View Full Version : Collings #2310
Jeff Molde a guitar shop owner in Minneapolis worked with Bill Collings to design a custom mandolin that now is a series of custom mandolins. Apparently he has worked with Martin Guitars and a number of luthiers on the design of instruments. I know that a guy named Hans Bentrup stops by now and then and I'm sure they talk details about mandolins. I could ask Jeff I guess, but I wonder what other instruments out there have his ideas put to use?
I feel that I hold a small part of mandolin history when I look at my mandolin; the result of his talks with Bill Collings.
Tangerine is really not the color but Pumpkin is a word already in use. It needs a better name...
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Here is more about Jeff
http://www.thepodium.com/t-molde.aspx
And more about the 'line' of custom mandolins.
http://www.collingsguitars.com/gallery/slideshow.php?ID=161
Sorry if this repeats info on a previous post. Here I want to talk about Jeff's R&D influence.
rb3868
Nov-09-2012, 10:31pm
looks like Baltic amber to me! gorgeous
Is there a reason Collings A mandos are called "MT"? their F's are MF, so why not MA?
dcoventry
Nov-10-2012, 12:06am
hmmmmm. Seems to me that a dude named Hans Brentrup MAY know a thing or two about changing wood to sound. Ol' Hans prolly has some info to inpart to those willing to listen.
FWIW, I had a Bretrup A that was as killer sounding as anything, but the narrow and flat board killed my index finger.
My loss, really.
Mike Bunting
Nov-10-2012, 12:12am
[QUOTE=DougC;1103115]J
Tangerine is really not the color but Pumpkin is a word already in use. It needs a better name...
We should only use words once?
I suppose my interest in how big guitar / mandolin companies get their design ideas should go in the builders forum. As for the name, I guess they have to call it something that other mandolins are not i.e. Pumpkin usually refers to a Gibson mandolin.
Here is a picture of the back. It is hard to get a really good picture of the patterns but it is just stunning in the daylight.
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Josh Levine
Nov-10-2012, 2:38pm
Just beautiful? Does it sound as good as it looks?
I have played only a few really good mandolins so far. Brian Dean's, Gillcrest, Mowry, Dave Cohen's, Hans Bentrup's, Clark and some others I can't recall right now. This mandolin kicks butt. I'd say it is just a shade less than the others.
The only way you can hear the difference is to have someone like Peter Oshtroushko or Evan Marshall play them. It is the technique that brings out the real tone.
Mandobar
Nov-10-2012, 3:03pm
in 2007 I took delivery of a tangerine Collings MF, we called it tequila burst.9405994060
sykofiddle
Nov-10-2012, 4:38pm
I've seen a lot of teens Gibson A's and I would not call my tangerineburst MT2 pumpkin. I think it's much closer to a faded 59 cherryburst les paul, with a slightly more orange tint. It's quite, quite, close to the picture of D'Aquisto's Centura in the "Acquired of the Angels" book. I know this because I brought that picture to a very well regarded tatoo artist in Austin. One of his colleagues, who was present when we were consulting, coincidentally had been a finisher at Collings. He remarked that it reminded him almost exactly of what Collings had begun doing with some of their archtops.
In terms of color, mine looks virtually identical to this:
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