Moving on Up, to a Mandola
After due consideration, I've decided to order a mandola...
You don't run into mandolas all that often but each time I have, I've been captivated. The first one I ever played was an Eastman at Appalacian Bluegrass in Baltimore. I took right to it. The fifth tuning works just as well in longer scale and I was able to play it straight away. Interesting, but I still on my mandolin quest.
There was used Gibson that made its way to Guitar Tex but it was too soon after getting the Bighorn to consider another instrument but I still found it really intriguing. It is just such a cool sound.
Went to one house concert and saw Steve Smith and Chris Sanders. Steve was smoking his Ellis like usual and he had a Martin D-28 for some songs but he also had a vintage Gibson mandola. For the couple of songs he used the mandola, it was the obvious choice and it really expanded the tonal range for song support. Then Paul Glasse played a house concert in San Antonio and showed off his new Arrow mandola. It just sounded so good and suggested a repertoire of mando tunes in a lower, more sonorous timbre and register.
Over this time Brian Walker and I have been chatting. He's thinking mandola too - maybe a fan fret - but I don't think he's as wound up about it as I am. We ran into another mandola, a used Eastman again, at Fiddler's Green during one of our periodic forays into Austin for mando class. The price was right but I was actually looking for a guitar. (My guitar quest was solved when I got the Martin for my birthday.)
This fall a used Weber Octar made its way to Guitar Tex. It was very neat and a super player but it was just too low. It was the first quality octave mandolin family instrument I had played (the rest were value TC types). This kind of said there was a lower limit to my four course desire as I actually prefer guitar in that range and my Martin can give more oomph by far.
So mandola it is but what mandola? I going for a Weber Gallatin. I'm a fan of the Weber sound and from what I've seen they build all their mandolins with the same care with only the appointments separating them in price so I thougt it would be wise to experiment at an entry level price.
Since I wanted a different voice I'm stepping away from the f-hole. During my mandolin quest I was very interested in a used D-hole Bridger that moved through Guitar Tex a couple of years ago. Since that time I've played several more D and Oval holed Webers and I always prefer the D models. I really liked the smoothness of the sound from that mandolin but it wasn't what I wanted for a mandolin. I think it's going to be perfect for a mandola.
I'm getting the 'The Weber' headstock inlay to match the Bighorn. I've never cared for the redish leather color used on the current Gallatins so I'm going for the antique walnut which should also tie in with the Bighorn. Traditional Brekke bridge. The BR-140 is already at Guitar Tex for the down payment. It should take about three to four months to build, sufficient for me to sequester the scratch. In the process of making this decision, I asked Weber a question and they've called me twice to chat.
I was surprised yesterday when rooting around the Weber website. I found a note from Ted E talking about trying out the build to order system and he ordered almost the same instrument.
I'm bursting with anticipation so I just had to chat...
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Originally Posted by B. T. Walker
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