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Thread: Help identifying mandolin please

  1. #1

    Default Help identifying mandolin please

    Hi all,
    I just picked up a second hand mandolin and was wondering if anyone could identify it? It's labelled 'Homa' but I can't find anything about that online other than it is a generic word used by Japanese makers on some stringed instruments for export. It looks a bit like some pictures I've seen from Kunishima or Suzuki but there's no label inside. Just interested if anyone can shed any light.
    Thanks!
    Last edited by patrick.e; Jan-04-2022 at 9:24am.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Help identifying mandolin please

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  3. #3
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help identifying mandolin please

    We haven't got that brand name anywhere here on the Cafe that I can see but I did find a classical guitar for sale with the same brand name listing it as Made in Japan and circa 1975. As far as the brand goes you can assume it was somebody's private label, either a manufacturer or importer.

    As far as who actually built it that should be something that our group of resident bowlback experts can deduce. It may take a day or two for one of them to actually find this and comment.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
    --J. Garber

  4. #4
    Confused... or?
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    Default Re: Help identifying mandolin please

    I'm far from a bowlback expert, but if you want to talk "economy":

    Those are economy tuners, similar to my '90s Carlo Robelli (Sam Ash house brand); that Pac-rim import -my gateway drug- was about $190 new.

    Note that the shafts' grommets, rather than being solid metal that's pressed or screwed in, are actually somewhat large black plastic or nylon plugs that are faced with (non-functional) thin metal washers, to make them look less "plasticy".

    On mine, the plastic slightly compresses under the pull of the strings, allowing the tuner shafts to lean toward the nut. While this would be pretty bad on a quality instrument, it seems to work okay here. Rather than replacing, I just left well enough alone. (For me, it soldiers on as a mandolin-sounding instrument that I don't mind exposing to marginal conditions.)
    Last edited by EdHanrahan; Jan-04-2022 at 11:29am.
    - Ed

    "Then one day we weren't as young as before
    Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
    But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
    I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
    - Ian Tyson

  5. #5
    Registered User
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    Default Re: Help identifying mandolin please

    Also no bowlback expert but it looks pretty typical Japanese export from the 1970s - very “Suzukiesque”.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Help identifying mandolin please

    Hi all, thanks for the quick replies and insight! I bought it cheap to experiment with, not really knowing anything about it. Perhaps it will also be my gateway drug!

  7. The following members say thank you to patrick.e for this post:

    lenf12 

  8. #7

    Default Re: Help identifying mandolin please

    Hi Patrick.e,

    Seems to me you are beyond "gateway drugs". It is an insidious delusion

    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL

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