Mandolin News.
A whole load of amazing mandolins arrived in a few days last week, it took me a while to catch up with them all. The buss finally turned up with our first Ratliff (see last update). If you are looking for the bluegrass cut and chop, American made, at a great price, look no further. I am so impressed that I have ordered five more, it will take a while fro them to come through, I am still waiting for approx dates from Audey, and I am sure the R-5 won’t be here long. So we might be a while without a Ratliff.
A while ago after great excitement on the web about blonde mandolins I ordered a couple, the Capek is a stunner and the just arrived Collings MT is equally impressive, blonde and with the Colling’s killer tone.. I don’t keep a lot of Phoenix mandolins in stock because I find that most folks paying around two grand want a scroll, if you can live with a strap button the new standard is amazing, light and responsive is the Phoenix trademark and this one doesn’t disappoint, a gorgeous bit of maple on the back too.
Bruce Weber’s custom series made from his recently acquired stock of old woods are coming through now. After the recently arrived custom Elite F5 we now have the custom vintage A. It is a homage to teens Gibsons and has very similar tonal qualities but with incredible volume, balance and projection. On the used front there’s two used Gibsons. F4s have been shooting up in price recently, probably by over 50% in the last year or so, this is a very nice example. The A4 is in great condition but with a few rattles, see description, hence about £300 less than otherwise. The Rigel G5 would be on my wall if I was a collector, it deserves to be here for tone and rarity, I am told only 17 were made of Rigel’s flagship model before they very sadly went out of business. Prices haven’t gone up yet.. Heiden are now due Nov/Dec, Brentrup next March.
| Godin A8 natural | Vintage Mandolin | £475 |
| Vintage Mandolin | £1695 | |
| Rigel G5 | Vintage Mandolin | £3595 |
| Gibson F4 1916 | Vintage Mandolin | £4595 |
| Ratliff R5 | Mandolin | £1695 |
| Collings MT blonde | Mandolin | £1695 |
| Weber Custom Vintage A | Mandolin | £1995 |
| Phoenix Standard | Mandolin | £2095 |
Guitar News.
My sincerest apologies to guitarists, after the feast of new arrivals last time nothing new for this update. A couple of new Bourgeois are about to leave Maine and we are still eagerly anticipating the two Baraniks mentioned before. We will need some more space to fit anything else in so if you have been thinking of taking up my offer of great prices on Huss and Dalton and McCullom give us a call.
Happy pickin’
Trevor