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Thread: Tom Ellis Mandolins

  1. #26
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Yep, Leather Britches it is, mando guy on left does quote a few bars of Katy Hill/Sally Johnson at some point.

  2. #27
    Registered User doc holiday's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Yes that's it Alan....I was only listening w one ear.... Tom does make great mandolins, Love the sound of Aubrey H on the A style
    Last edited by doc holiday; Oct-14-2011 at 12:04pm.

  3. #28
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    As a lucky Ellis owner I can only say that everyone who hears #224 stops to ask who made her. One band mate put it quite simply: she's the one. Fascinating to read Tom's description of his team and process. For all you LL fanatics out there, consider that Tom now has roughly 8 times as much experience selecting and tuning wood as the great man did when he left Gibson. Imagine what Tom's team's mandos are going to sound like in 90 years!
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  4. #29

    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by red7flag View Post
    I went to his booth at IBMA and played all his babies. While each had an individual voicing, I could hear mine in every one.
    I experienced the same thing and it blew me away. I have tried tons of mandolins over the years and the Ellis I bought last year immediately stood at as the best sounding mandolin I had ever played (even against every other top builder). It was also the first Ellis I had ever tried, so it was amazing for me to get a similar sound out of literally all the Ellis' he had at his booth this year.
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  5. #30
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Lloyd Loar gets WAY TOO much credit. He was NOT a luthier. And when one considers him you MUST talk about his failures after Gibson. I think he was the luckiest man alive between 1922-1924 but after that the mandolins he was involved with were a joke. Tom Ellis and EVERY professional luthier in this country with any amount of time at the bench has a %^&$# of a lot more ability than Loar ever did as a builder. Tom is one of the greatest builders this country has ever seen. Lloyd Loar doesn't make even the bottom of the list. I had more training and experience by the time I was 22 than Loar ever did as a builder. Tom is no different. Sorry for my rant, I'm just saying. Two BIG thumbs up for Tom Ellis and his great output! And congrats to Ellis owners.

  6. #31
    Registered User Glassweb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    No Lloyd, no Tom.

  7. #32
    Registered User dcoventry's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by Glassweb View Post
    No Lloyd, no Tom.
    Uh, that's just really bad reasoning.
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  8. #33
    Registered User Mark Seale's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Mandolins aside, where would the guitar world be without the L5?

  9. #34
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Violin makers already had f holes for 400+ years when Loar came along. The other items,longer neck and truss rod, are not needed for better sound. Elevating the fingerboarf off of the belly is also borrowed from violins so I dont believe it would not have entered mandolins withou
    t Loar. Who's to say that one of the luthiers already with years of experience wasn't consulted by Loar. That,if you think about, makes the most sense anyway. Ill say it again,Tom Ellis is a better builder than Loar. And so are a lot of others.

  10. #35

    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Woah there Mr. Vessel. I've got a lot of respect for you and your mandolins, excellent stuff!
    But we don't need to lambaste other builders because of their skill/quality/ingenuity/cost, or even the lack thereof. idk!
    I wasn't alive in Mr. Loar's day and time, so I find it best for me at least give him respect as a builder and as a human being.

  11. #36
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    LOAR WASN'T A BUILDER!!! I have only given praise to a lot of builders. Loars association with Vivitone must be part of the discussion. I don't see anyone making copies of those.

  12. #37
    Registered User Benjamin T's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    I have yet to play a Vivitone mandolin, but I have played a tenor which was electric/ acoustic and an acoustic guitar. They were both very nice sounding. My respect for Mr. Loar is do to his experimentation in design, not too different to Steve Jobs. The Acoustic guitar by Vivitone sounded and played very well, I might add.
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  13. #38
    Registered User Benjamin T's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    P.S. The two Ellis Mandolin I played, stopped me in my tracks. Wow!!!
    Raphael Ciani Galiano circa 1920
    Gibson F-5G FB 2003
    John D'Angelico 1933
    Vivitone Acoustic #338 circa 1933
    Gibson F4 1915 Blacktop
    Shutt/ Harmony Viol Mandolin circa 1930

  14. #39
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    I hyjacked the thread, and I'm sorry for that. Cheers to Tom Ellis and his mandolins!!!! I too respect Loar, but mostly for his ability to gather information and put it together for builders at the Gibson factory for a short period. I think we can safely say, that without Bill Monroe,Lloyd Loar would be a side note in instrument evolution.

