Newbie in Houston

[lespaulraider]

Just bought a JBovier A5 from Payit Forward (a great guy to do business with). First mandolin for this longtime guitar player, and I couldn't be more excited! I live near Houston, specifically in the Bay Area. Who else is here, what music shops do mandolin players go to, what's the scene like in Houston? Many thanks!

[Mandojulie]

Hi Raider,

Welcome to the cafe. Mandolin=Good!

I'm not near Houston so I'll leave your questions to someone else.

You will enjoy your time here.

Julie

[GRW3]

Check out the Bay Area Bluegrass Association (http://www.bayareabluegrass.org/). They hold the annual Texas State Mandolin Championship. They can probably steer you right.

[Joe Dodson]

BABA is pretty much the way to go for open jams. I live in the Heights area, near downtown. There are several other Houstonians on the board. Shoot me your information - I'd be glad to get together and pick sometime.

Incidentally, I am hosting workshops with Orrin Star in Sugar Land over the third weekend in January. He's going to be doing two workshops for guitar (Friday evening and Saturday) and two for mandolin on Sunday, and he will be hosting an informal jam each day as well. The mando workshops will be on bluegrass soloing and figuring out the mandolin fretboard. I think Orrin has the information for the workshops on the Cafe, but I'd be glad to send you a link for the information. We'd love to include you. (Mods - I hope it's OK that I throw in this plug.)

EDIT - Here's a link to Orrin's web page with the workshop information (http://orrinstar.com/Pages/Houston.html).

[Joe Dodson]

Oh - and as for shops in the area, I think Fuller's Vintage Guitars is the only one that carries a good selection of mandolins. Rockin' Robin always seems to have a few, but it's been a couple of years since I've been in there. Most people will steer you toward Kelly Lancaster for lessons. Kelly is a wonderful guy, and a monstrously talented picker.

[John Flynn]

Check out the linked thread. In addition, Rich Del Grosso lives in Houston now and is open to taking students. He teaches all styles, not just blues. You can contact him though his website.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=45885&highlight=houston

[lespaulraider]

Thanks, all for your help and suggestions. I found the BABA sight yesterday, and am planning on attending the January Workshop as well. Sounds like there's plenty going on here for learning and encouragement.

[Steve Jeter]

Im close to the Bay Area , Pasadena. PM me if you want to chat and maybe get together to play some tunes.
Steve Jeter

[lespaulraider]

Thanks Steve! My mandolin arrives tomorrow, and as a guitarist, I'll be swimming for a while, finding my way. I'm hoping it won't be long till I can chop through a few classics. I'll pm later and pick your brain a bit. I appreciate it!

[greg_tsam]

I live in the Heights and like to meet new peeps. I've been to only one jam at BABA not counting this past mando picker's contest. I know Kelly Lancaster and he's a picking hoss but I didn't know Rich Del Grosso was in town. Really cool.

[Joe Dodson]

Hey Greg - I traded a couple of e-mails with him early this year, but never managed to get a lesson with him. I gather he travels a lot. I can probably come up with an address for you offline if you're interested.

[Steve Jeter]

Les Paul, I am coming from the guitar world as well. Kinda backwards , but it will transfer after a while, Im still learning and going " ah ha" but got long way to go. But this mando sure is fun, and a lot easier to wrap your arms around.
Steve

[lespaulraider]

The JBovier A5 arrived today, and I really like it. My wife insists on wrapping it up for Christmas... will be negotiating on that for sure; Dec. 25 is a long way off.

Bought a starter (Morgan Monroe) for my son. He is a professional guitarist (on tour alot). He wanted to check out mandolin as an additional instrument. Unfortunately, the mando I got him arrived today and is B Stock... some major alignment issues between the body and fretboard, so I have to send it back. Now I find myself shopping again with limited budget and considerably less time. Do you know if Fuller Guitars carries any quality starter mandos?

[Joe Dodson]

Fuller's carries a good number of lower priced mandolins. The stock varies from day to day, but I'd guess that on any given day you could find something pretty good there.

[lespaulraider]

Thanks, JoeD. I'm taking Thursday off to run some work related errands, and I'll have some time to stop by there too.

[greg_tsam]

Six months ago, the salesman (Slim is what I call him) at Fuller's told me that they were phasing out their "lower priced" models, $300-$1200, which included the Alvarez F-styles which are decent sounding and looking to stock just Gibson mandos at $3000 and up. They might have rethought this but I can't say since that was the last time I went there to look at mandos.

This salesman has always been kinda surly in the past and even reprimanded me for finger tapping the top of a Gibson saying I'd damage the finish. When I asked if they carried any Breedlove mandos he replied with "Who?"

Even though I prefer to spend my money locally and support my music store, which is right around the corner from my place, I called Dennis at the Mandolin Store and bought a Breedlove Quartz FF custom for $2000 and never looked back. I wanted to go back to Fuller's and show them the BL and suggest they carry them but never did.

