My Ellis Pair

[mritter]

My pair of Ellis mandolins... They sound incredible and look even better. I am truly proud of them. Tom is a wonderful builder and just a genuine dude. I'm lucky enough to live just a couple miles from his shop here in Austin.

[Chris Biorkman]

Cool. Any tonal difference between the two?

[grassrootphilosopher]

Aw shucks, two´s too many for you, right? Send one over to me. Until then, post a soundclip to exemplify similarities and differences between the two.

[mritter]

The F (#115-07) does have a little more 'thunk' and drive than the A (#161-09) although, I will say this A seems to be more deep and woody than other A models I've sampled...mostly Collings. They were brighter for the most part.

[Chris Biorkman]

My F has a nice, dark tone.

[Chris Biorkman]

Grassrootphilosopher is the soundclip police. You'd better post clips like he says. ;)

GRP, about half of your posts are requests for soundclips. Lol

[Jason Kindall]

Nice pair!

I've never been able to say that in good taste until this very moment. :))

[hank]

Congratulations, I would be proud too. Have there been any build changes in the two years from 07 to 09 and do both have the same flavor of spruce?

[fredfrank]

Now why would anyone want two mandolins from the same builder? Especially an A and a F model. Sheesh.

Nice Ellises, by the way! I've always wanted to play one.

[hank]

"Sheesh" is Right. The one on the right is his beater. :crying:

[mritter]

Both tops are adirondack.

A few weeks ago, my friend and teacher, Paul Glasse and I stopped by Tom's shop to check out some of the latest builds. Paul brought his Monteleone 'B' model along for reference. Also there were a couple Ellis F models and Tom's 1925 unsigned Loar.

I respect Paul's opinion and I will say he was very impressed with the Ellis mandolins.

[mritter]

Fred,

We think alike. If something works for you, stick with it.

I love those Red Diamonds. The pick guards are sweet looking. Really top notch.

[citycountryguy]

I must confess some envy/jealousy....I had an Ellis in my sights until an unexpected event--a slip on ice in an automobile by my spouse took my mandolin money far away for a few months....maybe later this year...

but wow! Congratulations. Those are great instruments.

[Mike Bromley]

Grassrootphilosopher is the soundclip police. You'd better post clips like he says. ;)

GRP, about half of your posts are requests for soundclips. Lol

I didn't hear that.~:>

[frankenstein]

:cool:

[grassrootphilosopher]

Grassrootphilosopher is the soundclip police. You'd better post clips like he says. ;)

GRP, about half of your posts are requests for soundclips. Lol

Yeah, seems like someone´s gotta do da job, so I thought it´d better be me. :)) ;) Wait a second.... okay got my badge on; so now it´s two suspects on this thread that ought to post soundclips, citycountryguy and fredfrank. You have the right to remain silent but if you choose so it will be used against you. ;)

--------------

Okay, back to being Earnest... You are possibly right about my soundclip preaching. Let me elaborate.

I seem to remember that you, Bjorkman ordered your Ellis out of Pidgeon Fork sight unseen and unheard. You ordered your Kimble out of Carmel Music (untried I suppose?). So you are pretty much the average mandolinist (like me).

Most of us have not had the chance to get up close to their items of interest. In the past couple of years I had the good fortune to come into contact with a (for me) rather interesting number of highly interesting mandos (a Lloyd Loar F-5, a [27?] Fern, a couple of Gilchrists [a very early one, a couple from the - early to mid - 90ies and a couple recent ones including the ex-Compton #500, a couple of Vandens and so on). The door was probably mainly opened for me by my own f-style mando while my old Strad-O-Lin had mostly raised eybrows why such an ugly duckling could sound so good. I was impressed by the similarities and differences in sound, feel, finish, setup and general built of these instruments (for example it seems my F-5 is heavier than Gil #500 that seems light like a feather to me....).

On the other hand, had I not had the good fortune to once have been in a "highdollar-mando"-jam I would have never wound up with my F-5 style mando due to the lack of oportunity to play one and to check it out against other mandos.

This said, I may safely guess that most of the fellow café members are in a similar position (and probably the most without my experience concerning interesting mandos).

Now on the cafe we have the builder´s section where our generous participants elaborate about whatnot and therefore give interesting hindsight into their art/craft. Whe have the picture section where we can proudly present our instruments of choice. We have the general discussion which generally includes high praise of our builders.

This would mostly satisfy our needs to research about the luthier of our next/new mandolin acquisition... Stop! It doesn´t.

And why does it not? Let me take Altman, Stanley, Kimble and Gibson´s (D)MM, or Collings and Ellis. With the exception of the Gibson they are all give or take a little in the same price range with their top instruments. If I would like to spend this kind of money I´d very much like to know what I´ll buy. But unless I know one of these builders or I´ll take a roundtrip to all or... I may be unable to make an educated choice in the market of probably very similar instruments.

So here a soundclip helps. Also it seems to me a sound idea to create a collective memory concerning our favorite builders´ mandolins sounds.

So there you have my reasons for my cry for soundclips while you´ll certainly excuse my long ramblings and the aberation from the original topic.

---------------------

By the way, both the Ellises and the Red Diamonds look nice; but notice the difference in the A-style mandos´ headstock. Interesting details that lead to aestetically different evaluations, don´t they?

[AlanN]

Gorgeous pair. Good luck making music on those.

[Scotti Adams]

Very nice.

[pjlama]

Stunning! Play those beauties in good health and enjoy them.

[Capt. E]

If you ever make it to Austin, make sure to call Tom and schedule a visit to his shop in S. Austin only about 7 miles from downtown. He is the most gracious, accomodating host. You will enjoy your visit very much, but I warn you that you very likely will come away lusting for one of his mandolins.

Stop by and visit the Collings factory west of town while you are at it.

Wonderful pair of mandolins. I am sure they look as beautiful as they sound.

[mandopete]

Any sound clips? It would be interesting (to me anyways) to hear those two instruments. I have never heard an Ellis mandolin.

Fred - I would love to hear the same on your two Red Diamonds. Remember our A/B on the Collings F and A models a couple of years back?

[doc holiday]

Beauties, both of them. Since I sat across from Sharon Gilchrist in a jam where she was playing an Ellis that Tom Rozum had, I've been haunted by the Ellis sound! You're a lucky man. I think the Ellis A's are the current bargain for a great great mandolin and a modest price.

[fredfrank]

Any sound clips? It would be interesting (to me anyways) to hear those two instruments. I have never heard an Ellis mandolin.

Fred - I would love to hear the same on your two Red Diamonds. Remember our A/B on the Collings F and A models a couple of years back?

I'll try to get some recording done tonite after work. Look for them on another thread -- I've already hijacked this one too much!