Salvador Ibáñez mandolin (is it okay to play a 100 year old instrument?)

There is, what appears to my eye, a Salvador Ibáñez mandolin at the local thrift store.  Should I get it?

I think they don't know what it is,because it's priced at what we would expect for a modern Ibanez mandolin.  It's definitely not modern.

Before Hoshino Gakki bought the name and started making the Ibanez lines of guitar and other string instruments in Japan, there was Salvador who made amazing instruments in Spain named after himself.  From what I can tell, he has some reputation among classical guitar players.  He did make some mandolin, but not many survived.  

The materials used in the construction of this thrift store mandolin speak to early 20th century, especially the cellulose used to make the tuner handles which is the early fake ivory..the kind that used to explode when dropped.  Given the construction and from what I can tell, it's circa 1920 (materials date as early as 1870s but the label speaks to later years, and the cellulose plastic phases out with the rise of bakerlite in the 1910s).  Made by him, or more likely, his sons who weren't so good at it and made less adorned instruments.

Anyway



My thoughts run like this.

That's an amazing price for a Salvador ibáñez, even a simple one.  I'll never find something that good a value again.

But no provenance, so no point investing in it for the resale value as it's unlikely to be great and there aren't enough like this on the market to even know what kind of resale price is possible.

And I don't even know how to play the mandolin.   Sure, i want to one day, but the guitar and ukulele have stolen all my time and I'm determined to conquer these two before getting distracted by another instrument.

It could hang on the wall as art.

And the money would come out of my guitar savings fund, but then again, it is saving faster than I expected, so it has come at a good time.  Is it fate?

And wow, wouldn't it be cool to make a 100 year old instrument play again?  It looks like the only issue is stiff tuners, a lot of dust, minor scuffs, and old strings.

Maybe they have low tension strings for mandolin to baby it.

Is it even okay to play music on something that old?

But wow, what a history and that's an amazing price...

Round and round my thoughts do spin like a scratched LP.  Anyone want to try to nudge the needle?

My husband has played my Great-Grandmother's mandolin. It's at my parents' house, so I'm not sure how old it is...but my great-grandma was born in 1899, so it's probably about 100 years old.

My husband just tunes the mandolin as a guitar and plays it that way. No one was ever concerned about it being damaged, and it is a pretty wall art as well as fun to play.

I'd have to ask him more about it (he's the musician, not me), but I'd get the mandolin!

I asked my husband, and he said:

Each instrument ages differently but after being cleaned up it should be playable at 100. Mandolins are pretty stout. Tuners might need brushed and oiled or just replaced. Strings should be replaced at least annually, and finer strings are always easier on the instrument and player.

I believe, with the exception of toys and some of the bottom-barrel cheapo stuff from China, most musical instruments are "durable goods" and are intended to be playable so long as they are in decent shape. A 100 year-old instrument hasn't gotten frail the way a 100 year-old person has. Just a bit dusty maybe.