nmiller
Sep-11-2014, 4:29pm
I found out today that this was for sale at a shop less than an hour away, and at a very good price. I was already familiar with James DeCava's (http://decava.com/) work because he's done a couple of repairs for me in the past. I knew he made archtop guitars and had a couple of mandolins on his price list, but I didn't realize that any shop had a bunch of his instruments in stock.
It turns out that the price is due to a repaired hairline crack running from the treble f-hole to the cutaway. It's almost unnoticeable now, and the price was a fraction of what a similar instrument would cost from most builders. Regardless of its condition, the sound blew me away - this is possibly the loudest mandolin I've ever played. The tone is not as mellow as you might expect for a "jazz" instrument, but it has a mid-range punch reminiscent of a gypsy jazz guitar. Chords are very clear, with a slight emphasis on the treble strings, but it really excels on lead lines. It's parallel braced and has a standard 13 7/8" scale, and the spruce and maple body measures 10 1/4" across. The neck has a modern profile, with a slightly flattened D shape. After setting it up to my liking, I discovered that it's unusually sensitive to changes in action; I have it a little higher than on my other mandolins, but I can't argue with the sonic results.
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It turns out that the price is due to a repaired hairline crack running from the treble f-hole to the cutaway. It's almost unnoticeable now, and the price was a fraction of what a similar instrument would cost from most builders. Regardless of its condition, the sound blew me away - this is possibly the loudest mandolin I've ever played. The tone is not as mellow as you might expect for a "jazz" instrument, but it has a mid-range punch reminiscent of a gypsy jazz guitar. Chords are very clear, with a slight emphasis on the treble strings, but it really excels on lead lines. It's parallel braced and has a standard 13 7/8" scale, and the spruce and maple body measures 10 1/4" across. The neck has a modern profile, with a slightly flattened D shape. After setting it up to my liking, I discovered that it's unusually sensitive to changes in action; I have it a little higher than on my other mandolins, but I can't argue with the sonic results.
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