3rdegree
Jan-03-2017, 1:09pm
Hello fellow Cafe friends and Happy New Year.
My wife and I travelled over the holidays to New Orleans and San Antonio before stopping in Austin for a few days. I had reached out to Ellis Mandolins to inquire about a tour a few weeks ago, which they were happy to oblige. I called Tom on Friday morning and he said to stop by any time.
We arrived to a beautiful Craftsman house and yard filled with live oak trees. Tom came out from the shop in the back and greeted us, welcoming us into the shop. I didn't realize they were closed for the day and felt bad that Tom was spending precious time off showing us around. That didn't stop me from speed walking into the shop however!
The first room was where they set up the inlays for cutting (Tom also owns Precision Pearl which does mother of pearl and abalone inlay work for most of the acoustic instrument manufacturer's in the country) and this room also had a wall full of extras from just about every name in the business.
The next room he showed us was in a different building and housed all the CNC machines that did the cutting as well as rooms housing some newly acquired lathes, drills and machining equipment. He said this was just a new hobby but had been experimenting with creating tuners specifically for mandolin. Interesting! Another room held neck and body blanks among lots of other things he said used to be in the machine shop room. We also met a couple of the shop cats, curled up in their baskets and purring contently.
Tom then took us back to the main building and once through the set up room we had already been in we were in the main shop area which was where the assembly and fine work was done. I was hoping to see Pava slaving over some new F models but she was also off for the day. I did get to see a few new Pava F's in production in a rack overhead however as well as several fronts and backs laid out on the bench. Tom informed me that he gets first crack at these for Ellis mando's and Pava the rest although he admitted sometimes he sees a beautiful finished Pava and wonders how that blank slipped past him!
I also saw a new Pava oval A in production which Tom said they debuted at a folk event to rave reviews recently. We talked about the differences in their production, varnish vs. lacquer, tuners, tailpieces and all things mando. It was awesome and my wife's eyes only glazed over occasionally. We also had the pleasure of meeting Tom's son who was celebrating his 2 year anniversary of working at the shop.
We talked for a bit about my desire to have a left handed F model made that was strung for a right handed player. (I play upside down) It didn't take long for him to assure me that he couldn't do it since all the jigs, forms, etc. were set up only for right handed instruments and recalled how long it took just to build a form for left handed neck extensions when they did some left handed Ellis A models. My wife seemed relived that we wouldn't be spending $10k on a mandolin only myself and Shin Akimoto could play!
Tom then showed us the room where they mill custom necks, headstocks and the body blanks for themselves and others. Very interesting. He showed us how the mando top and backs are created, then sanded down to a specific micron across the blank. I found it very interesting how Tom described how these tops and backs begin to vibrate and "jump to life" in their hands while being sanded as they reach the correct thickness. Also in this room were the jigs for hand routing of the neck joints and the forms for making the sides.
Last stop was where the necks had binding and frets added. A cool thing they do is use the CNC machine to cut the fret groove through part of the neck but not all the way to the edges. They bind it and then finish the cut so as to avoid having to dig glue out of the groove. Tom said doing it this way saves about an hour's labor on each neck. Pretty cool!
This great insight into the building and assembly of mandolins was a real treat but then Tom mentioned something about his Loar and that's when things got REAL exciting! I said "you have a Loar?" and he said I have TWO, let me go get them from the house. Tom returned with his 1925 Loar which was the last of the line, built before the Christmas break and hanging on the line when Loar returned after the holidays and was fired. Thus this model does not bear his signature. It was in very fine shape and played well, definitely had that Loar sound, the Virzi was still on board. Tom described the work that had been done to it such as tuners and a fret job here and there.
The second Loar belonged to a customer (I don't recall the name but he was a pro player) but it was a 1924 and completely original. While the sound was nice, it wasn't quite up to Tom's and it was very difficult to play. Kudos to him for being able to play this model professionally! The action was very high and difficult to fret. Tom said they were going to be working on all that and probably a fret job and fingerboard I think.
