Rather than highjack a similar thread, I thought it best to start another!
It was indeed a pleasure meeting Big Joe Vest at Jackson's Music in Winston-Salem on Saturday afternoon. Big Joe is truly a great guy and I guess it would be accurate to say that Joe is just "real people"! I'm sure I bored the heck out of him, but he didn't let on that I was. Thanks Joe!
Also, a shameless plug for Jackson Music. Could not have been nicer, and I will certainly consider them for my next big purchase. Had a full line of Gibson mandolins and Mastertone banjos - best selection I have seen.
Now for the good stuff. Joe brought two of his mandolins -a distressed Master Model and an X - braced Master Model. Yep - X - braced. Joe did not tell me not to mention it, nor did I take a vow of silence, so I guess it is OK to relay what Joe told me. He may want to fill in the blanks or correct anything I say - or totally deny this ever happened. Of course, many of you may already know about it and I may be way behind the curve, but here goes.
Anyway, the "distressed" MM was a fabulous instrument. According to Joe, it's his favorite, and after playing it, I certainly understand why. He says the sound is almost indistinguishable from a Loar, and I could not argue with him about that. But it was the X - braced MM that got my attention. The instrument was finished in a monotone honey colored varnish - stunning in my opinion. The binding was tortoise, and in my opinion looks much better on this instrument than the Bibey. Just better contrast. No dots on the fingerboard.
The bracing, according to Joe, intersects under the bridge (or close to it) for stability to keep the top from slumping, which is not uncommon on some X-braced instruments. I think Joe told me that they are going to build either ten or twenty of these instruments and they will probably cost somewhere north of 20K.
I am not very good at describing the different sound of mandolins, but I will give it a shot. The X-braced sounds very clear and "sweet". I would describe the sound as my 1917 F-4 on "steroids". Outstanding volume - and just a week old! In contracts, the distressed MM had more of a "blended" sound. When you strummed a chord on the X-braced, it was like you heard individual strings, whereas, the "distressed" sounded like the strings "melded" together.
What a fun day! Unfortunately, I missed Alan Bibey, but if you have an opportunity, you definitely should attend the Sam Bush clinic at First Quality in a couple of weeks.
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