Mowry GOM - First Impressions

[red7flag]

Everything said about taste and tone fits this instrument. It just looks classy. I have to admit it took a while to get nice tone out of this GOM. But, the reason was my fingers not the instrument. Once I started to hit the frets accurately, a full beautiful tone emerged. The walnut sides and back probides a warm full tone. I am not sure how the englemann top affects the tone, but it sure is nice. The workmanship and the playability is outstanding. The set up is perfect. This is just from about 30 minutes of playing. More will be revealed later. I will post my pictures in the picture section as soon as I am done taking the pictures.

[Larry S Sherman]

Great to hear Tony. You can also experiment with the strings.

I started out with the recommended string gauges, but recently I've been using D'Addario Octave mando strings. This has made it a bit more guitar-like, and a bit more responsive while playing chords, but I think I lost a bit of the growl from the original setup, so will probably switch back soon.

The playability of mine is excellent, and the beauty and workmanship are amazing.

Best of luck...looking forward to the pictures!

Larry

[red7flag]

Last night, I had the chance to play for some folks in a non bluegrass situation. I was playing with a very good country guitar picker playing a Martin. A lot of the songs I was not familiar with, but when I could, the Mowry showed it has tone. On the few tunes that I stepped on it, it really sounded fine. I was surprised how good it sounded playing chords backing up the guitar leads. People kept looking at it and saying, "My it is pretty, what is it". "It sounds kind of like a mandolin." "That wood is really nice." The instrument was more a hit than my playing, being a bit out of my element, but I had a really nice time. The GOM fits in nicely with just another guitar, just you have to lay back a bit. This instrument is really sounding nice. Some I think is opening up. Some is that I am much more comfortable playing it.

[Randolph]

Tony, Somewhat similar experience here...When I first got my Old Wave GOM I was taken aback by the volume and sustain to the point that I had one of those "uh-oh" moments, as in "what have I done?" After a couple of months though, it has become my go-to instrument...In fact my mando playing is suffering because I spend so much time with the GOM. For me it has opened up a whole new world of singing and writing simple songs. And when playing with others I find that I have to back off a bit rather than push harder as I often have to do with mando in order to be heard in the mix. Glad you're enjoying your new toy. I'm certainly enjoying mine.:mandosmiley:

[trevor]

I am a great fan of GOMs. I have an Old Wave at home and an Andrews Zorzi just arrived in my store (photos are in the 'post a photo' forum). I keep meaning to take mine to my store and compare. I know that both have incredible depth of tone and volume, better to my ears than any trad OM I have heard. I would love to see and hear a Mowry GOM. I own one of his mandolins and have a couple in my store. As you say the workmanship is immaculate.