Cary Fagan
May-18-2004, 7:18pm
Today I went to visit Oliver Apitius, builder of Apitius mandolins, and thought some of you might like a report. I live in Toronto and he's about an hour north, working in a late 19th century stone mill that has been handsomely converted into artist spaces. Oliver is a friend of my friend and teacher Andrew Collins and we met at a gig of Andrew's.
His workshop is meticulously kept and organized. He uses no CNC equipment. He explained everything from controlling the environment in the workshop to his very slight changes in carving the plates (always kept careful track of) to create the unique yet very bluegrassy sound of his instruments. He strives for a very balanced sound with equal loudness on all strings and as a result his tone-bars are shaped differently from other builders. He has an incredible grasp of the science of sound, which he explained in fascinating detail, but the instruments themselves look like works of art. They are very elegant in all their details, from their narrow f-holes to the gorgeous scroll (based on a Loar that Oliver photographed himself). He brought his own mandolin for me to try and I had the huge pleasure of playing it for a while; it sure made me sound good.
Oliver is a warm, likeable guy, absolutely unpretentious and enthusiastic about what he does. After talking for a couple of hours we walked to the local bakery to get some lunch, which we ate on a picnic bench outside the mill. He told some great stories about meeting Adam Steffey and Dan Tyminski, who play Apitius mandolins. He builds eight instruments a year (he's not quite at a hundred yet) which at present are sold through Elderly and Mandolin Brothers but he'll soon be hooked up to the internet. The visit was a pleasure from beginning to end and I can still 'feel' that beautiful mandolin in my hands.
His workshop is meticulously kept and organized. He uses no CNC equipment. He explained everything from controlling the environment in the workshop to his very slight changes in carving the plates (always kept careful track of) to create the unique yet very bluegrassy sound of his instruments. He strives for a very balanced sound with equal loudness on all strings and as a result his tone-bars are shaped differently from other builders. He has an incredible grasp of the science of sound, which he explained in fascinating detail, but the instruments themselves look like works of art. They are very elegant in all their details, from their narrow f-holes to the gorgeous scroll (based on a Loar that Oliver photographed himself). He brought his own mandolin for me to try and I had the huge pleasure of playing it for a while; it sure made me sound good.
Oliver is a warm, likeable guy, absolutely unpretentious and enthusiastic about what he does. After talking for a couple of hours we walked to the local bakery to get some lunch, which we ate on a picnic bench outside the mill. He told some great stories about meeting Adam Steffey and Dan Tyminski, who play Apitius mandolins. He builds eight instruments a year (he's not quite at a hundred yet) which at present are sold through Elderly and Mandolin Brothers but he'll soon be hooked up to the internet. The visit was a pleasure from beginning to end and I can still 'feel' that beautiful mandolin in my hands.