Visit to Greg Boyd's (Missoula, MT USA)

[swampstomper]

By some quirk of fate I found myself in Missoula MT this week... something was in the back of my mind, isn't there a well-known dealer in, of all places, Missoula? YES! It's Greg Boyd. His shop is in an unmarked ranch house in a residential district in a non-descript part of town... you have to go looking for it (with the good directions on his web site (http://gregboyd.com/). The photo shows just part of one of the four walls of inventory. I was like a kid in a candy store. If you know Greg, you must realize he loves to discuss instruments, builders, history, the US economy, art.... pretty much anything! The website has very accurate descriptions... I agreed with his assessments of everything I tried (Prucha, Gibson, Collings, Brentrup, Rigel) and I almost -- almost -- left with a sigificant upgrade. We talked trade, he is only interested in the same kind of good stuff he has on the wall, but I thought his offers were quite reasonable.

If you are out in Missoula you absolutely must visit, just to talk with Greg is great fun and you will see stuff on the wall and his private collection you will have difficulty finding elsewhere.

[montana]

Although the weather looks bad if you are still in MT you could drive to the other end of the state and go to the Miles City Bluegrass Fest this weekend.

[billhay4]

Driving to "the other end of the state" is not an undertaking to be taken lightly in Montana, especially in bad weather. :-)
Bill

[George R. Lane]

Bill,
It is always warm days and blue skies up here.

[Brent Hutto]

Bill,
It is always warm days and blue skies up here.

Didn't you leave out "...the last week of July and first week of August"?

[catmandu2]

During mid-summer the skies are typcally gray from forest fire smoke. This year being a glorious anomoly with ample rain, very few fires and only a few hot days while the rest of the nation was burning up--mid summer is typcally too hot and smokey.

[Bluman]

I concur with the first post. Greg's shop is a great place to visit and he allows you to play any mandolin in the shop, and I don't qualify to play the up scale items he has in his shop. Greg seems to enjoy seeing you enjoying yourself while you are there. The only thing I can add is that if you don't have at least 3 hours to spend in the store you will leave thinking you have cheated yourself.

A must visit no matter what the weather.

[Brent Hutto]

So seriously, when is the Sweet Spot for an Easterner to visit Montana. What week of the year has maximum chances of blue skies and moderate temperatures? With "moderate" meaning hopefully under 80 and definitely under 90 degrees.

[George R. Lane]

Brent,
I would say that first week in September is probably your best bet. But up here the weather can change overnight. Yesterday it was in the 70's, today rainy and much cooler. Tommorrow it will probably be back in the mid 70's. But whatever the weather it is still a gorgeous place to visit or live in.

[Dave Wrede]

This summer was truly an anomaly. i run into people from all over and pretty proud that i can tell them that the only month i've never seen it snow in is July...i was gone that year.
But, it's snowing now!:grin:

[Potosimando]

Yup, from my experience, from a mando-enthusiast's standpoint it would be hard to imagine many things topping a visit to Greg Boyd's. Worth the drive at any time of the year, from about anywhere. And yeah re. comments above, definitely set aside a few hours of in-shop time there. The first poster above is right--not only is there the great selection of high-quality mandolins both on the wall and many residing in their cases, but Greg is a kick in the pants to visit with on about any subject. Good man. Good place.

I have no vested interest in Greg's House of Fine Instruments or in Montana. Missoula is a several-hours drive from where I live in an adjacent State. I've made "the run" in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, and would say May-thru-October is best overall, by far...only because the road-trip part is more-comfortable then. But..."books on tape" do help to make Montana smaller.

[catmandu2]

So seriously, when is the Sweet Spot for an Easterner to visit Montana. What week of the year has maximum chances of blue skies and moderate temperatures? With "moderate" meaning hopefully under 80 and definitely under 90 degrees.

The first week of October. The month of May is also good--depends whether you like your trees in Autumn or Spring. For consistent likelihood of being in the mid 70s, rule out all of summertime. July through September you're apt to be socked-in with fire smoke, which is roughly equivalent to going to the beach and having heavy rain every day. If you're heading to Missoula, the Roots festival in late August is a chance to see two days worth of bands from Nashville and Austin for no charge. Bring the kids--there's a smorgasbord of cool kid's activities. It was moved up from September to August this year because every year past was rainy and cold, which is inevitable in the last throes of summer. But that first week in October is often glorious; but only the first week--the leaves are about gone in the second week.

[RobP]

I haven't been to his shop, but I had the pleasure of being a customer at his booth at Wintergrass this year. Greg and his staff were very knowledgable, fair, and easy to work with. I bought a nice used Weber Yellowstone - I didn't let myself play some of the really high-end mandolins because I was afraid they would be too tempting!

Cheers,

Rob

[swampstomper]

Well, I think the week I had to be in Missoula (past eight days, just left today) was a really good time of year. Nights were about 4 C, days up to 21 C, we had some nice "artistic" rain showers but mostly gorgeous weather. My wife even compared the early morning and late evening light to Tuscany... I think that's a little over the top but the light on the grass hills was very nice. The only problem was that most outfitters have stopped their summer activities like pack horse trips into the wilderness, and most river trips. But Greg has good mandos, guitars, banjos and the odd lap steel any time of the year.

[Brent Hutto]

I'd like to make a trip, if not next year then maybe year after, to Missoula to visit Greg Boyd's and then up the road a ways to meet John Walker who built my guitar. I have a different trip I make most years in mid-September so I would probably opt for maybe the week before Memorial Day in May. Might still be a little cool and/or wet and/or brown then but at least the days will be long and the nights short.

[swampstomper]

That reminds me, I did meet John Walker -- he happened to come into the shop last Sat. to drop off a new build (it's listed on the web page) right when by chance I was trying out one of his hand-built Nick Lucas Gibson repros from the days when he ran Gibson's custom shop in Bozeman. He looked inside the guitar and said "yep, those are my initials!".

[catmandu2]

...the week before Memorial Day in May. Might still be a little cool and/or wet and/or brown then but at least the days will be long and the nights short.

You're apt to have a dusting of snow, but it could be in the 80s too...but most likely 60s and 70s, and things will be greening-up. :)

[Brent Hutto]

It's so darned hot and humid by Memorial Day where I live, if I saw a few patches of snow and it was 60 degrees I'd think I had died and gone to heaven.

[catmandu2]

Speaking of dying and going to heaven: this year we didn't even have mosquitos nor wasps. I saw literally maybe six or fewer mosquitos all year, and maybe three wasps. We had more honeybees than anything else. The only downside to this season was very few hummingbirds, though, and because it wasn't hot our gardens had later and sparser yield..

[Pete Martin]

Of all the high end stores I've visited, I enjoyed Gregs the most. Everyone there is so freindly and he always has great stuff. I could stay for days (next time I'll bring a sleeping bag...).