View Full Version : A visit to Brighton
I had a very nice visit yesterday to The Acoustic Music Co. (http://www.theacousticmusicco.co.uk) in Brighton. It was very nice to meet trevor and play all the instruments on hand. Trevor keeps a huge assortment of 10-string instruments which I've always loved. It's highly unusual to be able to stroll in and compare/contrast several of these at a time!
in addition to the 10-string machines, there was an incredible array of Eastman, Rigel, Lebeda, Gibsons, and other makers.. I'd guess there were easily over 100 mandolins to try.
Here's a shot of me with Trevor..
We orchestrated a large trade deal as I really fell in love with the 10-string Vega he had there. I previously had owned a short-scale 10-string vega.. this one has much more of the mandola sound to it and is overall more successful tone-wise I would say. Very nice for backing and putting fat chords under tunes when playing Irish melodies.
The case is one of the cleanest I've ever seen too, quite amazing as I can't imagine there were many such cases made (cylinderback mandolas are quite thin on the ground, let alone 10-string ones, so a case that accomodates the peghead would be completely impossible to obtain if it wasn't with the instrument!)
Back (hard to get this to photograph right!) is nice rosewood
Purfling & binding very pretty too
342 02 is the serial.. can anyone date that? My short-scale version of this was 1915 if I recall at 318 26
I'm also quite thankful that these tuners all work smoothly
A little mood lighting on the cylinderback. Playing with flash photography lately and haven't really gotten the knack of it yet!
I was pretty caught up in this one instrument. I'm a bit ebarrased that I forgot to photograph the vintage style J rowboat/mandobass, a red f4 with killer bass, an h2 mandola, and several A models he had in the vintage room!
Another instrument that really got my attention was an h5-style Eastman mandola. Very nice tone, workmanship, finish and sound for a stunningly low price. In fact, I was generally impressed with the Eastman mandolins value for money as a lot of folks have been recently. There always seems to be at least one thing I'd want to change (finish color, peghead, that logo, etc) but I'd certainly recommend them as great value for money. I was nearly tempted to take that H5 eastman home and save some pennies, but I suppose I just swooned over the vega 10-string. It's particularly cool for duets !
kyblue
May-26-2006, 7:16am
Wow! Great looking instrument. Would love to hear it!
Paula
Martin Jonas
May-26-2006, 7:36am
Great-looking instrument! So, this one would have been tuned CGDAE, spanning the alto mandola and mandolin range? With the larger scale length, can you get a thin-enough E-string to tune it to the pitch of the top string of the mandolin?
Martin
(Waiting for my own version of the 5-course instrument to arrive any day now: a German waldzither with nine strings, the bass course being single, and a scale length of around 46cm. No idea how I'll tune it yet, but maybe octave mandola plus mandocello C).
Martin- what's on there now (not sure, thin though!) works pretty well. I haven't broken one so far http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif A couple little issues on the box to get looked at here and there, but it plays and is set up well.
yes, CGDAE. Works quite well, it's the "Bassier" 10-string type vs a trebly one with a weak c..
trevor
May-26-2006, 12:14pm
Martin,
I'm going to miss that one! I have had several 10 stringers made for CGDAE tuning, all so far with 16" scale, (the Vega is 15”) all have been fine on the top E with an .008 or .009. I have them by Rigel (that's the green R200 on Rigel's custom page, originally made for me but now re-finished in dark grey/brown) Bill Bussman/Old Wave, and Moon all in the shop and on my website now.
I have one being made by Rosta Capek with a std mando scale and body. I figured that as he's the man that gets the most bass out of a mando he was the one to try this. Its been underway for about three years but he told me recently that its nearly done and working out very well. I will report when it arrives, its going to be a pretty heavy C...
I think you will have trouble getting to low g of an octave with a 46cm scale (18”), possible but it will be a heavy sring, to get a cello low C you need to go to 23" at least, 25" to 26" is ideal.
Martin Jonas
May-26-2006, 2:02pm
I think you will have trouble getting to low g of an octave with a 46cm scale (18”), possible but it will be a heavy sring, to get a cello low C you need to go to 23" at least, 25" to 26" is ideal.
Trevor -- yes, I know that's what one would expect. It's just that the standard waldzither tuning for which these instruments are designed is open C. C GG cc ee gg. The references I find on German websites are infuriatingly vague on what octave that is: I've seen it given as both C GG cc ee gg and c gg c'c' e'e' g'g'. At that scale length it seems odd for the lowest note to be the low c of the viola. So, it seems to me that they may use a massive gauge bass string to get the cello low C. I'll find out when I get the waldzither in a few days, as it is still in its original tuning.
