Above, two of my dad's mandolins. The smaller one was his first mando, bought in 1929 when he was 4 yrs old, from a pawn shop, I believe. It is a little Holdrio Piccolo, like a 'pocket mandolin'. It has a serious crack in the top and a missing tuning peg, but it can still be tuned with pliers! The other one is his Martin, from around '64, per my research. I can't remember exactly when he got it, but I'm pretty sure it was sometime in the '70s. I always thought of its sound as golden honey, whatever that means. It's a bit smaller, with a bit smaller frets than 'regular' mandolins. After he got this one we could play mandolin duets for the first time. Prior to this it was always one on the mando and the other on the guitar. There should be a mandolin in the middle - my dad's 2nd mando and the one I learned to play on. It is being cherished by another family member.
My two bowlback, or taterbug mandolins. The one on the left was my very first mandolin, given to me by my dad when I was in high school. I remember my uncle trying to trade it out of my hands; he really wanted it for some reason. The back is beautiful, the front just so-so. Playability and tone lack some excitement. I never played it much because it is so darned difficult to hold. The mando on the right is a student-grade Martin, made specifically for some music store back east in the early 1900s. I have forgotten the rest, but could always look it up again. It is missing its tailpiece cover, but otherwise is a sweet little mandolin. I bought it a few years ago at an auction, where I was really trying to get a nice fancy f-style. I won the bid at $600, but they withdrew it because they wanted more money for it. I can't remember what brand, but it was easy to play with great tone. They did announce before the auction that if it didn't fetch enough they would withdraw it. They should have told me what was 'enough', because maybe I would have paid it!
These are my and my brother's mandolins, given to us by our parents in our young adulthood. On the left is mine, a nice little Harmony. I played this exclusively from 1980, when I got it for my birthday, until just a couple of years ago. And by exclusively I mean it is the only one I played whenever I did play, which wasn't regular by any means. I would go through spurts of playing for a few months, then maybe wouldn't play for a year or two. The one on the right was my brother's - a Bently, which is worth nothing more than wall hanging decor. I will say, however, that it is L-O-U-D!
These are my mandolins, bought by me for me. On the left is my Collings MT I bought at the Mandolin Store in Wickenburg AZ in Oct '09. I was visiting my cousin in Glendale AZ and we stopped there on a little side trip. She sat in an Italian restaurant down the road reading for about 2 1/2 hours while I tried out every single A style the store had. I quickly narrowed them down to 3: the Collings, a Weber Gallatin, and a Gibson JamMaster. Every test I did the Collings came out on top. You can see it has a tonegard on it. The one on the right is my Eastman 515 I got in Jan '09. I had the scroll-envy for many years, and after missing the one at the auction I finally caved. On day 3 of ownership of my Eastman I was over the scroll, and knew I would get a hand-carved American-made A-style. There is nothing wrong with the Eastman. Compared to my Harmony it is luscious. But it can't hold a candle to the Collings. I still play it quite a bit, though. I'm saving it for a grandchild.
My two ukuleles. My little Roy Smeck Harmony soprano uke on the left. My parents gave it to my in 5th grade, and it was my first very own stringed instrument. It has a screwed-on plastic fretboard with plastic frets, but is made from mahogany. I loved it. On the right is my Harmony baritone ukulele I got for my birthday in the 8th grade. Also mahogany, it has a really nice tone and is easy and fun to play. I tried to string it up about 11 years ago to start playing, and the store (a big, well-known store here in Tulsa) did not know what kind of strings to sell me, and it is all wrong. I'll be getting new, appropriate strings this week and starting it up. Unfortunately it has one tuning peg that slips now, so I'll have to get that fixed.
