Re: Wall of Mandolins
Back in the late '80s when I decided I wanted to "move up" to a better mandolin it would take me all day to visit a half dozen music stores around the SF Bay area just to play one, two at the most at each store, Gryphon being the exception. There was nothing that impressed me all that much. Except this one Givens I didn't buy.
THEN I got referred to Dexter Johnson's Carmel Music Store. This was a tiny store in the Carmel Village and on any given day he would have at LEAST a dozen and more mandolins and they were all really nice ones.
I found it very helpful to try the various instruments and compare one to anther. Nothing carried me away though...
Then one day in early 1992 Dexter called ME, (which was a surprise, I didn't know he had my ph.##) to say there was a mandolin in his store waiting to be picked up by its new owner and I should come and play it. When I saw it I was very impressed but when I began to play it I was blown away! There is my motivation, being overwhelmed. At the time they were special order only and the A style I preferred was the princely sum of $2000.00. After many months of gently coaxing my wife and an unexpected windfall I was able to place my order in August of 1992 for my Gilchrist A3. It's on his web site, #246, which I received in January 1993 and played exclusively until 2009 after which I got a few more mandolins.
i like to think in terms of the instrument becoming 'invisible" in that I don't think about it--we make music together as a single unit.
Billy
billypackardmandolin.com
Billy Packard
Gilchrist A3, 1993
Stiver Fern, 1990
Weber Fern, 2007
Gibson F4 Hybrid #1, D. Harvey 2009
Gibson 1923 A2
Numerous wonderful guitars
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