Another Mando Thread
 

Well I was going to post a new mando day, as I bought a used Collings MT Gloss top. But after 3 days of going back and forth with my other mandolins, both sitting and playing, and recording with high end microphones. I found I preferred my Breedlove mandolins to the Collings. The Collings cost me $3400, and for that amount of money, I was expecting to hear a clear difference between the Collings and my lowly Breedloves. Just the opposite happened, I found I like the tonality of both of my Breedloves better. I set all mandolins up with the same exact string height and relief to make sure I was giving them all a good break angle, and to make sure the strings were driving the top the best they could. I auditioned the Collings with new J74 D'Addario strings and a set or Thomastik flat-wounds. With the Thomastiks it became a contender, but still no cigar.

My biggest problem was, although a good sounding mando, I felt the Collings, was just too small sounding compared to both of my Breedloves (OF and FF USA made) with not enough wood in the tone. The play-ability was very good on the Collings, but no better or worse than the Breedloves. It was the 1 3/16 nut model which I liked. The Breedloves also have wide nuts.

I'm shipping the Collings back to store tomorrow.

Here's a little recording of some of the listening tests I did. The order on the recording was Breedlove OF, Collings MT, and Breedlove FF.

The third one, the Breedlove FF, sounds best to me; a nice, open sound with good tone. Good composition and playing technique.

That was my favorite too! Thanks for chiming in!!!

Mandolins more than any other instrument need time to break in. If it has an adi top, way more time. I'm not surprised at your feelings for Collings. I tried to like the signature Collings sound, the same as I've tried to like their guitars. I just don't, until they have ten or twenty years on them. I realized I like the Gibson tone more. It's all subjective. I never really liked a Weber. Their higher range started to sound good. I lucked into a 14 years old Yellowstone Deluxe which I bought recently, which was the first Weber that floated my boat and was a reasonable price. Would I like a Master Model Gibson better? Probably. But really, good enough is good enough.

Some day if you're lucky, you'll pick up a mandolin you really like. It might just be a Collings. It might be from a luthier you've never heard of. Trust yourself to know that special feeling and pounce. I've played a Breedlove, and lowly is something that never crossed my mind. The universe will send you something someday. Patience is the key.

I agree with all that you say here! After all, just like any other musical instrument, it has to resonate with the player.

The Collings, although in excellent condition, was already 8 years old, so it should have matured by now. I just didn't like it's voice.

My Breedloves on the other hand, both have a warmer voice, although with good articulation. I only called them lowly because of what I spent on them, not how I actually feel about them :)

I am patient so I will wait till the right mandolin comes along.

It is also going to depend on your use. If you don't play bluegrass you might not want the Gibson tone. If you play with people a lot, a bright Collings might be just the ticket. A friend has a Pava that is beautiful, but he loves my very bright and loud homebuilt F for how it cuts through a combo.

A lot of this is going to be based on use and experience. Even the exquisite Ellis I played didn't do everything well, but what it did, oh my! Knowing what you want only comes from playing a lot of mandolins, and each is worth playing, even if you have not liked them in the past.

I agree that the Breedlove FF sounds nicest in this setting.

Funny thing, I have a Breedlove OF that sounds EXACTLY like this example. I hear the same things that bug me about it when I try to record with it. ;)

I liked the first one because it was brighter than the others. I am not familiar with Breedlove mandolins but now I am interested. I see the FF is a F style with F holes. Is the OF an oval hole F style?

The OF is an A style with F holes.

Another vote for the Breedlove FF. Really an interesting test. I’m a guitarist of looong experience but only started on Mando 4 months ago. Not a lot of in-store samples to try in this metro area, if I ever outgrow the Eastman MD605 I have. Won’t be thinking of trying a Collings although I do hope to graduate to something with a wider nut and more string space. Ah…maybe a Breedlove! Thanks for the splendid post and sample.

Well I had a new Gibson F5G years ago, which I got as a gift but I traded for my first National resonator, a Custom Western D that turned out to be the National reso that I play the most (I got an artist deal with the company and got 3 more resos). That Western D National is still giving up the goods! And I've written plenty of songs with it so I don't regret doing the trade.

https://i.imgur.com/vxposx3.jpg

The reason I traded away the F5G was that it was too loud and slightly abrasive sounding with the Phosphor Bronze strings, so now I'm dying to try one with the Thomastiks which I thing can help me get the tone out of one! I found one that a guy is going to let me audition, and it should be to my house shortly. Of course I will make recordings.

BTW I have played many mandolins but never something so grand as an Ellis!

When I record the Breedlove OF I know how to get a good sound out of it with creative EQ, but for the test recordings, I wanted you guys to hear exactly what was getting to the microphones, except that I added a same bit of hall reverb to all three tracks because I always do that to mandos. Tomorrow I will be putting Thomastiks on it too:)

Thanks you, If you can find a used USA Made Breedlove, they are consistently good! I like the FF as an all around-er. And they have a wide nut 1 3/16" which makes for easy crossing over from guitar.