Octave mandolin tuning GDAE for the four double courses of a waldzither is no problem: Andy Irvine used to do that on his, and I know others have done it successfully.
Martin
Jim Garber
May-26-2006, 2:10pm
Hey Dan. Congrats on that one. It is a beauty. I had a short scale 10 string many years ago. How is the top on it? it is relatively flat?
I have a V ega list at home and I will look it up later.
Jim
A little dip in the top, the rosewood back has a repair, another little line near the pickguard, but I figured "hey, find another one!"
I had a short-scale vega 10-string recently too which I quite liked, though the C was floppy. This one is much more of a mandola, though the top e works pretty well, though you don't really want to go up into the 12-15 fret range on the e.. the main thing this one feels like is playing the low end of duets, or playing C/G/D tunes with huge chords below the melody. So far A seems hard to work with for me, it's an "E" chord shape plus top strings and a bit awkward to fret..
But it's sooo booming and deep. Echoey. It's like a mandola with no holds barred on the low end. I was always jealous of Paul Ruppa's Vega mandola in milwaukee!!
Dagger Gordon
May-26-2006, 4:08pm
Good stuff Dan.
I'm a bit surprised it's taken you so long to get down to Brighton. I guess you knew you couldn't resist coming away with something.
I've just been looking at the web-site, and I must say the prices for those Eastmans really are unbelieveably cheap. How good are they? Are we talking about as good as some of those Czech instruments, which appear to be a good buy but are still a lot dearer than Eastmans, or is that asking too much?
How are you anyway? Arm OK now?
Hey Dagger,
Yeah- I would actually say that I think the Eastmans live up to a lot of the hype. There is a difference going up to a good czech one or a gibson or a flatiron, but it's not as dramatic as it used to be in that price range. I liked a lot about most of the eastmans, maybe an e-string here or a G on another or a neck angle there that seemed wrong, but none of them were immediate "put back on the shelf" deals.
I'm not wild about a lot of the finishes- I'd like to see some nice old solid orange/black/red like the old Gibsons had, but obviously I'm a sucker for vintage.
My elbow is probably about as good as it will get now. It's vulnerable to dings- when I bang it on a wall or corner or something it hurts a LOT, which is sort of a side effect of having had the area around the nerve thinned out. The small numb patch on the elbow means I sometimes bruise it without noticing too. But I'm still playing, and haven't lost any dexterity on my left hand. I still use computers at work almost constantly, and play a fair bit most nights as well, so they are getting a lot of use still!
Bob DeVellis
May-26-2006, 7:58pm
Dan:
Congrats, it's a beauty. I once restrung my mandola to mandolin tuning just to see if the body size worked well with mandolin pitch. It definitely did. Based on that little experiment, I've always imagined that the mandola-sized 10-string would be a success. I'd love to find one. The serial number, by the way, suggests a manufacture date of 1918.
Thanks Bob, nice to know! I'll just have to show it to you some day I reckon. Still getting used to it all, it's a lot of fun.
trevor
May-27-2006, 4:54am
Martin,
Please let us know how the waldzither works out.
Dagger,
I agree with Dan on the Eastmans. When I started a few years back I had real trouble bridging the gap between the low end and the hand made. I wouldn't have believed then that this quality would be ever available at these prices. I've had loads through, they aren't up to the standard of Capek, Lebeda, Weber, Old Wave etc but they are fantastic value. The Furch are also amazing, I don't think Dan tried any. The finish might suit him, they have a tighter more bassy sound than Eastmans. I prefer the Furch personally but the difference is small and its down to personal taste and differences between individaul instruments, neither is ‘better’ than the other.
Dave Hanson
May-28-2006, 5:57am
Nice pictures Dan but for the uninitiated which one is you ?
Dave H
grandmainger
May-28-2006, 8:54am
Nice pictures Dan but for the uninitiated which one is you ?
Dan's on the right, Trevor on the left.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
I've been having fun waking up the cylinderback, though I think it was at most a catnap. Boy is that sucker loud! I'll try to post a sound clip tonight
yes.. that's me on the right. More typical is this one:
http://www.beimborn.com/1.jpg
Ted Eschliman
May-30-2006, 12:36pm
Nah, this is still my favorite picture of Dan from his old gig:
Martin Jonas
Jun-09-2006, 2:40pm
Martin,
Please let us know how the waldzither works out.
