bush-man
Jan-12-2007, 12:31am
I just recieved this beautifull mandolin from Barry of BullDog mandolins, and all I can say is Wow! Oh my gosh! I expected it to sound nice, but I wasn't prepared for it to sound so absolutely fantastic! I am just overwhelmed with the sound.
It arrived today via UPS and was very cold when I got it, so I opted to wait till it reached equilibrium with the inside temperatures before I brought it up to pitch. I put a pot of coffee on and stared at the UPS box, finally opening it up as the coffee brewed.
I took this time to inspect the instrument. It is simply gorgoeus. The top is red spruce, which is wide grained and done in a brownish tone. Triple white,black,white binding on both top and back. The back neck and sides are Oregon Myrtle. An unusual wood, with beautifull grain patterns. Then neck is V style, which I happen to love. No truss rod. Schaller tuners.
It has a few dings in it as it was a demonstrater model, but that only adds character for me. When I finally tuned it up, I was amazed. The tone just pours out of this mandolin. Open chords ring and sustain forever. Crystal clear bell like sound. Oh and chops bark out! It is just a tad on the treble side now, but as it gets played in I know it will get darker sounding.
Barry is one fine mandolin builder and I would highly reccomend one of his instruments if you are in the market. He is a great guy to deal with, and his mandos are an incredible value.
I don't have a digital camera, so I will have to borrow my sons to take some pictures of the instrument. You can see a few pics on Barry's website, but trust me they don't do any justice at all to the beauty of this mando. Here's the link:
http://www.bulldog-instruments.com/newbulldogmandolins.html
Time to stop typing and start breaking this incredible instrument in.
russell
It arrived today via UPS and was very cold when I got it, so I opted to wait till it reached equilibrium with the inside temperatures before I brought it up to pitch. I put a pot of coffee on and stared at the UPS box, finally opening it up as the coffee brewed.
I took this time to inspect the instrument. It is simply gorgoeus. The top is red spruce, which is wide grained and done in a brownish tone. Triple white,black,white binding on both top and back. The back neck and sides are Oregon Myrtle. An unusual wood, with beautifull grain patterns. Then neck is V style, which I happen to love. No truss rod. Schaller tuners.
It has a few dings in it as it was a demonstrater model, but that only adds character for me. When I finally tuned it up, I was amazed. The tone just pours out of this mandolin. Open chords ring and sustain forever. Crystal clear bell like sound. Oh and chops bark out! It is just a tad on the treble side now, but as it gets played in I know it will get darker sounding.
Barry is one fine mandolin builder and I would highly reccomend one of his instruments if you are in the market. He is a great guy to deal with, and his mandos are an incredible value.
I don't have a digital camera, so I will have to borrow my sons to take some pictures of the instrument. You can see a few pics on Barry's website, but trust me they don't do any justice at all to the beauty of this mando. Here's the link:
http://www.bulldog-instruments.com/newbulldogmandolins.html
Time to stop typing and start breaking this incredible instrument in.
russell