GRW3
Dec-15-2008, 5:43pm
This last Saturday (12/13) Fiddler's Green, in Austin, held a joint showing of Ellis Mandolins and Allison Guitars. I wrote briefly about the latter on Flatpick-L so other than saying their small bodied mahogany guitars were terrific I'll just move on to the mandolins. Besides the Ellis display they carry Altman, Breedlove, Collings, Eastman, Kentucky, Weber and maybe a couple of more. In their Mandolin Room they even had a used Gibson F5G. This made for some excellent picking and wishing.
Before any comparisons among the group let me discuss the Ellis mandolins. WOW! The fit. The finish. The tone. Just top notch all the way around.
To illustrate the fit issues Tom brought parts of mandolin in progress. The body form with the sides and kerfing in place and the carved top. I'm a modeler from way back and one of the things I know about joining wood is that any glue you can see hold nothing in place. Clean jointing is something that I really appreciate and the joints in the side assembly looked like the raw wood was fused together, not a stain or drop in sight. The form itself was a thing of beauty (at least to someone who has spent some time in the manufacturing business). CNC finished, plastic for stability and slickness and precision indexed for a vacuum table. The top was baby smooth inside and out and on the inside was the only sign of glue where he uses a pattern of CA to stabilize the wood and prevent chipping when he cuts the f-holes.
In a related area he had examples of the headstock and fretboard inlay he provides to companies like Gibson and Taylor. The fretboard inlays were much thicker than what's normally seen. Tom said it's because a fine instrument can be refretted 3 to 4 times in it's normal life and he wants the inlays to last through the fretboard dressing part of the operation.
We've all seen plenty of fine finished mandolins but these are exceptional. For me, since I suffer from lacqueritis, the neck was the cat's meow. It's tung oiled instead of varnished but unlike some, who just do this over bare wood, Tom fully stains and sunbursts the neck just like you would expect on lacquered neck. It looks great but feels even better. There is a point at which a great finish over maple gets a three dimensional look and the Ellis clearly gets there.
I like an f-style to have a clear "hear me" presence. Some can't. Some do but can be a little harsh. The Ellis is powerful and full. It's always hard to describe these things but think of it like an Irish or opera tenor versus a pop musician that sings in a tenor range. Both can be excellent at what they do but the former is just so much more present. That's the Ellis. The out of the box action was decent but mandolin action is very personal. This mandolin reinforces my thoughts of "used cars only" for the future. I don't think it's my next mandolin but it's definetly a goal.
I was also exicited to get a chance to play so many good mandolins in one spot. I am thinking about the next step and Weber and Collings are reasonable goals. They had several of each and I played first by brand to asses consistency, finding them remarkably so. I picked up their Eastman 615 to calibrate my experience and found that while not as mature as my 515 it pretty well stated the Eastman tone. I also played the Altmans, my previous benchmark in good tone. Seeing that the Weber and Collings instruments were pretty consistent I set out to compare a representative from each, the Collings satin MF and the Weber Bitterroot.
I ran both through a variety of tunes that I know and some chopping. I found I prefered the Weber sound. (Note: I did not say it's a better mandolin, just that I prefer the tone.) The Collings seemed to share the common trait of their guitars in being tight out of the box where the Weber seemed ready to go. The Weber had a more rounded sound across the courses where the Collings was more treble oriented. I think the Collings had a slight edge in the finish area but I thought both were better than the much more expensive Altmans. The latter still sounded better but not as good as the Ellis (to me). The Gibson had a fully fretted fretboard extention that was just not compatible with my playing style so I could not evaluate it fairly.
The value of an event like this is the chance to try several quality instruments in one place. A mandolin is such a personal thing that you should only believe what you hear and not the sales records to tell what is best for you. For me it seems Weber will likely be my next step even though the Collings meets my number one rule - sound better new than my played in Eastman.
Before any comparisons among the group let me discuss the Ellis mandolins. WOW! The fit. The finish. The tone. Just top notch all the way around.
To illustrate the fit issues Tom brought parts of mandolin in progress. The body form with the sides and kerfing in place and the carved top. I'm a modeler from way back and one of the things I know about joining wood is that any glue you can see hold nothing in place. Clean jointing is something that I really appreciate and the joints in the side assembly looked like the raw wood was fused together, not a stain or drop in sight. The form itself was a thing of beauty (at least to someone who has spent some time in the manufacturing business). CNC finished, plastic for stability and slickness and precision indexed for a vacuum table. The top was baby smooth inside and out and on the inside was the only sign of glue where he uses a pattern of CA to stabilize the wood and prevent chipping when he cuts the f-holes.
In a related area he had examples of the headstock and fretboard inlay he provides to companies like Gibson and Taylor. The fretboard inlays were much thicker than what's normally seen. Tom said it's because a fine instrument can be refretted 3 to 4 times in it's normal life and he wants the inlays to last through the fretboard dressing part of the operation.
We've all seen plenty of fine finished mandolins but these are exceptional. For me, since I suffer from lacqueritis, the neck was the cat's meow. It's tung oiled instead of varnished but unlike some, who just do this over bare wood, Tom fully stains and sunbursts the neck just like you would expect on lacquered neck. It looks great but feels even better. There is a point at which a great finish over maple gets a three dimensional look and the Ellis clearly gets there.
I like an f-style to have a clear "hear me" presence. Some can't. Some do but can be a little harsh. The Ellis is powerful and full. It's always hard to describe these things but think of it like an Irish or opera tenor versus a pop musician that sings in a tenor range. Both can be excellent at what they do but the former is just so much more present. That's the Ellis. The out of the box action was decent but mandolin action is very personal. This mandolin reinforces my thoughts of "used cars only" for the future. I don't think it's my next mandolin but it's definetly a goal.
I was also exicited to get a chance to play so many good mandolins in one spot. I am thinking about the next step and Weber and Collings are reasonable goals. They had several of each and I played first by brand to asses consistency, finding them remarkably so. I picked up their Eastman 615 to calibrate my experience and found that while not as mature as my 515 it pretty well stated the Eastman tone. I also played the Altmans, my previous benchmark in good tone. Seeing that the Weber and Collings instruments were pretty consistent I set out to compare a representative from each, the Collings satin MF and the Weber Bitterroot.
I ran both through a variety of tunes that I know and some chopping. I found I prefered the Weber sound. (Note: I did not say it's a better mandolin, just that I prefer the tone.) The Collings seemed to share the common trait of their guitars in being tight out of the box where the Weber seemed ready to go. The Weber had a more rounded sound across the courses where the Collings was more treble oriented. I think the Collings had a slight edge in the finish area but I thought both were better than the much more expensive Altmans. The latter still sounded better but not as good as the Ellis (to me). The Gibson had a fully fretted fretboard extention that was just not compatible with my playing style so I could not evaluate it fairly.
The value of an event like this is the chance to try several quality instruments in one place. A mandolin is such a personal thing that you should only believe what you hear and not the sales records to tell what is best for you. For me it seems Weber will likely be my next step even though the Collings meets my number one rule - sound better new than my played in Eastman.