John Duffey's Mandolins by Akira Otsuka

**robbif** · Jun-19-2010, 5:48am

Akira Otsuka, former member of Bluegrass 45, tells some wonderful stories about Bluegrass 45, the Seldom Scene, and John Duffey and his mandolins.

I thank him for sending me these videos...

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWlqt2n86tA
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVdbNNaAU4c
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jotq-gB_Vic
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r5Uf7R7I8Y

I'm looking forward to seeing Akira next month where he will be teaching at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Academy for Kids...
http://www.greyfoxbluegrass.com/ws/pages/bga.php

**AlanN** · Jun-19-2010, 6:25am

Terrific, thanks for putting these up.

He is a true musician on our little wonder, and when he was doing the 45, was ahead of his time. I have all those old LPs, need to move to the hard disk. Actually, I am missing one, which I think was their first LP, had their take of Take 5. If anyone has it, I would be very grateful for a chance to 'borrow' it.

Another project he was on was Grazz Matazz. They released one recording (AFAIK) called Delinquent Minor, had Jethro, Bela, Petteway, Mike Auldridge. The title track is a Dawg type tune, triple mandolin opus thing. Niles included a nice transcription of that number in a Galactic Crossroads issue. Good stuff.

**lenf12** · Jun-19-2010, 7:46am

Check out the picture of a very young Mr. Otsuka playing a Duffy inspired mandolin in Jack Tottle's Bluegrass Mandolin book from 1976 on page 143 (with pix of Roland White, Jimmy Gadreau and Charlie Waller). Fun stuff!!

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

**AlanN** · Jun-19-2010, 8:44am

I always thought the F-12 was a '38, but in one of the vids, he says Gruhn dated it a 50's. Akira let me play it once. I noticed the sustain, and the high bridge.

**Oggy** · Jun-19-2010, 9:18am

Hey, I posted about these video clips here on the Café a week ago... seems like nobody noticed.

Follow this link if you want all four of them embedded.

**John Soper** · Jun-19-2010, 9:28am

Oggy: I noticed & enjoyed them!

**Eliot Greenspan** · Jun-19-2010, 10:02am

wonderful!

**robbif** · Jun-19-2010, 10:28am

Below is one of my photos of Akira from the 1972 Country Gentlemen Festival he mentions in the video. The rest are at http://frobbi.org/slides/cg1972

Oggy, sorry, I'm new here and did not do a search before posting.

**AlanN** · Jun-19-2010, 11:42am

Great.

Here's the man a few years later <g> with Grazz Matazz. Classy.

**fatt-dad** · Jun-19-2010, 2:17pm

Ha! I saw the BG 45 in '73 and they were great. Did breaks with instruments on their backs. Very tight!

f-d

**ellisppi** · Jun-19-2010, 2:29pm

oh, that Grazz Matazz album cover...

**Willie** · Jun-19-2010, 3:04pm

John one time looked at an F-12 that I owned and he said the serial numbers were very close to each other and mine was a 1950 F-12 so Ghrun is probably correct...I have had my hands of the Duffey F-12 many times and never noticed the different inlays in the fret board...I just wonder if Akira has mistaken the F-7 as the F-12, what I remember is that it had dots...Also John would never fly and I wonder what made him fly to Japan that one time that Akira was talking about? I once posted on here that John tilted the necks a few degrees because he thought having the strings higher off of the body the mandolin would be louder and some of you stated that he just raised the bridge higher, I knew John real well and only posted what he had told me and now Akira confirms it....

This is a great review and I will keep it in my files and go back and listen to it many times...Thanks for posting it.....Willie

**MandoSquirrel** · Jun-19-2010, 3:37pm

Thanks, robbif & oggy. I have wonderful memories of seeing/hearing Akira with Grazz Matazz in the '80's, as well as Mr. Duffy with the Scene(though his recommendation for a mandolin repairman wasn't ideal) . Two of my favorite mandolinistas.

**mandotopia** · Jun-19-2010, 9:47pm

Akira Otsuka is one of my favorite mandolin players. I saw him w/ Grazz Matazz and as part of Peter Rowans pickup bad one night at the Birchmere (Including Mike Aldridge). Is Delinquent Minor released as a CD?

**Willie** · Jun-19-2010, 9:49pm

My apoligies, I went on the web and typed in Country Gentlemen and there is cut on U tube of them doing "Dark As A Dungeon" and John kicks off the song and his mandolin DOES have inlays on the fret board and not just dots like I posted earlier...I`m not sure when this video was made but it has Adcock and Tom Gray with them so it must have been an early session...Like I posted earlier I have played Johns mandolin many times and for the life of me I thought it had dots on the finger board...Back in the 70`s I don`t guess I paid much attention to things like that...I`m sorry that I posted some info that wasn`t correct, that is not my intention at all, the Gents have always been one of my top three bands and I thought I knew a little more about them than I did, I guess.....I know John recorded some with an F-7, which I thought was a borrowed mandolin, but I guess we won`t ever know which recordings they were....

