Well, you asked for advice, didn't ya?
Your snakehead is a sought-after vintage instrument. Assuming you don't jump up and down on it, it's an investment as well as a means of making music. It may not be the "gigging" instrument you need -- not enough volume, not something you'd drill holes in to install a pickup. You apparently do use it for recording, though. While you don't say much about your current "stage" mandolin, the fact that you're looking at an F-9 implies that it's an f-hole model (perhaps a Kentucky F-style?) with more "bark" than the A-1, and also one that you don't mind taking out to clubs and jams and pickin the tar out of.
By all accounts, F-9's are excellent for the price, and one of them may better suit your performance needs. However, it'll be awhile (if ever) before they become collectors' items. Gibson is cranking them out pretty steadily, it appears, and I see quite a few of them showing up in the used market. They have competition from several domestic manufacturers, and the higher-end Asian imports.
I may be exactly the wrong person to be offering advice, as you can see by my listing below I seldom get rid of anything. But were I in your shoes, I'd hold on to the A-1. You're not talking about dropping five figures of cash on a Gilchrist, Monteleone, or "distressed" F-5. If you're playing out, you're making a dollar or two through music, and you might devote that income to underwriting an F-9. Then you'd still have the old snakehead for recording, quiet picking in the family room, and "old times' sake." And you could confidently expect it to be increasing in value, just sitting in its case.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Bookmarks