[M19]

Copied from the Mandolin Cafe website:

BEND, OR. — Two Old Hippies President and CEO Tom Bedell has announced a temporary transition of the Weber mandolin luthier team to the guitar side of the company's manufacturing operations effective with the completion of instruments already in production.

As those instruments are completed and shipped, the team, previously dedicated solely to Weber Mandolins, will temporarily transition to the guitar side of the Two Old Hippes brands, housed in the same facility.

Bedell told us, "Like other stringed instrument companies, demand has skyrocketed during the pandemic. Thankfully, when our lives are turned upside down, millions of Americans turn to music making and especially acoustic stringed instruments. We are currently completely sold out with Breedlove and Bedell Guitars and Weber Mandolins. We anxiously want to serve our dealers and are doing everything we can to get them the instruments they are selling. And, if people want to learn to play, we want to get them the instrument they would like while the interest and motivation are peaked.

"Since we can only build one mandolin for every four guitars we craft, we have decided to focus on guitars for the next year. This will help us get more instruments to more dealers and players. We have contacted all of our Weber dealers and they are aware of the situation and, in cases where they also sell our Bedell & Breedlove guitars, we have found agreement and support.

"We sold more Weber Mandolins in the past year than ever and had already halted 2021 orders some time back, unprecedented for us this early in the year. We're committed to re-evaluating where we're at on an a monthly basis. Once we're confident our guitar retailers are receiving the inventory they need we'll transition our mandolin team back to the Weber brand."