

I have to brag on my middle child. I commissioned my son Andy to do a water color of me to use as an avatar. I like it so much that after several years of short hair I've grown it out again.

[kurth83]

Congrats, getting that perfect feel is fantastic. :-)