Yep, Leather Britches it is, mando guy on left does quote a few bars of Katy Hill/Sally Johnson at some point.
Yep, Leather Britches it is, mando guy on left does quote a few bars of Katy Hill/Sally Johnson at some point.
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.
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!
Daily joy - morning noon and night:
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.
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.
No Lloyd, no Tom.
Mandolins aside, where would the guitar world be without the L5?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
No Loar, no Testore.
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.
Orcas Island Tonewoods
Free downloads of my mandolin CDs:
"Mandolin Graffiti"
"Mangler Of Bluegrass"
"Overhead At Darrington"
"Electric Mandolin Graffiti"
....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.
Ready when you are Spruce.
Orcas Island Tonewoods
Free downloads of my mandolin CDs:
"Mandolin Graffiti"
"Mangler Of Bluegrass"
"Overhead At Darrington"
"Electric Mandolin Graffiti"
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.)
Thank you, sir! We had a great time in Canada and I hope we can make it back up that way again soon.
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.)
2005 Rigel G5 #2196
2005 Phoenix Jazz #400
1988 Jeff Traugott Acoustic #4
2012 Eastman 905 Archtop Guitar, BLOND!
Remember to grin while you pick, it throws folks off!
If there was no Monroe....would anyone even know who Loar was?
Thank you baby Jesus for one smokin hot mandolin...
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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