Willie

**Ivan Kelsall** · Jun-20-2010, 12:49am

Oggy - I missed yours,but a retrospective thanks anyway. Many thanks also to robbif for the current posting. Those are great clips to watch.
The 4th clip was extremely interesting re. John Duffy's Mandolin & it's tuning problem. JD must have known about it & it begs the question why he didn't get it sorted out. A Mandolin like that or any other instrument permanently out of tune would drive me totally nuts !. I don't have 'perfect pitch',or anything like it,but i can tell in an instant if something's not in tune ,
Ivan

**bluegrasser78** · Jun-20-2010, 3:02pm

Originally Posted by Willie

My apoligies, I went on the web and typed in Country Gentlemen and there is cut on U tube of them doing "Dark As A Dungeon" and John kicks off the song and his mandolin DOES have inlays on the fret board and not just dots like I posted earlier...I`m not sure when this video was made but it has Adcock and Tom Gray with them so it must have been an early session...Like I posted earlier I have played Johns mandolin many times and for the life of me I thought it had dots on the finger board...Back in the 70`s I don`t guess I paid much attention to things like that...I`m sorry that I posted some info that wasn`t correct, that is not my intention at all, the Gents have always been one of my top three bands and I thought I knew a little more about them than I did, I guess.....I know John recorded some with an F-7, which I thought was a borrowed mandolin, but I guess we won`t ever know which recordings they were....

Willie

Real great stuff,,,Duffy is top in my mind, Akira also mentioned that John had a F-7 that is owned by Dick Smith,,Yes thats true what a MANDOLIN that is,,Dick is my uncle and I've played on that ole 7 conversion a few times and its GREAT!!,,,Uncle Dick has owned that since the late 60's and its shown on the album/CD cover ,On the Road and More,,Folk Session Inside, Can't You Hear Me Callin early classics 63-69,,,Thats all I can think of right now there may be more?,,,I also believe I was told the 7 was used to record most of the early 60's recordings,,live at carnegie hall,,on the road and more etc..
Also John also set the neck back an extra quarter of an inch so that from the top of the mandolin to the top of the bridge saddle was an inch,, Hopefully I got some facts right...
Thanks,,,Billy

**grassrootphilosopher** · Jun-21-2010, 5:13am

Gread videos!!!

What a great sound the Duck has. The F-12 is great also. Both play a great part in the classic Duffey sound.

As for playing out of tune, that can be heard on quite some Duffey clips (as well as David Grisman on "Morning Sun" the Tone Poems cut with the prewar F-12). I just figured they were done trying to tune the instrument.

**AlanN** · Jun-21-2010, 6:26am

I would urge folks to check out robbif's photo link listed in the BG 45 post, some marvy photos in there. Thanks for posting that!

**D C Blood** · Jun-21-2010, 6:31am

Hey Billy, Dick Smith got that F-7 from me in (I can't remember for sure but I think) 1969...I bought it from John in 1967. He was selling it because he needed a car. I gave him $700 and an F-2 (which he put a new top on and sold to Buzz Busby). I let John borrow it back when I went to Vietnam in 1968. After I got back in '69 and reclaimed it, John told me that Ed Ferris had dropped a beer bottle through the top of it at a bar they played at (maybe the Shamrock). John was upset with me the rest of his life when I traded it to Dick instead of letting him have it back. That trade was probably the greatest blunder of my career...

**Perry** · Jun-21-2010, 6:48am

Is this his son?
oops see next post

**Perry** · Jun-21-2010, 6:48am

Is this his son?

**M.Marmot** · Jun-21-2010, 7:42am

Thanks for posting those videos... strangely they were very relaxing for me... that and they have spurred a Seldom Scene fest

**Willie** · Jun-21-2010, 11:10am

D C...I seen and heard that F-2 that John made a new top for, he told me he used some wood from a front door step from the Cellar Door bar in Georgetown DC which was from an old clipper ship that at one time sailed up the Potomac river to Alexandria Va, that wood was about 200 years old and that mandolin never needed a mic so it could be heard, it was the loudest mandolin that I have ever heard...I didn`t know he sold it to Buzz though, I won`t reveal the name of the fellow that owned it when I saw it, I was a close friend of Buzz`s and never knew him to own anything but an A-50...He played my F-12 one night at a show and wouldn`t give it back he liked it so much...Some good stories floating around about these D.C. bluegrassers and I could go on all day but I guess I`ll let you all get back to the op`s subject....Willie

**swampstomper** · Jun-21-2010, 11:32am

On the interview Buzz does with Gary Henderson, which was repeated in parts by Bill Foster on WAMU a while back, Buzz says he never had the money for an F model.

Anyway, back to Akira Otsuka -- so many thanks for this! Your first Gettysburg was my first festival. I well remember hitchiking into the main square in Gettysburg, wondering where the festival was (no signs, the good citizens of Gettysburg back then didn't think to publicize it), when along came, roaring around that big square, the BG45 bus, with the windows open, the guys leaning out and screaming "BREWGRASS!!!". We then realized what road to take out from the square to the campground. We loved the show, the whole CG-behind the back routine which I had never seen, the Sapporo tune, and of course "Sleepy Eyed John" Otsuka. They were real crowd pleasers and not only for the novelty.