I have been playing a very nice BRW F5 for 3 years. I have gotten lots of positive comments on it and I have compared it against lots of the top mandolins out there and have never found another maker's that I liked better. My BRW is top of the line, Adi top, red maple sides and back with a varnish finish. Every camp that I went to, I would ask to borrow top of the line mandolins of other campers and teachers to see what it sounded like in my hands (as many of these players were curous to play my BRW, I was usually able to do so, plus mandolin players are just nice people). There is a big difference between the sound of how someone else plays a mandolin and how you sound on it, so I would not only play their mandolin, but I would carefully listen to the other player play mine and then play theirs. I had always been happily surprised that my own BRW held up in tone and volume against anything else that I had ever played. Until ...
Monroe Mandolin Camp, September of 2014, and I was among the largest and most varied set of high end mandolins yet. And I tried many of them. While there were a lot of nice mandolins there, my experience was the same, i.e. my BRW in my hands and in anyone else's hand was just as good as mandolins up to 5X its cost. And then I ran up against Paul Duff. I asked if he had brought any sample of his work, All he had was his private instrument, which he readily offered up. And for the first time, I found a sound that beat mine! The sound was immediately and noticably diffent, louder, more focused. I spent about a half hour with it, and blown away by the sound. Well, I thought, of course a top luthier's own instrument will be that much better. So I wondered, to myself, if there might be a a way to talk him out of this particular instrument. Before I could even bring this up, Paul suggested that there is another player at the camp with a 3 year old Duff that I should try. We tracked that person down and he gladly let me play his as well. The same "Duff" sound was in that one too.
Cut today, and Paul will be shipping my new Duff on Monday or Tuesday of this week. Paul will be shipping my new Duff from Down Under on "Monday or Tuesday" of this week. It is his F5 model, with a flat fretboard, vintage frets, one piece back, Waverlies and a Fern inlay. I am waiting with 'bated breath.
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