Fuller's has Gibson. If they haven't sold their other stock then they might have some Washburns and Alvarez's

Rocking Robin has a few Gibsons last I checked and a handful of "others".

I understand that Gibson is a well known and recognized mando/money maker but I certainly wish there was more choices in a town as big as Houston.

[lespaulraider]

I'm also surprised that there aren't more stores in Houston stocking mandolins. I guess guitar is king around here. I'll stop by Fuller's tomorrow and report back what I see there. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[Michael Barnett]

Well, I was going to post this same question on places in Houston to find mandolins to try out. Looks like it isn't just me not being able to find them. Rather disappointing not to be able to find at least a few places to get my hands on a few. C'mon Houston! 4th largest city in the US! Makes me want to open up my own shop.

Mom is buying me a mandolin as a present for Christmas. She said she knows what it's like when someone gets you exactly what you want for Christmas. I'm a 43 year-old man, but she made me feel like a kid all over again!

As for online shops, any good recommendations, other than The Mandolin Store? Any reason NOT to buy from them? I really like their site, and appreciate the sound clips, especially since I can't get there to play them myself.

[Michael Barnett]

Guess I should have read more posts on The Mandolin Store. Looks like they get highest marks from the group here. Glad to hear! After about a 10 year hiatus from serious mandolin picking, it's good to find this group of folks here. Very comforting. I think I'll be getting a brand new Eastman to go along with my trusty old Flatiron 3MW. LOVE the pancake thread!

[jimbob]

I go to Fuller's every time I'm in Houston ( three to four times a year, probably) I like to go look at their stock, but have never felt very comfortable touching any of it. Of course, I'm always a little reluctant if I know I'm just kicking tires. They typically have some nice stuff in the store, though. I never got the feeling I could deal there.

[MikeEdgerton]

Is Harlem Slim still at Fullers? I play everything when I go there.

[man dough nollij]

As for online shops, any good recommendations, other than The Mandolin Store? Any reason NOT to buy from them?

Don't get me started! It can be a horrible thing. They'll send you lots of high res pictures, generate sound clips just for you, and return your e-mails at 2AM.

You'll buy from them and be so happy that you'll end up getting an oval, then a mandola, then maybe an OM. 'Course it just wouldn't right, not having one of the new Eastman bowlbacks! There's just no end to it, and they make it so easy to slip...

[GRW3]

Michael,

If you can stand the wait, point your car to Austin Saturday and go to Fiddler's Green. They have the most complete collection of mandolins for tire kicking in Texas. Kentucky, Eastman, Bovier, Breedlove, Collings, Weber, Altman and a couple more besides.

If you find you like the Webers you can drift down to Guitar Tex in San Antonio for more Weber appreciation.

[jimbob]

Don't get me wrong about Fuller's....I really like going there. I spent an hour or so in there a while back with one salesman who was very nice and helpful. I have never gone in with the intent of making a major instrument purchase, so I have never really started much of a dialogue with them....just sort of looked and drooled. I did make a couple of real casual inquiries about prices and recieved answers that probably fit the nature of my inquiry. I look forward to visiting any time I'm in Houston. I didn't want it to sound like I was slamming the store.

[Michael Barnett]

Ok, so I emailed Fuller's and got a quick response from Jeremy. Looks like they are indeed jsut carrying the Gibsons these days. This is his response:

"We have several Gibsons in stock. The A-9, F5G, VARNISH F5 FERN, F5 MASTER DISTRESED, AND THE RICKY SKAGGS MASTER MODEL"

All nice, and all well out of my price range. Saved me a trip to the loop.

also emailed the EXTREMELY nice folks at The Mandolin shop, and got very quick, very friendly, very helpful, very everything response from Dennis, Brian, AND Zach. Was debating between an Eastman MD614 F Style oval hole and 804 2-point oval hole. Brian quickly sent me pics of the best he could find of each, and offered me a great deal on either choice. Dennis quickly followed up with an even bigger deal on the 614, so I scooped that one up right quick. The pics are beautiful, and Dennis seemed as genuinely excited as me about my choice.

They had the shipping info out to me in 5 minutes, and were emailing me as they were packaging it up. If only service was like this everywhere!

And you're right. I'm already thinking about going back for the 2-point, and was salivating after the bowl-back as well. Wondering how I'm gonna hide all these from my wife...

[Michael Barnett]

Ah...see, now this would have been a good idea, GRW3. Could have used a trip to Austin, and I'm on a business trip to San Antonio at the end of January. May just have to do both anyway, even though I just bought the Eastman 614. This could be the start of a really really expensive habit.

[greg_tsam]

Is Harlem Slim still at Fullers? I play everything when I go there.

Bingo! Slim is the guy that shoo'd me away from the expensive Gibsons when I finger tapped to top of a $3K model. lol Mike is the one to deal with if you're trying to get a deal from what I can tell.