One of my laments about my life/work locations has been the relative lack of available high quality music stores, luthiers, etc. I decided I would hold off on buying any more instruments until I can get an opportunity to play them first. I assumed that would only happen when I get a chance to travel a bit. I recently noticed that I live only an hour away from a mandolin maker of some note, and I actually go near there fairly frequently to fish (as recently as last week). Howard Morris is in Irrigon, OR. Hooray! I am planning to take a couple of mandolins to him for some minor tweaks I didn’t want to screw up. But that also means I might get to handle a couple of real live mandolins that I don’t own yet, which I’ve never been able to do. Odds are decent that one of them may end up coming home with me at some point. Hank, didn’t you have a Morris? How do/did you like it?
I liked it a lot and I am sure you will find Howard and his wife to be wonderful folks. I had one of his F models, which I found to be significantly better than any equivalently priced import. About a year later I traded it, a The Loar, and a bunch of cash, on a Weber Rawhide F that I absolutely could not let go of until it was mine. When I bought the Morris, I also played one of his A's. I would have bought that one but I just had to have a scroll. The A was significantly cheaper. "An hour away from Irrigon": if that hour is like toward Boise, Red Valley Mandolins is over there. He makes nice sounding flattops (Howard does, too).
Interesting, I drive through Boise occasionally also but it’s about 4.5 hours away.
I've got a 2020 Morris flat top I got brand new. I like it, but I haven't played it that much lately. Although at the moment, it and the F2 are the only ones downstairs. Don, do you ever get down toward Burns, OR? My daughter and her husband have a very cool nanobrewery out there. Has an excellent outdoor yard area that is just crying to have some pickers populate. Good fishing in the Silvies River, too.
Oh nice Sue! I’ve driven that way to visit Julie’s dad in Nevada but lately we’ve been flying instead of driving. I’d much rather drive and stop for music and nanobrew
You got the fever!
“You got the fever!” Ha that ship sailed long since. I currently have four mandolins, two guitars and a ukulele even though I am less than two years into trying my first stringed instrument. But the idea of handling and playing multiple handmade mandolins!! Yeah I got the fever
I know how it is. I currently have a saz, a banjo and a guitar, none of which do any playing on regularly. That isn't counting the percussion instruments or the wife's ukeleles. I keep looking for a reasonably priced hurdy-gurdy and would also snap up a theremin if I found one. I did just get rid of a mandolin, though. I donated my beginner Washburn to the music school where I take lessons. They have a block party coming up to fundraise, and one of the things they do is auction some donated instruments. I figure it was better for them to get whatever small amount of money somebody would be willing to pay for it. I had a great time trying out a bunch of instruments when I visited Dusty Strings in Seattle just a little before the pandemic. Haven't really got an opportunity like that since. Will at some point be back to pursuing that actively as I will want more of a lifetime instrument. The struggle is read.
Don, are you really saying that the Vaughn-Roswell-Artesia-Carlsbad corridor is a music store desert? (You would be correct, of course!)
Lol I moved from one desert back to another but this one has a luthier!
Well, my prediction proved correct… I went and visited Sonny Morris last week and sure enough, a beautiful blue A4 wagged its tail and made puppy eyes at me and I couldn’t help but take it home. Well actually I had him install a pickup on it so I couldn’t take it home until today. Sonny is a super nice guy and I just loved the sound of this mandolin. I wish I could do it justice but here’s a quick song on it. https://youtu.be/a4PKTLi6q7I
Sounds great, Don. And it looks fine, too. Sonny does do a good job at a reasonable price. Happy NMD to Don!
I like that sound, NDO! Did you have it connected to a speaker with the new pickup? It had kind of a different sound for a mandolin (or at least it seemed to me)
No that’s pure acoustic to my iPhone! This thing has the fullest sound I’ve ever heard from a mandolin. And sustain like a guitar. I need to dig out the condenser mic and make a wavemap for the ToneDexter. This thing is going to play through the PA for sure sometime.
