Gary Hedrick
Nov-10-2008, 9:53pm
I was honored to have Dave Harvey attend the picking session I hosted. He brought examples of almost the entire line of current mandolins with him.
My thoughts on two of them:
The F9 was a real surprise. A really good sounding instrument. Yeah it's plain and simple....yes it's not a Master Model but folks this thing had the sound and played really well. I hadn't really played one of these before and thought they were a Gibson version of Asian instruments. Heck no.....this is a real deal Gibson that sounded great and played great for not many bucks.
I have read all the bashing and thrashing of Gibson on the Cafe over the Heritage model. I played a later one and the prototype. Now come on folks, these are good sounding instruments that are well made. These two were nice. Yes the protoype might have been a little over the top with the crazing of the finish etc but let's really look at what's being presented here. It's like Lloyd was in "the position" say in 1912 and he decided to influence the line to have f holes with a F4 mindset. If you are an F4 picker then this instrument will really resonant with you. My first love was a 1917 F4 that I played for many years. Got it from Bill Monroe for my dad putting in a sound system in the Barm at Bean Blossom and once you have these in your blood they never leave. I have owned a bunch of F4's over the years and love the grace and lines of them. These mandolins are based on that mindset....what could be more lovely than a red backed..black topped mandolin without a truss rod cover to interfer with the peghead inlay.
Yeah they are trying to make a buck and they darn well better be making a buck or they will be out of business. My hat's off to Dave on this model because he is trying to "look back" to the spine of what was Gibson's History before the Les Pauls came along and electric guitars became King...
These mandolins are real gems. They sound great and look even better.
Well enough .....Dave is busting his butt to make a better mandolin.....to show imagination with the lines and I think deserves acknowledgement of those facts.........
My thoughts on two of them:
The F9 was a real surprise. A really good sounding instrument. Yeah it's plain and simple....yes it's not a Master Model but folks this thing had the sound and played really well. I hadn't really played one of these before and thought they were a Gibson version of Asian instruments. Heck no.....this is a real deal Gibson that sounded great and played great for not many bucks.
I have read all the bashing and thrashing of Gibson on the Cafe over the Heritage model. I played a later one and the prototype. Now come on folks, these are good sounding instruments that are well made. These two were nice. Yes the protoype might have been a little over the top with the crazing of the finish etc but let's really look at what's being presented here. It's like Lloyd was in "the position" say in 1912 and he decided to influence the line to have f holes with a F4 mindset. If you are an F4 picker then this instrument will really resonant with you. My first love was a 1917 F4 that I played for many years. Got it from Bill Monroe for my dad putting in a sound system in the Barm at Bean Blossom and once you have these in your blood they never leave. I have owned a bunch of F4's over the years and love the grace and lines of them. These mandolins are based on that mindset....what could be more lovely than a red backed..black topped mandolin without a truss rod cover to interfer with the peghead inlay.
Yeah they are trying to make a buck and they darn well better be making a buck or they will be out of business. My hat's off to Dave on this model because he is trying to "look back" to the spine of what was Gibson's History before the Les Pauls came along and electric guitars became King...
These mandolins are real gems. They sound great and look even better.
Well enough .....Dave is busting his butt to make a better mandolin.....to show imagination with the lines and I think deserves acknowledgement of those facts.........