Ornamentation tied to history

[red7flag]

I remember first starting this wonderful mandolin journey. I had no history, just my own taste to go by. I really liked the look of the fern and not so much the flower pot. I am thinking of this in particular due to the recent Fern vs MM thread. I did not think of it in terms of manufacturing process, just a look I liked. I was not as much a fan of the cremona finish look as I didn't like the tobacco brown much. I did like the reddish black finish of the fern. Again, I was not really aware of the flower pot and cremona being associated with the Loars of the 20s. In the beginning, I was just going by personal taste. I never liked the florida extension and even though Loars had em, they neither made any sense to me structurally nor did I like the look. My Ellis with a very abbreviated extension is the only mandolin I have with even anything like that look and if I could have had Tom make me one with a 45 degree extension I would have. I was first drawn to the mandolin by a friend who came to my picking parties with a number of F5s and an F4. I just loved the look. There was something about the way the curls worked in symmetry that just grabbed me. I actually liked the sound of the F4 more than his F5s, to my friend's great dismay. My point to all this is that I made my choices on taste before I learned the history, and as such my conclusions as to what I like are differernt as a result, I think.

[mandroid]

Now its about the MUSIC.. Hammer ons. Pull offs and that sort of musical ornamentations record better..

[allenhopkins]

Not to sound like a middle-school English teacher, but I think red7flag means "Cremona" as in Gibson's "Cremona brown" finish, rather than "Cremora," which is non-dairy coffee "creamer."

I may be wrong...

[Mike Bunting]

Not to sound like a middle-school English teacher,

Not to worry, from what I read on the 'net these days, there has been a severe shortage of English teachers in the last generation or two.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Maybe it's a coffee-brown?

[red7flag]

Allen, you are absolutely right, excuse my spelling and lack of knowledge.

[allenhopkins]

Allen, you are absolutely right, excuse my spelling and lack of knowledge.

I loved your OP, as it talked about how our first impressions of mandolin esthetics can shape our preferences throughout our association with the instrument. How many of us have semi-obsessively gotten attached to a particular look or sound that we encountered early on, and have tried to match or replicate it for years afterwards?

It's only relatively recently that I've been convinced that "there's more than one way to skin a cat," and that just because an instrument doesn't look or sound like that one I loved in 1974, doesn't mean it's not suited for some kind of music I want to play. I think part of that change in attitude, is related to playing a variety of different musical styles. If I'd stuck to the bluegrass I was playing in the early '70's, I'd probably own ten F-5-style instruments, instead of a menagerie of differing sizes and types of mandolin.

Oddly, I've never owned an elaborately inlaid mandolin, other than older bowl-backs with the inlaid pick-plates. I do love the look of the fern inlay, and the "torch and wire" on the old F-4's. My '50's F-5 and 1900's 3-point F-2 are plain Jane by comparison.

[F-2 Dave]

When I was in high school, some friends had a bluegrass band. I wanted to join them but didn't play anything. They didn't have a mandolin player, so that was what I aspired to be. Started out on a super cheapie starter mandolin and soon graduated to a Aria F style that worked for a few years. I knew was that the Big boys in bluegrass played Gibsons. I wanted one. I found an F-2 owned by an instrument trader in town. Worked most of the summer to pay for it. Spent the next 20 years playing sub par bluegrass on the F-2 wishing it was an F-5. Finally after the kids were grown and the wife was gone I started listening to more music played on oval hole mandolins. I finally began to appreciate the F-2 for what it was and quit worrying about what it wasn't. Thank goodness mandolins are patient. Like Allen above, it seems I've always gravitated to the plainer end of the mandolin spectrum, although I catch myself lusting after torch and wire three pointers from time to time.

[red7flag]

As Allen pointed out, "there's more than one way to skin a cat." My managerie has moved away from F style mandos and has moved more to oval singing instruments as much of my playing has moved away from bluegrass. I do have an obsession at some time to get a 20s F4 when the right one comes my path. The A-2 will help pay for it.

[Fretbear]

I love the double flowerpot; it is like the best of both worlds. The classic flowerpot, plus some of the extravagance of the Fern spilling down the peghead. The higher location of the trussrod cover can prevent it from being an option, but a black-topped F-5 with a double flowerpot like on the Gibson Victorian (and my axe) is what does it for me.