2 old Mandolins

[hyderon]

Just been given a couple of old Mandolin's
Are they worth keeping or worth anything
Never seen machine heads like the ones on the right hand one ( this has 2 splits on the body , top and bottom

[HonketyHank]

The one on top with the unusual machine heads is a northern german style waldzither, possibly made by Böhm. You can google waldzither and find several interesting sites devoted to them. If yours is built like mine, it is probably solid as a rock despite the cracks. I'd say clean it up. You'll have fun with it when everybody says "what in the world is THAT?". And you'll have fun making those double ended strings, too.

[hyderon]

Thanks for your reply
Yeah , I noticed the strings
Thanks again

[rcc56]

An old friend of mine has a mandolin somewhat similar to the lower one in your picture, and it is really quite a good sounding instrument.

[Jim Garber]

Yes, Waldzither, with single bass string and others doubled. Preston tuners which you will need a key to tune and some way to loop the other end of the string. They were common on Portuguese guitarras and Portuguese bandolims.

[Dusepo]

The Waldzither is worth quite a bit, definitely keep that one (or sell it for a good amount).
The mandolin underneath is quite a common design of ones from Germany but still a nice instrument.

[MikeEdgerton]

The Waldzither is worth quite a bit, definitely keep that one (or sell it for a good amount).
The mandolin underneath is quite a common design of ones from Germany but still a nice instrument.

What is a good amount? I'm asking because I don't recall ever seeing one bring any large amount of money.

[HonketyHank]

I paid $50 for mine, but it did look like it had been hung in a barn for about 50 years. Cleaned up nicely though, except for the cracks. Sounds pretty good.

[DavidKOS]

The mandolin in the bottom of the picture looks a lot like the one I began on circa 1971.