The thing with mandolins, instruments in general really, is to not go out of your way to play anything too far out of your comfort zone. For me that is 20-30% more than I'd want to pay. If you look at a website like Carter's , well over half are $7500 or more. I did not want a plain mandolin. I am addicted to a scroll. I set a preferred budget of, gulp, $4500-5000. I was shopping used. So I had basically written off buying one.

The instruments I've really liked were mistakes really. There was the very beat up J 45 that turned out someone had tried and they hadn't put it in the glass case yet. 1939 J 35. That one haunts me. I was just weak when one day Gryphon had the Ellis at a very reasonable $9500. Used. Yes, reasonable.

So when I walked in one day and saw my Weber with full binding, a great flame maple back, and a fern inlay $1500 less than my budget, I pounced. That the mandolin is very good is gravy. But my Silverangel A style I bought used for $1400 is also fully bound and very nice, so you don't have to break the bank. Old Gibson A styles from the teens are around that too. A Kentucky 900 is a pretty satisfying mandolin too. This level A style bought used is the logical second mandolin. First if you know you are serious.

Also by nature I don't buy and sell instruments a lot, so anything is going to be around, and at my age I don't think in decades anymore.

Beautiful playing! I like the Breedlove OF best, but I am a biased listener.

There used to be a store around here that carried both Weber and Flatirons. I liked some of the upper end Webers, but the Flatirons were a bit nondescript in tone for me, and kind of quiet. I have to wonder if there are better years for Flatirons. I'm glad you found the Weber that is floating your boat, and it sounds like it fits you perfect, congrats!

I also try to stay within my comfort zone financially, which frankly is very close to what you set for yourself. I never buy new instruments, so if I don't like them, i can usually sell them and either break even of just lose a small amount. I just made a deal with the guy that is sending me an mint F5G for a very good price (not much more than the Collings MT gloss-top that I returned), and I can return it, no questions asked, for ANY reason if I don't like it, within 48 hours.

I hope I like it, because it will replace the one I foolishly traded away years ago. I've done a lot of research and people are saying this Dave Harvey era of F5Gs is a good one.

There are not a bunch of high end mandolins being sold here in Utah, so I have to do my mandolin shopping online. My brothers both live in San Francisco, and whenever I'm there, I try and go to Palo Alto and visit Gryphon Strings as I like that place.

As for local, I played a few early teens and late 20's Gibson A models and they were alright, but nothing that made be buck up. I think the biggest problem with those were the flat fingerboards, I did like the dry vintage tone though. A close friend of mine brought over a teens pumpkin colored one that was the best of the lot. Sounded great but hard to play. Frankly though I want a modern neck and frets.

It's funny you mention Carters, as I looked a bunch of mandos that they had but they are very proud of their instruments when it comes to pricing :)

Sounds like you are in the same boat as I was. Lots of people chasing "affordable" F styles. My previous Weber experience is that they weren't too loud. In fact, that was my problem with the Ellis I tried, but oh what a jewel that was. You should make the treck to Santa Cruz some time and visit Sylvan, at least when inventory picks up. They stock Weber, Girouard, Ellis, and Pava. Mostly A styles except for Weber. The last time I was there they had a good selection, and until the top tier, they were meah. Close to $7k for the nice ones, all the more reason I was surprised by mine.

I have played only a very few Flatirons, and likely they were Weber or Carlson builds, and at the time Gibson was trying to harass them out of business. They were better than the Gibsons of the time. Then, like my 65 Epiphone Texan, they were built side by side, so they should pretty much be Gibsons.

I have gotten to play a few Harvey era Gibsons and they have all been great, and IMHO, the only way you are going to get that great Gibson chop. A lot of them still have the flat fingerboard though. I can get along with them.

It's hard not to get angry at the prices of good mandolins, but build one sometime and you will realize they are not overpriced. I realize now having a D 18 quality mandolin is not a bad thing. I'll leave others to chase the Dudenbostel, Gillchrist, Apitius, Red Diamond dream. They really are that good. Many others are too.

It really does come down to the individual instrument, and I hope you find one you love. The real education for me was playing a bunch of instruments at THE Mandolin Store and finding my Eastman that I really liked at the time, didn't scratch the surface of tone. The master series Kentukys started too, the Northfield F5 S was a wonder, then the Harvey F 9 blew my mind. At that time I cried uncle and declined to go further. Later, I took my Silverangel into Gryphon and played it next to the Northfields and Collings. They were all equal but different. That put a cap on MAS until I bought a cheap Michael Kelly to work on, and found I was playing it all the time. You know, the scroll.........