MandoCowboy
Feb-06-2008, 10:29am
I wanted to post my impressions of the Ellis F-5 mandolin that is currently advertised in the classifieds. First off, Dan who owns the instrument is a first class citizen and it was obvious to me how much he liked this mandolin. Dan spent an hour with me and another mando picker friend who I brought along to do a tasting. Dan's knowledge of this instrument, and of other fine mandolin is extensive. I was a pleasure to discuss mandolins in general with him and informative of Ellis mandolins in particular.
I had never laid eyes on an Ellis mandolin, nor had heard one up close and personal. I've read glowing reports, but there's nothing like seeing and playing the real thing to drive home the intent of words. This mandolin is stunning in looks, fit and finish. Perfection is not a thorough enough word to describe it.
Sometimes when something like that looks so good, when it's picked up held and played it feels a little uncomfortable and awkward. Not this mandolin. I felt like I'd known this mandolin all my life, which is very unusual for me to experience when playing another mando other than my main axe. One of the nice touches was the neck. It had a satin finish treatment to the neck which allowed a "speed neck" feel without the look of seeing the finish removed. Even though I felt it, I did not really even notice it until Dan pointing it out. That was really nice.
Dan's style of music allows for a very low action on the mandolin. I play Blugrass, but I'm not a heavy handed player, thus the low action did not cause me any major problems. Even with such a setup this mandolin was booming and projected wonderfully. The tone was something I'd never quite heard before. As I was playing the mando, it was not hard at all to get great tone, expressive and clear, with absolutely no muddle when combining notes with double stop, or running together of notes with tremelo or faster speed bluegrass runs. That was very pleasing, but that tone that I was hearing still caused me to cock my ear closer to try and figure out what is was I was taking in.
Dan described it to me as the Ellis tone. This particular mandolin has a "sad and happy tone within one note" as he put it so well. There's plenty of Bluegrass mid-range, and plently of soulful bluesy stuff, and you can calm things down into expressive quiet to emotional impact on tremelo. It was hard for me to put the thing down. The hour went to quickly.
Now I have a serious case of MAS bearing down upon my shoulders and pocket book. It is a dangerous thing sampling high end mandolins like this one. As I weigh the options of financial ruin, family disturbance, and sort out if I've reached the optimum position of being mando-poor as I count the ones already in my possession, that Ellis tone is still cutting through. Please, someone buy this thing and relieve me of my delimma.
Dan...Thanks for the wonderful hospitality. The cookies were great!!!!
Mando Cowboy
I had never laid eyes on an Ellis mandolin, nor had heard one up close and personal. I've read glowing reports, but there's nothing like seeing and playing the real thing to drive home the intent of words. This mandolin is stunning in looks, fit and finish. Perfection is not a thorough enough word to describe it.
Sometimes when something like that looks so good, when it's picked up held and played it feels a little uncomfortable and awkward. Not this mandolin. I felt like I'd known this mandolin all my life, which is very unusual for me to experience when playing another mando other than my main axe. One of the nice touches was the neck. It had a satin finish treatment to the neck which allowed a "speed neck" feel without the look of seeing the finish removed. Even though I felt it, I did not really even notice it until Dan pointing it out. That was really nice.
Dan's style of music allows for a very low action on the mandolin. I play Blugrass, but I'm not a heavy handed player, thus the low action did not cause me any major problems. Even with such a setup this mandolin was booming and projected wonderfully. The tone was something I'd never quite heard before. As I was playing the mando, it was not hard at all to get great tone, expressive and clear, with absolutely no muddle when combining notes with double stop, or running together of notes with tremelo or faster speed bluegrass runs. That was very pleasing, but that tone that I was hearing still caused me to cock my ear closer to try and figure out what is was I was taking in.
Dan described it to me as the Ellis tone. This particular mandolin has a "sad and happy tone within one note" as he put it so well. There's plenty of Bluegrass mid-range, and plently of soulful bluesy stuff, and you can calm things down into expressive quiet to emotional impact on tremelo. It was hard for me to put the thing down. The hour went to quickly.
Now I have a serious case of MAS bearing down upon my shoulders and pocket book. It is a dangerous thing sampling high end mandolins like this one. As I weigh the options of financial ruin, family disturbance, and sort out if I've reached the optimum position of being mando-poor as I count the ones already in my possession, that Ellis tone is still cutting through. Please, someone buy this thing and relieve me of my delimma.
Dan...Thanks for the wonderful hospitality. The cookies were great!!!!
Mando Cowboy