early 1980s Stelling mandolin

[metalmandolin]

Hello all,

Anyone remember those really funky looking Stelling mandos from the early '80s? James Bailey had one on the cover of his "Genesis 1" album. The mandolin was basically an A model with strange "bulges" in the shoulders. I just thought about those, wondered if anyone has one, and how they sounded. Also, it just seemed like a neat topic.

[Steve Williams]

I do remember those, Roscoe. Seems to me that I used to see them in the Elderly and Mandolin Bros. catalogs back then. They also had a different style of headstock shape too, didn't they?

Steve Williams
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[metalmandolin]

Yeah...maybe sort of a diamond shape. For some odd reason, I seem to remember an endorsement or just a photographic association with one of the Reno brothers.

[ManjoMan]

Yes, Dale Reno used to play one. I got to play it once when Don and the boys were playing a festival here in Michigan. At the time, I thought it really sounded good, but twenty some-odd years ago can dim the memory a bit.

[Ken]

I saw Joel Mabus a couple of years ago at a festival with one, again that Michigan connection. I remember when they first came out liking the look, and I still do.
Ken

[boatman]

I was at a musical type event recently where one of these mandos was being played by a pretty darn good picker, and it sounded like a million dollars. I think "Sunburst" can provide the particulars. Regards

[Bill Van Liere]

Another dim memory from Michigan. I remember Joel Mabus playing a Stelling at a festival and being awed at the sound of the player/mandolin. The sound was beyond the term 'punchy'.

[sunburst]

Kim Breedlove built those "two hump" Stelling mandolins in California.
I've only seen and heard a handfull or so of them, and, to anounce my own bias, I don't really like the design for cosmetic as well as structural reasons.
Generally, the sound would be charsterized as bass heavy, some with weak trebble, and others a better balance and a good sound.

The one that Don Wayne Reno had is made with walnut back, sides, and neck. It ended up hitting the concrete porch steps after a jam session at,... well I won't say whose house, resulting in several splits in the top. Geoff and I did a quicky, servicable, but ugly repair on it, and it now belongs to someone else.

The one Boatman heard recently, was returned with a top failure. Kim started re-topping it, but never finished the job, so it hung around the shop for years. Someone decided he wanted it, so one of the Stelling employees finished the re-top, stained it, and sent it to me to spray. (I was the finish man at the time) It bears a more recent serial number than the others of it's type, and has a better sound than most that I've heard too.

[Bill Van Liere]

Anyone remember Ruth McLain fron the McLain Family Band? In addition to playing bass, I recall Ruth played an early Stelling mandolin for a while.