To hide, or not to hide

[Lee]

At first, I kept them discreet. Just a couple in view so she knew I wasn't in a one-mando commited relationship. Gradually I exposed more and her opinion seemed to evolve from admiring a curious method of artistic expression to a more distasteful wonder about how much time I spent "playing with" those things. After the mando cases were making it difficult to tiptoe through the living room she wanted me to come over to her place to the point that that became the exclusive plan of action. I was very close to bringing a mando to leave at her house so I could practice while she was not yet home, or off doing other stuff. Luckily I didn't.
In short, I'm too laid back, and that was that.

[JeffD]

They are mandolins for goodness sake.

Imagine if you had an extensive collection of toy robots. Now that would be a yikes!

[Bernie Daniel]

chasray: O come on bernie. Thanks for sharing. It's been an entertaining thread, and besides, some need to read this!

tx.

JeffD: Imagine if you had an extensive collection of toy robots. Now that would be a yikes!

Or a room full of video games and comic books? So considering all the possibilities -- a room full of mandolins ought to be a blessing!

[Lee]

This thread could have turned out to be a godsend for me. I just checked out Laura Leder's Cool Mandolin Company website and they're located just around the corner from me. I must pay them a visit.
www.coolmandolin.com

[ddshelden]

i thought this was going to be about glue.

[GTG]

I guess this thread resolved itself, in the 4 years since it began. But I'd have to wonder about some of the reasoning behind having that many mandos too. Are you a professional musician (presumably, a mando player)? If so, no problem - you should be proud of your collection, and it makes sense to have many instruments for various types of music, sound, playability, etc. Did you used to be a pro, or are you very good? Again, no worries, but you should expect that you'll have to play for a potential mate at some point, probably somewhat regularly. Assuming you play competently (but not at a pro or semi-pro level), are the instruments investments? Ok, this is kind of a cool idea that has been discussed here many times: enjoy the instruments, treat them well, and sell them as needed, when they are getting ignored or what, if their value increases, etc. But if you don't play particularly well, aren't treating the instruments as investments, or don't plan on ever reselling them or giving them away (eg to family members), but merely like them hanging around (presumably you don't have time to play any of them very much, and I'd guess some of them haven't been played in months or years) - then it does come across as a bit odd, and you should expect to have to explain yourself. Again, it's probably best not to hide these things, it's not necessarily shameful, but just expect the question to come up.

I like the parallels to other, presumably nonsensical (to a non-enthusiast) collections.

"I have 15 breadmakers! Yes, they all sort of do the same thing, but you know..."
15 pottery wheels?
15 bicycles?
15 different US Civil War era dresses (that all sort of look the same)?

Really, these don't sound that bad, and neither does 15 mandos. But yeah, expect to do some explaining.

[Lee]

Collecting is a common trait of an enneagram type-5 with 4-wing sort of behavior, which I should learn to control better. In the bunch, there's some redundant emandos, and a few too many f-holes, but other than that, there's not too much overlap, and still no scroll. And I'd like to sell off a few too, they've appeared in the classifieds and not sold.
- there's four ovals: Grandad's bowlback, vintage Bacon, an OW and a Brentrup hybrid.
- OW Mandola
- Flatiron bouzouki
- two 5-string Schwabs, one 4-string Schwab,
- Mandoblaster
- Mann emando
- three A5 types
- OW C# f-hole
- Phoenix Jazz
Luckily, I don't play piano...

[man dough nollij]

Hey Lee,

I haven't done my Enneagram in years. I think I'm a 3 and a 9, if I remember right. I know on the Briggs/Meyers I'm an INFP.

I have an interview for a really cool job developing corporate leadership training tomorrow-- I'll get to use all that fun stuff again.

Lee

[Eddie Sheehy]

At first I used to lay awake at night thinking.."She'll notice.. and burn the lot...."
But now I've almost reached saturation point...when I could 3 or 4 more and she wouldn't know the difference.... I'd be ok if wasn't for all the dang cases....

[allenhopkins]

Are you a professional musician (presumably, a mando player)?

Yes.