Mando Tasting

[Brier]

The tasting at Wintergrass was great! At lest three Loars and Scott's Nugget was amazing! Thanks Ken for the labor of mando love.

Peter.

more...more...more....what other cool mandos?

[grsnovi]

There was a very cool (looking and sounding) mando that looked like a small arch-top jazz guitar. It had a very nice sound. Also there was one from a guy who had built about a dozen that I thought sounded very good.

The tasting certainly diverged from the "under $1500" originally stated paradigm but it was a great 2 hours.

I was struck by just how magical a Loar sounds however, I don't think there was a terrible sounding one in the bunch. John R made every one he played sound good!

But I think the "tastiest" was saved for last: the watermellon

I know that Scott took pictures.

Has anyone seen/played the Jamie Wiens Piccolo that is being unveiled?

[AlanN]

What tune did JR pick?

[G'DAE]

Dennis...... Yes I have!!!

G'DAE......how was it? i have only seen very small glimpses along the way. Did you play it or anything you can share would be great....

[Mando Medic]

Here is a list of the mandolins that were played at Wintergrass:
1924 Loar
2001 Heiden F5
2004 Newall A5
2002 Icesicle A5
2003 Arrow Archtop
2003 Collings MF5
2001 Weber Bitteroot
2001 Sullivan F5
1917 A3
1924 Loar w/Virzi
1979 Givens A6
2003 Griffin F5
1938 A40
2000 Tacoma M3
1982 Monteleone F5
1998 Flatiron A5 Artist
2002 Mid Mo M2
2003 Coombe A4
1924 F4
2000 Weber 2YK
2004 Lewis F5
1909 A1
2001 Nugget F5
2002 Heiden F5
1903 A
1996 F5G
2002 Weber Absaroka A5
2002 Collings MT2
1925 Loar
2001 Laplant F5
2003 Brentrup F5
1998 Coulson F5
2003 Craig F5
1998 Cliff Sargent F5
2004 Breedlove KO
1918 A
2003 Husky F5
2003 A. Lawrence Smart F5
2002 Old Wave Watermelon A5

We will be posting some audio of this event in the near future. There will be a contest to determine if you can tell what instruments are being played re; F or A. But we will not post all the audio this year.

CD's will be made available in the near future. Watch this site for the announement when ready. I would like to thank Scott Tichenor, Bruce Harvie, Zeke Griffin, Don "Fuzzy" Purcell, Luke Brinkerhoff, Fred Corbett and everyone who loaned us their instruments for this tasting. Also a huge thanks to John Reischman and the Wintergrass staff for your help and promotion.

Great new entry's into this years tasting plus a couple of standards and 3 Loars and one with a Virzi. We have some great audio. You will be amazed at the sound of some of these instruments. Stay tuned. Ken Cartwright

[Rroyd]

Typo? Or bad handwriting on the registration? The last Loar in the list was described as a 1923 during the tasting, so just thought it should be mentioned before the official CD and accompanying information are finished.