Picking up an Ashbury mandolin in Vietnam

[derp]

Hi,

Has anyone had experience buying a mandolin/octave mandolin (etc) in Vietnam? I've heard that Ashbury manufactures over there and am passing through early next year for a trip. Ashbury doesn't seem to distribute to Australia.
Would love to hear if anyone has experience/info on this.

Cheers!

[Simon DS]

The dealers, at least for the UK are Gremlin Music, I wrote to them but no reply as yet.
https://www.gremlinmusic.co.uk/produ...tGroup=310-000

I don’t know about sales policies and all that but I imagine they’d probably rather you buy it in the UK.
Transport for them from Vietnam to the UK probably isn’t much of the retail price, maybe.

However the overall prices look like they are up on last year, and I’m having some difficulty finding details on the once available high range mandolas. I hope they’re still available because some of them are really beautiful.

[multidon]

I have read about a street in Ho Chi Minh City they call “Guitar Street”. There are over 30 luthiers within 500 yards of each other. Quality can range from miserable to top of the line. If the Ashbury label is not important to you you can probably find something nice on that street. Make sure you shy away from those that use native woods. They likely aren’t seasoned correctly. There are Vietnamese luthiers who use seasoned European and American wood. Those are the ones you want. Other than that it should be pretty easy to judge workmanship and tone quality.

[Simon DS]

Thanks Don, I had a wander down that street on google maps.

[Jim Garber]

Here you go: Guitar Street article.

Here is the link on Google Maps.

[derp]

Thanks a lot for the replies.

I'll definitely be checking it out! Anyone familiar with any of the luthiers on the street? Would be helpful to have a name to go off.