1920's - 1940's Vintage Strad-O-Lin (Stradolin) Mandolin

I acquired this mandolin in the spring of 2009 and even with the water damage it still had a market value of $96. I would expect a similar mandolin in better condition would be 2-3 times more valuable.

This is an original Strad-O-Lin Mandolin from somewhere between 1920 and 1950. It's complete and except for the water damage on the end it's in great shape. Although it has the damage, it's still playable and has a great warm sound.

Strad-O-Lin was a company started in the 1920's that made cheap mandolins and was bought in the late 1950's by Multivox/Premier when they then expanded into guitars and other instruments.

1980's Memphis Strat - SG Copy

this is a Memphis copy of the Fender Stratocaster with a little Gibson SG thrown in probably from the late 1980's. It is a very accurate Japanese copy and has a great sound from the vintage pickups.

I found some conflicting information on Memphis guitars in my research. One place mentionted that Memphis Guitars is a defunct subsidiary of Yamaha that produced guitars during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It said the company started when Yamaha saw an opportunity in the demand for Gibson style guitars. Yamaha formed Memphis Guitars to be a cheap affordable, guitar that had an in-demand style (much the same way Fender guitars make a cheaper version known as Squire and Gibson does with Epiphone). In the mid 1980's Gibson noticed that Memphis guitars where using their designs and sued. Memphis guitars then ceased production. Many people suggest that Yamaha foresaw the lawsuit and started Memphis Guitars as a way of avoiding a lawsuit against Yamaha while selling poorly-made guitars for a quick profit.

Other sources indicate that Memphis guitars were imported by the Kaman Music Corportation of Bloomfield CT which was sold to Fender in 2007. You can find information on warranty on the Kaman website so this does make some sense to me. Kaman owns Ovation Guitars, Hamer Guitars, Genz Benz Amplification, Gibraltar Hardware, LP Percussion and Toca Percussion. The company is also the exclusive U.S. sales representative for Sabian Cymbals and the exclusive worldwide distributor of Takamine Guitars and Gretsch Drums. Maybe the earlier Gibson copies were made by Yamaha and later sold the name to Kaman? If you know the entire history of this model, email me so I can make corrections.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.

1960's Norma EG 408-2TK Electric Guitar

This is a Norma model EG-405-2 Electric Guitar from the 1960's with 2 goldfoil pickups. The prize on this guitar is the goldfoil pickups and I've already used them for another project.

NORMA HISTORY: Normas were built in Japan between 1965 to 1970 by the Tombo Company and distributed in the U.S. by Strum´N Drum, Inc. of Chicago, Illinois. The company specialized in copying Italian guitars like EKO and Goya and sold them in the U.S.A as NORMA's. The most blatant EKO copy is the SDEG 490-4, a guitar that confused the heck out of MANY. The Tombo Company is still in business, but these days they specialize in harmonica production.

This guitar will be sold on ebay soon. Check my about me page for the ebay listing.