Couldn't help myself.........
Jan 16, 2024 11:06:22 GMT -5
Marshall, majorminor, and 11 more like this
Post by kenlarsson on Jan 16, 2024 11:06:22 GMT -5
I had some free time yesterday, so I went down to see the Green Swamp Music luthier at this shop in his garage. Green Swamp Music I endeded up bring this home.
It's an octave mandolin, cypress wood top, china berry wood back and sides. Cypress is a protected species, he got his wood from a local farmer who had some old pre protected status logs on his property. He had the mando set up for an Irish bouzouki tuning, not my style, so he restrung it and set it up for my style, uke tuning. One of the things he's working on is a restoration of a 1932 C2 Martin archtop. It's rare and unusual in that it has a round soundhole as opposed to f style soundholes. Interesting. He's a third generation luthier, met his father, 86 years old and still hanging in there. Nice folks, very easy to work with.
Anyway, it's a great little instrument to play. I've owned two A style mandolins in the past. They were lower end price wise (as is this octave mando) and I never could get them set up properly. Could never get the first fret fingering to be true to tuning and the whole thing would slip out of tune while playing the first song after tuning up. This octave mando doesn't have that problem, the zero fret is a great help. The build is rustic as advertised. The finish is a bit rough and the back of the neck could be smoother but the mando is set up well, stays in tune and is a joy to play. For $525.00 I don't think I could have found anything better.
It's an octave mandolin, cypress wood top, china berry wood back and sides. Cypress is a protected species, he got his wood from a local farmer who had some old pre protected status logs on his property. He had the mando set up for an Irish bouzouki tuning, not my style, so he restrung it and set it up for my style, uke tuning. One of the things he's working on is a restoration of a 1932 C2 Martin archtop. It's rare and unusual in that it has a round soundhole as opposed to f style soundholes. Interesting. He's a third generation luthier, met his father, 86 years old and still hanging in there. Nice folks, very easy to work with.
Anyway, it's a great little instrument to play. I've owned two A style mandolins in the past. They were lower end price wise (as is this octave mando) and I never could get them set up properly. Could never get the first fret fingering to be true to tuning and the whole thing would slip out of tune while playing the first song after tuning up. This octave mando doesn't have that problem, the zero fret is a great help. The build is rustic as advertised. The finish is a bit rough and the back of the neck could be smoother but the mando is set up well, stays in tune and is a joy to play. For $525.00 I don't think I could have found anything better.