Trevor,
I started a new thread for the waldzither here (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=15&t=35342&st=0&&#entry405356).
Martin
acumando
Jun-09-2006, 4:57pm
is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble getting the TAMCO site to load?
beyond the front page, i get blank frames on Safari and an error message "orderflag is not defined" on Firefox.
trevor
Jun-09-2006, 5:12pm
acumando,
Its working OK here but i will pass your comments onto my technical guy.
grandmainger
Jun-09-2006, 5:15pm
is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble getting the TAMCO site to load? #
beyond the front page, i get blank frames on Safari and an error message "orderflag is not defined" on Firefox.
I always get a slightly odd display on tamco, when I use anything apart from IE6 on windoze. I get annoyed at sites coded in such a way that they only work well with IE.
However, just now, on OSX, it's working OK for me, in Safari, Firefox and Shiira.
Germain
acumando
Jun-09-2006, 6:30pm
I always get a slightly odd display on tamco, when I use anything apart from IE6 on windoze. I get annoyed at sites coded in such a way that they only work well with IE.
However, just now, on OSX, it's working OK for me, in Safari, Firefox and Shiira.
Weird, i'm running OSX as well, but i haven't been able to access it for quite some time. #
I have an IE-aversion, something seems very perverse about running MS software on a Mac... #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif #I'll check it out though...
Nope, still no luck, IE gives an error message too. #Must be my system?
Anyway, thanks.
trevor
Jun-10-2006, 2:58am
I had my technical guy look at this he says all OK with firefox, which is what I use with no problems. He is going to add a link on the index page to report problems to him.
Trevor- I can confirm that.. when I run firevfox (latest patch level, auto-updates etc) on win2k the links sometimes don't work.. not due to pop-up blockers, must be some kind of scripting on the pages to create links. Flawless in internet explorer though
Keith Miller
Jun-10-2006, 8:10am
Trevor, I get the site OK but it will not let me link to any of the instrument info on the pages....hope that makes sense from a non technical type person http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
Keith
trevor
Jun-10-2006, 8:59am
Keith,
I'm not very technical either.. are you using Internet Explorer or something else to get onto the web?
Ray(T)
Jun-10-2006, 12:16pm
Hi Trevor, Hi all
i used to have problems accessing the TAMCO site with a MAC - I put it down to incompatibility between the TAMCO server and MAC software. Since I moved over to Panther/Tiger I've had no problem using Safari. If you're having difficulty linking to the instrument pages Keith (and you're using a MAC) you've probably got the popup window blocker turned on. You can toggle it on and off from the Safari menu or with Apple+K
Ray
trevor
Jun-14-2006, 8:42am
I have had a link on my homepage added to report technical problems. I would be VERY grateful if anyone having problems could report them dirtectly to Grant.
Thanks
Dan,
By chance did you check out the Oakwood octave mandolin and similar used or new octave's? If so, can you add some comments of what you think of them.
Thanks!
Sorry, I was pretty pinched for time there and stuck to the mandos http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
keithd
Jun-25-2006, 7:51pm
That's brilliant mandohack - "...calling Dr. Fine, Dr. Beimborn, Dr. fine..."
Well I found myself back in the UK on business last weekend and decided to spend the day in Brighton at TAMCO.
After driving for a couple of hours I finally got there - it's amazing how quickly you forget about holiday traffic on the M25.
Anyway despite the heat the trip was great I spent the first part of the visit playing on the mandolin section - I could seriously lust after a Capek F4 - wonderful instrument, you could tell just strumming a D chord this was a belter. I then helped a new mandolin player take his first plunge into our world - Trevor worked through a whole range of mandos as part of his process to find out what people like and want, I was really only helping him by playing so he could hear how the different instruments sounded 'out front' He came in set on an Eastman but ended up with a great sounding Furch A oval hole - fantastic for a first mando. I then spent about an hour and a half talking to Trevor and sharing his enthusiasm for five course intruments - he made me play them all! A great day out, Trevor is a brilliant guy and I would urge anyone in the UK who is thinking of buying/upgrading to go and play the fantastic inventory that he has there before you decide.
trevor
Jul-19-2006, 1:24pm
Stephen,
I was fun to meet you too. BTW it was a Lebeda A4 std the guy took in the end.