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Nick Gellie
Mar-30-2012, 3:32pm
I am posting a photo of my Davy Stuart mandolin. While it does not have the beauty of the Gibson style mandolin, it has a character all of its own. In a way it is quite distinctive. As the mandolin cafe is a predominantly American based site about mandolins, I thought it would be a good idea to show that mandolins made in other countries have a different sound and are as good as many of the archtop mandolins built around the Gibson design.

My Davy Stuart mandolin has a spruce top with rosewood sides and back. It has a wonderful open ringing sound that you do not get with an archtop mandolin. I play Quebecois, Balkan, and Celtic music with it. It is a loud mandolin with lots of range in tone. The trebles have a pleasant ring to them and the bass strings have much more of a mellow sound. It is easy to play with a good low action with no buzzing on any of the strings. It plays well up the neck too.

The other factor is that it only cost about $1200 US and it came with a pickup inside it.
I can only recommend it if you are looking for something different in a mandolin.

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Nick Gellie
Mar-31-2012, 7:26pm
Here are some more photos of the Davy Stuart close up:

The headstock
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The front from the side
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Another view of the front showing the bridge
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The low action
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I plan to put a video on youtube showing what it sounds like soon.

Peter Kurtze
Mar-31-2012, 8:03pm
I had a Davy Stuart until very recently -- loved it for Irish trad. Your description of the sound is much better than I could express.

Wesley
Apr-03-2012, 8:32am
I've never played one of his mandolins - but as an owner of a Stuart octave mandolin I'll attest to their quality. It's got a lot of bang for the buck.

Aurélien
Feb-28-2015, 9:00am
Hi ! I'm really interested in Davy Stuart's mandolins, could you post a video of yours to hear how it sounds like ? Thanks !

Pete Jenner
Feb-28-2015, 9:59am
Very nice Nick. I've heard a lot about Davy and when I was in LA in 2013 I met a Kiwi couple staying in my hotel who told me they were Davy's next door neighbours.

Ron McMillan
Feb-28-2015, 10:05am
It's a beautiful mandolin. I'd love to hear it, too.

ptritz
Feb-28-2015, 11:10am
There are links to recordings of him playing his own instruments on his website.

dmcginnis
Feb-28-2015, 11:21am
I have one, too...love it.