ODE Tut Taylor Givens F mandolin

[Dawg Picker]

I have one of those 1980's F-style mandos with the curious crossbred heritage of Tut Taylor and Bob Givens. Made in Nashville, after Baldwin/Gretsch bought the rights to the ODE brand, these mandos were constructed in the former Grammar guitar factory (more like a large shop really). I cannot find clear info on just how much Givens actually participated in the making of these instruments. Can anyone fill in the blanks? Any idea of worth? It is in very good condition with no dings, just some finish checking. Thanks!

[Willie Poole]

Dawg....I can`t say that the info that I have heard about those mandolins is a fact but what I have heard is that Givens and Tut drew up the plans for the Ode mandolins and Givens did some supervising when they first started making them....I heard that they took dimentions of the Gibson mandolins and drew up those plans...I owned an A model that was a very nice instrument except that it was heavy on the finish, I did take some of the finish off and it had a decent sound...projected realy good....

I`m sure there are others on here that know more on the subject though....

Willie

[Jim Hilburn]

I try to point out to younger players that there was a time when there wasn't an infinite selection of nice mandolins to choose from and that one of these would be one of the better choices you could make. Made by someone who understood the demand for quality mandolins when very few others were offering an option.

[barney 59]

1980's? I'm pretty sure that Ode was over by then. Tut was doing something with dulcimers in Pigeon Fork by the 80's I think and Givens was definitely in Sandpoint Id. in 1980. I think Bob Givens was a little more hands on in that factory than some people make out. He did all the tooling and they had "Mrs Griffith" to study. (I heard they took the thing apart!)--Randy Wood was involved with that venture as well. I've heard the number "800" with reference to how many mandolins they produced. The "Ode" brand mandolins seemed to be an attempt at making a good quality mandolin at a very reasonable price.In the vacuum of the 70's I think they accomplished that very well. There was no internet and I think most of the old Gibsons were still tucked away in closets because you didn't stumble on them then like you do now. It was kind of hard to find a decent mandolin back then. Try "The Parlor" for Givens info. They may have one or two Odes for sale to compare prices. The F Style Odes were not very common.

[Willie Poole]

Barney, I know Tut had the Griffith A-5 and as I said they took measurements from it but I am not sure they "took it apart", after all it is a one of a kind and it seems they would want to keep it original, I guess they could have removed the back and then replaced it without anyone being able to notice it.....

I wonder where Kentucky got their meaurements for the KM-900? It also is said to be an exact copy of the A-5....Mine sounds a whole lot better than the Ode that I had, thats for sure....

Willie

[barney 59]

I read an article somewhere once that claimed that they did in fact take apart the A-5. That's what I'm going by is that article. Doesn't make it necessarily true. I don't know ---as rare and as valuable as it is if I owned it and was also starting up a mandolin "factory" the temptation to dismember and find out what makes it tick would be pretty overwhelming. That would be especially true if I believed I had the chops to get it back together.
But did the Gibson A-5 actually have the same specs as the F-5? What I mean is air chamber volume, graduations , tone bars etc. I know that Givens was trying to create with the A models what the F models were and his A models were really based on the F-5. Had Given's designs gotten that advanced when they were producing Odes or did his really good stuff come later?
So where is that A-5 now? Did Kentucky ever get their hands on it? Ya know if you had actually taken it apart and made really precise measurements you could sell that information to a company like Kentucky and maybe for more that the actual instrument was worth ----and still have the instrument. I heard once that it ended up in a secret location in California.

[Willie Poole]

Barney, I wish I knew the aswers to your questions....I assumed that Bob Givens was building mandolins with his name on them before the Odes were being built but that is only what I thought, no factual information on that...I just thought the Odes were something that Givens and Tut did sort of like a consignment but again that is just what I assumed....

All of this makes interesting reading and hopefully someone with some facts will chime in on here....

Willie

[Spruce]

So where is that A-5 now? Did Kentucky ever get their hands on it? Ya know if you had actually taken it apart and made really precise measurements you could sell that information to a company like Kentucky and maybe for more that the actual instrument was worth ----and still have the instrument.

No need to take it apart... ;)

http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee22/e_stamp/DCP_2772-1.jpg

[barney 59]

How do you get that and not take it apart c.1970?

Givens was building prior to the Ode venture and maybe for a decade. I had seen the Odes maybe almost at the beginning as a friend of mine had a music store and stocked them. I had a Gibson and MAS hadn't set in for quite a few years so I didn't get one.(Also money managed to allude me in those days). I had no idea about who Givens and Taylor( I did know of Tut Taylor as a dobro player) were at that time. I did know that the Odes were made in Nashville. The first I ever knew of Givens was Bob Applebaum's A model and that was in 1975. I had seen a couple of good mandolins that were hand made by then and really only a couple. One by Wayne Henderson,probably his first and one by Doug Unger probably his second. I thought Given's mandolins the best I had ever seen to that point, with the exceptions of a couple of Loars that I had managed to play. So I knew who Bob Givens was by 1976. So in 1976 I was in Sand Point, Idaho for a couple of months and met Steve Weill there at a bar where my girl friend at the time and I played and he was lord over the pool table. He did try to convince me to stay saying that "Bob Givens was in Australia but was coming to Sandpoint and that they were going to build mandolins." It was very tempting I have to say, but luckily I didn't because Givens didn't actually get there until 1979! So Steve Weill was either clairvoyant or Bob Givens planned ahead.

[j. condino]

[QUOTE=Spruce;1138063]No need to take it apart... ;)

Make sure everyone knows that drawing came from our old friend John Sullivan.

There should be more very cool information and technical specs on that mandolin coming out later this year.

j.
www.condino.com

[wsugai]

This is so true. I first got bit hard by the mando bug in the fall of 1976 and even imports were relatively rare at the time. There were a handful of custom makers, but their prices in real dollars were probably just as high then as they are now. I recall that the Tut Taylors were distinctive in that the price was significantly lower for what we all assumed was a good mando. Just for reference, I paid $1695 + tax over the counter for a new Gibson F-5 back then.

Compared to back then, the mando market today, both custom and manufactured, is just flooded with instruments.



I try to point out to younger players that there was a time when there wasn't an infinite selection of nice mandolins to choose from and that one of these would be one of the better choices you could make. Made by someone who understood the demand for quality mandolins when very few others were offering an option.

[stratman62]

I don't think they took A5 apart, but I will ask Tut and see what he says. What a great mandolin!

[Spruce]

There should be more very cool information and technical specs on that mandolin coming out later this year.


Where?
FJ hopefully?

[Phil Goodson]

I don't think they took A5 apart, but I will ask Tut and see what he says. What a great mandolin!

This will be interesting. I asked Tut about it several years ago and he denied that anyone had taken the back off the A-5. Let's see if his memory is any different now.:)