FINALLY, New Mandolin Day! And it's a doosie!

[leew3]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

That doesn’t surprise me because if you’ve been following my story my Breedlove USA built FF and OF mandolins consistently won shoot outs against a Collings MT that I purchased for almost 3 times the money that the Breedloves cost. But this Gibson is in a whole different class, it just has a sound every time I pick it up it makes me wanna play it. It could be a freak of nature :-)

just when I thought my MAS was cured...now this!

[Br1ck]

My take on mandolins is that once you clear the quality threshold, whatever that is for you, the steep price tag is the mitigating factor. Not to be blowing my own horn, but my goal in building a mandolin was to equal the quality of what I could buy for the same money. With a case, I have $1200 in my home brew. I really exceeded my goal in sound, playability is good, fit and finish, well I finished it clear as a reminder of how humbling an experience building an F style can be. I spent three years playing mandolins from $4000 to $9000. All sounded "better" in that they had more resonance. My adi top got much better over the three years though.

I walked out of the stores every time going, I'm not going to spend a minimum $5k to have the quality I'm hearing, and at my age don't want to wait two years for an Adi top to mellow out. My $1400 Silverangel was equal but different to what I was hearing. It's very close to the sound of an oval. So that has been my mindset for a good long time. That I was thinking of buying A Collings MF if I could find one for $4k, was where my mind was going. So finding my Weber was, purely luck. That it was in a top line shop was even more astounding.

[Sage Runner]

That F model looks sweet. So awesome to see you find a soulmate instrument and at a great price! Looks like a keeper. I was blessed about 5 years ago to stumble on a mint 5 year old Elkhorn fern F-5 for great price.

[SpruceTop]

I've never played mandolin but I'm Happy For You, RockaBilly--Enjoy!

[R22]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

Thank you. I was looking for a mandolin that would really excite me to play. I wanted something that would inspire me to write some songs, and be big enough sounding to hang when mixed with loud rock and roll instruments. I sure delivers, I can't say enough good about this mandolin. I LOVE it!

I wrote my first song with it today...

Nice Mandolin, but also a cool song. Reminds me of Rod Stewart era Faces. Your new Mando sounded great in the mix. Hats off to you.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Sage Runner

That F model looks sweet. So awesome to see you find a soulmate instrument and at a great price! Looks like a keeper. I was blessed about 5 years ago to stumble on a mint 5 year old Elkhorn fern F-5 for great price.

Sometime you get lucky, I'm glad we both found mandos we love! Let's see that Elkhorn!!!

Originally Posted by SpruceTop

I've never played mandolin but I'm Happy For You, RockaBilly--Enjoy!

Thank you very much. You should try mandolin, it's a fun instrument and pretty easy to learn to play! And easy to carry around!

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by R22

Nice Mandolin, but also a cool song. Reminds me of Rod Stewart era Faces. Your new Mando sounded great in the mix. Hats off to you.

There's a reason for that... I LOVE THE FACES!!! And I do kind of sing a bit like Rod

If you like the Faces, listen to the guitar on this song of mine, I kind of got the Ron Wood feel into it...

[Br1ck]

I'm so glad my then three year old grandson made my buy a mandolin. Opened up a new musical world. Yesterday I started learning a break from a Bill Monroe tune to practice his down stroke style. My Weber just came alive with that aggressive style. Very Gibsonesque. Still, only a Gibson is a Gibson, but Bruce Webber's roots go there.

One thing about mandoline you need to be warned about. Some time, some day, you will learn a fiddle tune, then find it is a Monroe song. Pretty soon you inadvertently learn another, and soon you start playing bluegrass licks. Just sayin'. Many a man has said I won't play bluegrass.

[R22]

Originally Posted by rockabilly69

There's a reason for that... I LOVE THE FACES!!! And I do kind of sing a bit like Rod

If you like the Faces, listen to the guitar on this song of mine, I kind of got the Ron Wood feel into it...