While that was super fun, the real treat was getting to play Tom's personal Ellis F. I had only played two of them before, one at Carter and one at Nashville Mando camp. While those were very fine mandolins as I recall, I was a fairly new player and didn't know much about mandolins or even anything about the top builders. This was a great mando that was very similar in play and tone to the '25 Loar but with a deeper and richer tone. I said I felt like it hadn't even opened up yet and Tom admitted he hadn't had much time to play it but that he agreed.
Tom then took my 1984 Flatiron A for a spin and gave me his thoughts on it. While he really liked it he admitted that there were some tones on it he didn't care for but which were highly sought after by lots of players. I didn't understand what he meant but then he explained that's just his ear and opinion and he wants his mandolin's to sound a certain way, a way that sounds pleasing to him and not necessarily what everyone else thinks is a great tone (although I think we'd all agree Ellis' have a great tone)
As we woke the shop cats one last time to say goodbye, Tom walked us out. He described what Austin was like 40 years ago as well as the land we stood on. He explained the ball moss on the trees to my wife as we thanked him for spending his time off with us. Just as he had done several times during our visit, he mentioned he would have probably just gotten around to organizing his magazines, which would actually have meant spending the day reading magazines. As he had mentioned in each room, he had plenty of projects and things to get around to, but Tom seemed content doing one thing at a time in his own way, to his own standards and his own satisfaction.
I think that is what stuck with me about my visit as we pulled out of the gate. While I learned a lot about how a mandolin is put together, I also learned why someone puts a mandolin together. I don't think you'd find many builders who do it for the fortune or fame and yet they continue to assemble these instruments we love. I certainly have a new level of respect of what goes into making a mandolin and can say for sure that the personality of the creator is just as important as the wood or parts.
Thank you Mr. Ellis for opening your shop to us and for giving me a deeper understanding of the instrument I love to play. Also for your permission to post this on the Cafe. I hope you all enjoyed this post and that my dear friend, bandmate and fellow mandolinist Peter Fand of Cirque du Soleil who is currently touring in Australia will share his experiences when he visits Steve Gilchrist and his shop in a couple of weeks! I'd love to hear all about it. Cheers.
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My wife and I travelled over the holidays to New Orleans and San Antonio before stopping in Austin for a few days. I had reached out to Ellis Mandolins to inquire about a tour a few weeks ago, which they were happy to oblige. I called Tom on Friday morning and he said to stop by any time.
We arrived to a beautiful Craftsman house and yard filled with live oak trees. Tom came out from the shop in the back and greeted us, welcoming us into the shop. I didn't realize they were closed for the day and felt bad that Tom was spending precious time off showing us around. That didn't stop me from speed walking into the shop however!
The first room was where they set up the inlays for cutting (Tom also owns Precision Pearl which does mother of pearl and abalone inlay work for most of the acoustic instrument manufacturer's in the country) and this room also had a wall full of extras from just about every name in the business.
The next room he showed us was in a different building and housed all the CNC machines that did the cutting as well as rooms housing some newly acquired lathes, drills and machining equipment. He said this was just a new hobby but had been experimenting with creating tuners specifically for mandolin. Interesting! Another room held neck and body blanks among lots of other things he said used to be in the machine shop room. We also met a couple of the shop cats, curled up in their baskets and purring contently.
Tom then took us back to the main building and once through the set up room we had already been in we were in the main shop area which was where the assembly and fine work was done. I was hoping to see Pava slaving over some new F models but she was also off for the day. I did get to see a few new Pava F's in production in a rack overhead however as well as several fronts and backs laid out on the bench. Tom informed me that he gets first crack at these for Ellis mando's and Pava the rest although he admitted sometimes he sees a beautiful finished Pava and wonders how that blank slipped past him!
I also saw a new Pava oval A in production which Tom said they debuted at a folk event to rave reviews recently. We talked about the differences in their production, varnish vs. lacquer, tuners, tailpieces and all things mando. It was awesome and my wife's eyes only glazed over occasionally. We also had the pleasure of meeting Tom's son who was celebrating his 2 year anniversary of working at the shop.
