These go from $400 to $1800 depending ...
Posted on 09/18/2007 5:14:02 PM PDT by Drew68
An 1939 F-5 Gibson Mando is potentially a “name-your-price” item.
Here’s $95K for a 1926 one
http://cgi.ebay.com/BEAUTIFUL-1926-GIBSON-F-5-FERN-MANDOLIN-STRONG-SOUNDING_W0QQitemZ170148324387QQihZ007QQcategoryZ10179QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
A 1939 could not be a true Lloyd Loar (due to late date) but here’s a LL for.....ahem.....$675K! (ridiculous)
Seriously, a 1939 F-5 could potentially go in the $60-$75K range. That is a major, major instrument.
Like I said. The $250 guitar is a ‘long story’.
The 89 that I got for $350 was from a kid in jersey that wanted to buy a dirt bike and put it up on Ebay. I just happened to be the high bidder and won it.
Hubby has had every model of Martin guitar made at one time or another. He says that new D28 is really something. He plays a Mossman most of the time.
It looks like the real thing, right down to the serial # saying it was the 4th F-5 made in 1939.
Yeah, I know. I’s jist testin you. : ) We bought it for $1000 in 1968. It’s not for sale.
Oh BTW, that one for sale on e-bay looks pretty much like ours. It’s a Fern, and not a Loyd Loar (pity).
Did you see Bitter Pills? Imported drugs that are identical in all respects to the real thing including packaging. Lab tests reveal that inside they are filled with material used to make wallboard! Now available through your local pharmacy.
My uncle has a Mossman. REally nice guitar. He keeps it in a case and plays a Guild to keep it from getting scratched up. Mossmans were big stuff in the 70s. Back then, my uncle was Christian hippie who played the Jesus Freak circuit. Now he’s a financial consultant and drives a very nice Saab.
The Mossman is a great guitar. Collector’s item now.
I wasn't fond of the flat finishes but Guitar Center had a brand new blond/rosewood for the giveaway price of $519 that I just couldn't say "no" to. All the other finishes were $749. It was one of the new models with the large headstock. American made with a nitro finish for under $600 was something I couldn't pass up.
I love the way it plays. It has a nice thin neck with huge frets and the guitar is light as a feather. I do wish the finish was a little prettier though. It isn't much to look at. Maybe I'll try some polish and a pearloid pickguard.
Andy Summers of the Police went on their recent reunion tour with three identical scratch-for-scratch replicas of his famous Fender Telecaster. He said his original was simply too valuable to take on the road. Funny because the only reason his Telecaster is so valuable is because it was owned by Andy Summers!
It really is amazing. Now every medium-sized city has at least one "Guitar Center" type-store with 300+ guitars hanging on the walls. When I first started playing in the early 1980s, you'd have to go to a "music store" which sold everything from trumpets to pianos and had maybe a dozen guitars in stock.
I don't know the exact numbers but between 1958-1960 Gibson made roughly 1700 Les Paul Standards ('bursts). At the time, they couldn't give them away. Now Gibson probably makes several hundred Les Pauls a month --if not more, and they sell every last one of them. Not to mention the countless other manufacturers.
I think this is an F-4
Yeah, I just headed over to the LPF and one poster had been to this guy's store. Said these guitars were obviously cheap fakes and wouldn't fool anyone.
On a related note, do you post over at the LPF? I have tried and tried to establish an account over there to no avail. Every time it says that my account is waiting for activation. I have sent countless emails to the admin asking for my account to be fixed and nothing has happened. No response or anything. I set up an account at thefenderforum.com which is run by the same person and had no trouble at all setting up an account.
Just wondering if anyone else has had problems with lespaulforum.com
I’ve always thought the very early years of the Fender (then) Broadcaster vs. the Gibson LP were remarkable in a quaint way. With Fender you had this radio guy (Leo Fender) making a guitar where of all things, the body was screwed to the neck! Huh? He’d take the things out to little country bars in Southern CA and let the guitar players try them and probably tweak them this way and that in response to their comments...not there’s much to tweak on a Broadcaster/Tele in the first place...he did this more with the amps...and in the end he ended up with just a marvel of sheer primitive functionality. I recall the first times I saw Fenders (having grown up on Martins) how cheesy I thought they were. Really, it would be hard to get more primitive than a Tele and still have a functioning guitar.
Meanwhile, Gibson had what was (with the sole exception of the solid body) a pretty traditionally built guitar...set neck, real finish, inlays, binding, carved top...but they undoubtedly distributed the things through their traditional dealer network at the time and as you say, they didn’t exactly jump off the racks. Maybe it was because “Gibson” players were looking for those f-holes in an electric, maybe it was because So CA, wild place that it was, didn’t have such an established tradition. Just kind of interesting how the two developed.
It’s still quite remarkable to me (as I’m sure it is to most) how utterly right Leo got it with those original designs, the Broadcaster and the P-bass.
“Jimmy Page once... looked at that guitar! I don’t even play that guitar!”
(Cheech & Chong; “Get out of my Room” 1985)
Maybe they’re just stunt guitars. You know... They kind they smash on stage.
I have 2 burny LP’s and can honestly say that they are as good or better than the real thing. I’ve had several LP’s in the past and can’t see spending that much money for them anyway. Honestly, I don’t understand the hoopla over them. They’re over weight, have a obnoxiously large heal and are not very well balanced. Not to mention, overpriced. They’re basically a rhythm guitar. For Pete’s sake they were designed back in the 50’s. Nobody played solos in them days. The only reason the guys in the 60’s and 70’s used them is because that’s all there was for rock was gibson and Fender. I know some of you purists will take offense to this but higher end Ibanez’s ei. RG550, 570, RGA121, Jem, JS series, S series Prestige. smoke LP’s. I know you’re laughing but consider this, There’s nowhere on the neck you can’t get to with ease on an Ibanez, they’re very well balanced and don’t weigh a ton, they use high end parts and have an awesome tone (remember, most of your tone comes from your fingers) and you can get 2, maybe 3 for the price of a LP. I feel I am qualfied to weigh in on this due to the fact that I have been playing guitar professionally for the last 30 years and have played or owned most everything out there at one time or another. People got to get over this love affair with Les Pauls. Besides, Gibson is in the crapper these days. Think about it next time you go to drop 2-3 grand on a guitar.
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