  15. #40
    Registered User Glassweb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    No Loar, no Testore.

  16. #41
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Testore was a family of violin makers from Milan,so untrue. I was a well respected award winning violin maker before David Grisman bought my first F model, so again, untrue. The builders employed by the Gibson factory were way more important than Loar. The mandolin building in the teens was top notch and suited the taste of the day perfectly. The evolution that occured in the 20's would have been impossible without them. Thats why I credit Loar with collecting information and bringing it to Gibson. But genius he was not.

  17. #42
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by testore View Post
    I was a well respected award winning violin maker before David Grisman bought my first F model...
    But can you hit a whiffleball??

  18. #43
    Registered User doc holiday's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    ....and you gotta love them Tom Ellis mandolins. Martin, I heard you play in Calgary at the end of september with Dan Crary & Steve Spurgin. You pulled beautiful tone out of both your fiddle and the Ellis mandolin. I hope to see you play live again some time.

  19. #44
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Ready when you are Spruce.

  20. #45
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by testore View Post
    Ready when you are Spruce.
    Ever since I turned 60, my arm's a noodle...

    Hey Tom, how many mandolins did you build back in the day, before you got back into it again??

  21. #46
    Lost my boots in transit terzinator's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by doc holiday View Post
    ....and you gotta love them Tom Ellis mandolins. Martin, I heard you play in Calgary at the end of september with Dan Crary & Steve Spurgin. You pulled beautiful tone out of both your fiddle and the Ellis mandolin. I hope to see you play live again some time.
    Well, I'll admit I had to hunt down Bluegrass Regulators after seeing this post. I found a really nice website, and great selections to listen to.

    Martin, your playing is wonderful. (And the tone you're getting from your mandolin is amazing, too... not sure which tracks/albums in your discography highlight the Ellis, but it all sounds great.)

  22. #47

    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by doc holiday View Post
    ....and you gotta love them Tom Ellis mandolins. Martin, I heard you play in Calgary at the end of september with Dan Crary & Steve Spurgin. You pulled beautiful tone out of both your fiddle and the Ellis mandolin. I hope to see you play live again some time.
    Thank you, sir! We had a great time in Canada and I hope we can make it back up that way again soon.

    Quote Originally Posted by terzinator View Post
    Well, I'll admit I had to hunt down Bluegrass Regulators after seeing this post. I found a really nice website, and great selections to listen to.

    Martin, your playing is wonderful. (And the tone you're getting from your mandolin is amazing, too... not sure which tracks/albums in your discography highlight the Ellis, but it all sounds great.)
    Again, thank you! The tracks from those albums were actually recorded with my old Gibson F5G (credit for any good tone goes to my favorite Pacific Northwest sound engineer, Dale Adkins). Some of the more recent youtube clips people have put up have the Ellis in them.. and we're planning on doing our 2nd album soon so I can't wait to hear what it sounds like under studio conditions. (when we recorded the latest Dan Crary CD I wasn't a full time member of the band yet and Dan had already contracted John Reischman and Don Stiernberg to do the mandolin parts, so I just played fiddle on that one.)
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  23. #48
    Registered User dcoventry's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    Quote Originally Posted by Glassweb View Post
    No Loar, no Testore.
    Sometimes I lose track of GW's sense of humor, or so I hope.

    Otherwise, non-sequitors abound.
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  24. #49
    Registered User majorbanjo's Avatar
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    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    If there was no Monroe....would anyone even know who Loar was?
    Thank you baby Jesus for one smokin hot mandolin...

  25. #50

    Default Re: Tom Ellis Mandolins

    I have to say I'm with the "Loars are way, way over-rated" group. I've played several of them over the years and while some were great, about half were dissappointing to say the least. On the other hand, I sampled the Ellis mandos at IBMA. All were excellent. Given his experience and commitment, I have a gut feeling Ellis mandos are going to remain a lot more consistent than Loars.

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