Howdy,
I was checking pawn shops for mandolins yesterday and found an Ibanez bowlback. It was an 805 model and it had the old style logo. It said something about 1908 on the label but it wasn't the patent or date of origin as far as I could tell. It looked like the anniversary model someone posted not too long ago, but it didn't have the new logo on the label. My guess is this is an old one. It needs a little work.
The wood was separated a little on one of the seams on the bowlback but wasn't really noticable. You could see on the inside what looked like felt paper coating the inside. It was torn a little where the crack was. One of the tuners is missing the button (or whatever you call it)...I tuned the other strings around this string (they didn't have it tuned, didn't know anything about the mandolin, didn't know how to tune it, how to change strings, etc.). I tuned it and played it a little bit and they said they would go buy new strings (these were soooooo old).
Now the thing that makes me think this might not be as old as it looks is that the tailpeice is covered by a black plastic piece that is curved around the bottom of the mandolin. I didn't know if they had those kind of peices back in the time when the originals were made.
The pawn shop is asking $300...I think it is over priced regardless of original or remake...even so, I would like more information and I would like to know what the value would be of something like this. Can you make a recommendation?
Thanks in advance
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