Mandolins...A Style or F Style?

[posternutbag]

Originally Posted by Br1ck

Interesting that when I visited The Mandolin Store last spring, they mentioned how few people bought the fancier A styles in comparison to plainer mandolins . Basicly A style buyers were more bang for your buck buyers, F style buyers were more likely to spend the premium for nice inlay. Gross generalization, but that is what a major dealer sells.

Lots of Collings MTs selling.

Part of that is, if you are going to have an F shaped mandolin with F holes, you want a true F5, and a true F5 has binding front and back, headstock and fretboard. I don't consider a Gibson F9 or a Collings MF to be a "true" F5. Great mandolins, absolutely. The two grasssiest, punchiest mandolins I have ever played were an early 2000s's F9 and a Kimble A5.

If you are buying an A, then you have already decided that the traditional F5 is not for you, and you will be more likely to skip things that have no effect on tone, like binding and inlay.

[Br1ck]

Originally Posted by HHP

Collings MT's are good value, I just can't get next to the way they are voiced. Prefer the darker Gibson type voice. Even within the Collings line, an MF with the same cosmetics as an MT cost just about twice as much.

I don't much care for the Collings voicing either, mandolin or guitar. My Silverangel is quite the opposite, but I'm looking towards an F style to complement it.

One of the best mandolins I've played was the new Gibson F9. All the signature Gibson tone and all the Gibson price.

I played a Northfield Big Mon this week that was insane. I'll have to try to live with a F5s though.

[BobbyBadd]

Personally, I find the f-style easier to play up near and past the 12th fret.

Any a-styles I have played, seem to join the body too close for my preference.

I also prefer a woody chop, didn't find an A with the sound I liked.

[JeffreyAK]

I think you'll hear the same thing, on a hundred different threads, at mandolincafe.com: There's no significant difference in sound between the A and F styles. That doesn't mean that a particular F might not sound better to you than a particular A, and it's true that the highest-price (usually because they are most ornate) mandos are usually F style. But you're paying quite a bit for style, which is fine if you want to do that.

[Wade Hampton]

I've always preferred the improved bass response and sustain of oval hole A models over ƒ hole F-5's. My late, great mandolin teacher Lou Bottenberg had a vintage Gibson oval hole F-4 that I dearly loved the sound of, but I've never had the money to buy one.


Wade Hampton Miller

[riorider]

As an (almost) total novice at mandolin, and a migrant from guitar to mandolin to boot, I carry with me lots of prejudices, mostly from my guitar preferences.

Which also means I'm a bit free-er of tradition than most who study the mandolin. I like the aesthetics of the A w/f holes, and really like many of the Collings Ms I've seen. I also like Tim Connell's "G style" mandolin, of non-traditional wood (myrtle, I believe).



So when I discussed a mandolin build with Paul Woolson, who I knew had carved some great archtops, we chased some non-traditional wood, ending up with some 1930s African mahogany, and not finding any acceptable blue spruce obtained a nice engleman for the top (almost traditional!). The design Paul came up with for this (first) build had points but no scroll, putting instead a modified cutaway. Basically an A with f holes, and non traditional wood for the back and sides. I'm expecting less brilliance than with a maple back and sides, but otherwise I doubt I will be able to hear a tonal difference due to shape.

Pictures to follow soon.

Cheers,

Phil

I've had trouble deciding.




A photo with Homer Ledford, the builder of both mandolins, taken many years ago.




Here's the A-style in action more recently.

[Wade Hampton]

Didn't Homer Ledford make mountain dulcimers, as well?


whm

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Didn't Homer Ledford make mountain dulcimers, as well?

Yes, a little more than 6,000 total. Due to the speed at which he could build them, and the corresponding cost, he made far more dulcimers than all other instruments combined. I think he made just a handful of additional mandolins after he finished my A style, maybe 30 or fewer total. He also made a few guitars, banjos, a fiddle or two, and some odd-ball experimental instruments.

[Maryc-k]

Collings will voice a mandolin to your specifications. Most stores carry the standard line. Not that there is anything wrong with the standard line. They will use a variety of back and top woods, pairing them to get the sound players ask for. You just need to ask.

[Wade Hampton]

After I asked if this was the same Homer Ledford known for his mountain dulcimers. Todd replied:

Originally Posted by Todd Yates

Yes, a little more than 6,000 total. Due to the speed at which he could build them, and the corresponding cost, he made far more dulcimers than all other instruments combined. I think he made just a handful of additional mandolins after he finished my A style, maybe 30 or fewer total. He also made a few guitars, banjos, a fiddle or two, and some odd-ball experimental instruments.

He was quite well-known within dulcimer circles, particularly back east. I'm from Missouri, where we have dulcimer traditions and dulcimer builders of our own, so I never got any of his instruments. Over the years I did see and play a couple of them, though, and knew who he was.


whm

[rsmillbern]

Originally Posted by Elisdad

You'll get more mandolin for the money buying an A style, but the F's are very pretty.

And I am sorry for posting this, but it makes me laugh:

Yes, that's what I said..

I have the logic of a banjo player...

Ok, I love it!

[jmagill]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

After I asked if this was the same Homer Ledford known for his mountain dulcimers. Todd replied:



He was quite well-known within dulcimer circles, particularly back east. I'm from Missouri, where we have dulcimer traditions and dulcimer builders of our own, so I never got any of his instruments. Over the years I did see and play a couple of them, though, and knew who he was.


whm

I ordered one of Homer's dulcimers back in the mid '70's. Beautifully made with a great sound, but I eventually had to send it back due to unresolved intonation problems.

[HHP]

Think the real question on mandolins is carve and bracing. I have two visually similar, almost identical A styles.



The first one I got used tone bar bracing and the other has the less common X brace.

The differences are pretty stark, far more than the difference in body shape would be. I actually hesitated to get an F I was offered as it too had tone bar bracing and sounded almost identical to the A I had with the same brace type.

About the only X brace models now are A's or F's using an oval soundhole.