That was cool! You've captured that "loose but still in the pocket", thing that the Faces, and of course, the Stones did so well. Well done.

[Br1ck]

The Brits are great at taping into their folk roots. Zeplin were masters at it, and of course Rod Stewart carried on the Faces tradition.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

I'm so glad my then three year old grandson made my buy a mandolin. Opened up a new musical world. Yesterday I started learning a break from a Bill Monroe tune to practice his down stroke style. My Weber just came alive with that aggressive style. Very Gibsonesque. Still, only a Gibson is a Gibson, but Bruce Webber's roots go there.

One thing about mandoline you need to be warned about. Some time, some day, you will learn a fiddle tune, then find it is a Monroe song. Pretty soon you inadvertently learn another, and soon you start playing bluegrass licks. Just sayin'. Many a man has said I won't play bluegrass.

Way to go to your three your old grandson!!!

I picked up guitar mainly because of the British Invasion, but my reason for learning mandolin is kind of funny...

I picked up the mandolin because of a movie I watched with some Italian music in it. It featured a mandolin playing some simple single string melodies. I heard those melodies, liked them, and then realized I could play them back fairly easy on the guitar. I thought why not just buy a mandolin. I just identified with the sound. And like for you, it opened up a new world for me.

As for how I play now, I appreciate simple styles of music, with melodies that make me want to sing along with them, like the mandolin in Rod Stewart's Maggie May. I write my melodies by singing them first.

A lot of this may be due to my limited skill as a musician, but fast and or overly complicated melodies, such as found in many jazz and bluegrass songs just don't resonate with me.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by R22

That was cool! You've captured that "loose but still in the pocket", thing that the Faces, and of course, the Stones did so well. Well done.

"Loose, But Still In The Pocket" I couldn't have described it any better. If you asked me what band is my favorite. From day to day, it would go back and forth between The Mick Taylor Era Stones, and The Faces. As a matter of fact, the first song that I thought I could adapt to the sound of my Gibson mandolin was "Love In Vain" because of the Stones version.

[Br1ck]

Actually, my grandson, knowing what was what, told my wife I had to buy a mandolin. Never was there such a slam dunk. Had to swear I didn't put him up to it.

Go learn fiddle tunes. Not all of them are complicated. But some of the tunes I learned before I knew who wrote them turned out to be Bill Monroe penned.

Anyway, a great mandolin makes for a lot of enjoyment.

[rockabilly69]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

Actually, my grandson, knowing what was what, told my wife I had to buy a mandolin. Never was there such a slam dunk. Had to swear I didn't put him up to it.

Go learn fiddle tunes. Not all of them are complicated. But some of the tunes I learned before I knew who wrote them turned out to be Bill Monroe penned.

Anyway, a great mandolin makes for a lot of enjoyment.

I love that your Grandson threw you that slam dunk

BTW I have learned some fiddle tunes, just not Bluegrass style

[Br1ck]

Originally Posted by Fishermike

Got it. Thanks for the info! Yes, I may plan a trip to Nashville in the spring to play a bunch of mandos (and guitars, of course!). Not many mandolins to try in my neck of the woods.

The problem with Nashville. There are many, many mandolins for sale. Very few under $5000. Rockabilly 69 and my mandolin story are the same in that we bought mandolins we could afford. I had slowly worked up to spending $5000, but whenever I played the Collings MF or Northfield Big Mon, I just was not that thrilled. The Collings was so plain, other than the wood, and Northfield had the binding but rarely the wood, and neither really grabbed me tonally like the Harvey era Gibsons.

I had resigned myself to buying an F 9 if I could find a used one. So there I was with a maybe I'll never do it when I ran into my Weber, a brand I'd rarely liked enough to chance a Reverb sale. But picked it up, and it was an equal but different thing. Ir will certainly do, and the fern inlay makes up a lot for not having Gibson on the headstock, oh well...... I'll have to survive.