We talked for a bit about my desire to have a left handed F model made that was strung for a right handed player. (I play upside down) It didn't take long for him to assure me that he couldn't do it since all the jigs, forms, etc. were set up only for right handed instruments and recalled how long it took just to build a form for left handed neck extensions when they did some left handed Ellis A models. My wife seemed relived that we wouldn't be spending $10k on a mandolin only myself and Shin Akimoto could play!
Tom then showed us the room where they mill custom necks, headstocks and the body blanks for themselves and others. Very interesting. He showed us how the mando top and backs are created, then sanded down to a specific micron across the blank. I found it very interesting how Tom described how these tops and backs begin to vibrate and "jump to life" in their hands while being sanded as they reach the correct thickness. Also in this room were the jigs for hand routing of the neck joints and the forms for making the sides.
Last stop was where the necks had binding and frets added. A cool thing they do is use the CNC machine to cut the fret groove through part of the neck but not all the way to the edges. They bind it and then finish the cut so as to avoid having to dig glue out of the groove. Tom said doing it this way saves about an hour's labor on each neck. Pretty cool!
This great insight into the building and assembly of mandolins was a real treat but then Tom mentioned something about his Loar and that's when things got REAL exciting! I said "you have a Loar?" and he said I have TWO, let me go get them from the house. Tom returned with his 1925 Loar which was the last of the line, built before the Christmas break and hanging on the line when Loar returned after the holidays and was fired. Thus this model does not bear his signature. It was in very fine shape and played well, definitely had that Loar sound, the Virzi was still on board. Tom described the work that had been done to it such as tuners and a fret job here and there.
The second Loar belonged to a customer (I don't recall the name but he was a pro player) but it was a 1924 and completely original. While the sound was nice, it wasn't quite up to Tom's and it was very difficult to play. Kudos to him for being able to play this model professionally! The action was very high and difficult to fret. Tom said they were going to be working on all that and probably a fret job and fingerboard I think.
While that was super fun, the real treat was getting to play Tom's personal Ellis F. I had only played two of them before, one at Carter and one at Nashville Mando camp. While those were very fine mandolins as I recall, I was a fairly new player and didn't know much about mandolins or even anything about the top builders. This was a great mando that was very similar in play and tone to the '25 Loar but with a deeper and richer tone. I said I felt like it hadn't even opened up yet and Tom admitted he hadn't had much time to play it but that he agreed.
Tom then took my 1984 Flatiron A for a spin and gave me his thoughts on it. While he really liked it he admitted that there were some tones on it he didn't care for but which were highly sought after by lots of players. I didn't understand what he meant but then he explained that's just his ear and opinion and he wants his mandolin's to sound a certain way, a way that sounds pleasing to him and not necessarily what everyone else thinks is a great tone (although I think we'd all agree Ellis' have a great tone)
As we woke the shop cats one last time to say goodbye, Tom walked us out. He described what Austin was like 40 years ago as well as the land we stood on. He explained the ball moss on the trees to my wife as we thanked him for spending his time off with us. Just as he had done several times during our visit, he mentioned he would have probably just gotten around to organizing his magazines, which would actually have meant spending the day reading magazines. As he had mentioned in each room, he had plenty of projects and things to get around to, but Tom seemed content doing one thing at a time in his own way, to his own standards and his own satisfaction.
I think that is what stuck with me about my visit as we pulled out of the gate. While I learned a lot about how a mandolin is put together, I also learned why someone puts a mandolin together. I don't think you'd find many builders who do it for the fortune or fame and yet they continue to assemble these instruments we love. I certainly have a new level of respect of what goes into making a mandolin and can say for sure that the personality of the creator is just as important as the wood or parts.
Thank you Mr. Ellis for opening your shop to us and for giving me a deeper understanding of the instrument I love to play. Also for your permission to post this on the Cafe. I hope you all enjoyed this post and that my dear friend, bandmate and fellow mandolinist Peter Fand of Cirque du Soleil who is currently touring in Australia will share his experiences when he visits Steve Gilchrist and his shop in a couple of weeks! I'd love to hear all about it. Cheers.
152696
152695
152697
152698
152699
152700
152701
152702
152703
152704