A few years ago, I realized a person I met in a mandolin group online was knew someone I went to high school with. Small world indeed. We got to talking and he let me know he had a Kalamazoo mandocello. Naturally I said, let me know if it ever comes up for sale…. in the midst of last ’24 MAS it did in fact come up but I had committed to a few other pieces and had to pass; fortunately it never hit the market and I was able to reconnect and make it happen.
(turns out he also owned a Kalamazoo mandola, but that is a saga for another time)
Introducing the “poor-man’s K5”. The spruce top and mahogany back are “arco-arched” in Gibson parlance, not carved but pressed into shape and braced to retain it. Braced so much that a luthier who inspected it says you could probably sit on it (we didn’t). The mahogany sides and back are double-bound. Mahogany neck with 24-fret Brazilian rosewood fingerboard. Rosewood bridge and original trapeze tailpiece. All the tuners work well. And, like only the K5, constructed with f-Holes.
This mandocello has extensive play wear. Lots of abrasions, nicks (especially on the back of the neck), and finish cracking (but nothing that goes through the wood). It has had its neck reset at some point.
Plays true up and down the neck and has a bright tone. A great counterpoint to the other Home cellos.
The mid-late 30s was the last attempt to cater to the waning Mandolin Orchestra craze (which really reached its heyday a decade earlier), and Spahn’s notes fewer and fewer mandolas, mandocellos, and mandobasses were produced as 1940 approached. In fact there are only 4 FON entries for mandocellos, one each in 1935-1939. This isn’t to say there weren’t more, but just those recorded.
This KK has no label and is pretty dusty inside (with no easy way to clean it) and no FON can be deciphered.
