JLeather
Sep-21-2009, 10:50am
Hello all,
My name is John and I've been playing mandolin for about 7 years, although I didn't really get into it until a couple years ago. I play in a bluegrass band with my best friend of 15 years along with two other members and we're getting pretty good and getting a couple decent gigs locally.
With that in mind, I've got an instrument question. To date I've not owned what I'd call a "decent" mandolin. Started out with the $50 Harmony from eBay way back when. The action was terrible because the bridge wasn't adjustable and there was no truss rod. Stuck it out with that for a while til a $125 Dean A-model was spotted in a pawnshop. Not a terrible mandolin, and one that I still have as a backup and for camping trips and such. Stays in tune well, but like most mandolins of that price bracket it doesn't note well past about the 10th fret thanks to the hump where the fingerboard joins the body.
Last year I embarked on a quest for a better mandolin, but i've not had much luck. I picked up a "Cecil Sullivan", who is apparently a small-ish builder out of Kansas. It was surprisingly cheap, sounded good, but it actually fell apart on me after just a couple weeks! Came from eBay, no returns, etc. So, at that point I'd had it with cheap mandos went out in search of something in the ~$1000 range, hoping for a Eastman or Kentucky or therabouts. As luck would have it (or not) instead I came across a local Bradley mandolin. It was an older one, mid 70's or so, when they were handbuilt fairly well in Japan. For the low sum of $425 it came home and after a setup it sounded great. Definitely a step in the right direction. Good tone, good looks, but still lacking in up-the-neck playability because (once again) of the body-joint hump. It just wasn't the jump up to the "next level" I was looking for.
So, I played that for the last year or so, but as I get better I'm feeling held back by this mandolin. Having had my fill of the $400-$600 range of mandos (and with the lingering bad taste of that one that fell apart) I'm off and searching for something better, again aiming at a ~$1000 range. This time I find there is a used Buddy Davis up for sale not 10 miles from my house. Now this is some 3 times more money than I was aiming to spend, but I'm getting more serious about my playing and our band is maturing and I'd like to be able to hold my own. I also look back on my previous 2 purchases and think that if I'd spent that money towards a really nice mando instead of the ones that turned out to be unsuitable I'd be ahead of the game.
I've read all that I can on this site and around the 'net about Buddy Davis mandos and the general concensus is that they are fantastic mandolins. Definitely the kind of instrument I could get many many happy years out of.
So here's the oddball semi-philosophical question: am I missing anything by jumping up to a mandolin of this caliber at this stage in my playing? While I'm feeling hindered by my current cheap mandos, I also feel a bit daunted at buying a mandolin this good; as though I'm not ready for it. I suppose it's actually good to have a mandolin that's better than you are, so you have a good bit of room to grow?
If anyone has any thoughts on the matter I'd love to hear them. My friend/guitar player is coming this evening to accompany me with his Santa Cruz while I check out the Davis and give it a tryout. Maybe after playing it the decision will be much easier :)
My name is John and I've been playing mandolin for about 7 years, although I didn't really get into it until a couple years ago. I play in a bluegrass band with my best friend of 15 years along with two other members and we're getting pretty good and getting a couple decent gigs locally.
With that in mind, I've got an instrument question. To date I've not owned what I'd call a "decent" mandolin. Started out with the $50 Harmony from eBay way back when. The action was terrible because the bridge wasn't adjustable and there was no truss rod. Stuck it out with that for a while til a $125 Dean A-model was spotted in a pawnshop. Not a terrible mandolin, and one that I still have as a backup and for camping trips and such. Stays in tune well, but like most mandolins of that price bracket it doesn't note well past about the 10th fret thanks to the hump where the fingerboard joins the body.
Last year I embarked on a quest for a better mandolin, but i've not had much luck. I picked up a "Cecil Sullivan", who is apparently a small-ish builder out of Kansas. It was surprisingly cheap, sounded good, but it actually fell apart on me after just a couple weeks! Came from eBay, no returns, etc. So, at that point I'd had it with cheap mandos went out in search of something in the ~$1000 range, hoping for a Eastman or Kentucky or therabouts. As luck would have it (or not) instead I came across a local Bradley mandolin. It was an older one, mid 70's or so, when they were handbuilt fairly well in Japan. For the low sum of $425 it came home and after a setup it sounded great. Definitely a step in the right direction. Good tone, good looks, but still lacking in up-the-neck playability because (once again) of the body-joint hump. It just wasn't the jump up to the "next level" I was looking for.
So, I played that for the last year or so, but as I get better I'm feeling held back by this mandolin. Having had my fill of the $400-$600 range of mandos (and with the lingering bad taste of that one that fell apart) I'm off and searching for something better, again aiming at a ~$1000 range. This time I find there is a used Buddy Davis up for sale not 10 miles from my house. Now this is some 3 times more money than I was aiming to spend, but I'm getting more serious about my playing and our band is maturing and I'd like to be able to hold my own. I also look back on my previous 2 purchases and think that if I'd spent that money towards a really nice mando instead of the ones that turned out to be unsuitable I'd be ahead of the game.
I've read all that I can on this site and around the 'net about Buddy Davis mandos and the general concensus is that they are fantastic mandolins. Definitely the kind of instrument I could get many many happy years out of.
So here's the oddball semi-philosophical question: am I missing anything by jumping up to a mandolin of this caliber at this stage in my playing? While I'm feeling hindered by my current cheap mandos, I also feel a bit daunted at buying a mandolin this good; as though I'm not ready for it. I suppose it's actually good to have a mandolin that's better than you are, so you have a good bit of room to grow?
If anyone has any thoughts on the matter I'd love to hear them. My friend/guitar player is coming this evening to accompany me with his Santa Cruz while I check out the Davis and give it a tryout. Maybe after playing it the decision will be much easier :)