Man....I had a blue guitar...
I tried guitar, never really got that going, prefer mandolin. But at one time I had a blue one. Yup, blue...that sucker was catchy. Never seen a blue mando....until a couple minutes ago.
Fad.....or change of market?
Tried to embed the video, doesn't seem to be working?
https://youtu.be/EN4VFvdeoGw
https://youtu.be/EN4VFvdeoGw
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Not sure its a fad or change. Howard Morris has made a couple blue mandolins and had trouble selling them. I believe Steve Sorenson has made a bluish one as well.
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Here's a blue A model I built for a customer. Turned out well I thought.
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Gavin Baird made a few blue and even some eggplant-colored mandolins. Great instruments by just about any measure, and beautifully finished. Here's my F4. I'd call the color "blueberry" - in certain light there's a little purple under the blue.
Enjoy!
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Once upon a time made a blue dola, a blue octave, and a few blue mandos. At a hobby luthiers yard sale a few weeks ago I got a free fresh bottle of blue transtint. Just what I needed!
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
I lived in a forest for a couple of years one time, and after a while began to think of painting my guitar. I left, and didn’t.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Ted Eschliman used to have a Rigel Blueburst that was gorgeous. I had a blueburst Fender 62SE (before they got lumpy). Looked great and was better sonically than I expected, but I eventually gave it to my brother, who’s still playing it. For an inexpensive plug and play option it wasn’t bad, though a little “quacky” cuz of the piezo...but, then, I like to be a little different from time to time.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Weber made/makes? a model called the "River" (F-14) that came in a wild red-burst or a translucent blue. Both are beautiful. I owned a blue River for a little more than a year. The blue with the quilted maple and bear-claw spruce top and tortise binding was truly stunning.
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Haven't had a blue mando … yet, but I was pretty tickled with how this guitar turned out, and the thought of a mandolin (or, ooh, mandola) done up in the same scheme is tempting.
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
I once made a Birdseye Maple penny whistle for a customer, custom stained a blue color to match his blue guitar. It was actually pretty attractive.
B381-- if you liked that blue guitar so much, why not make yourself a blue mandolin? If you don't want to face the task of actually building one you could get a cheap Rogue, follow Rob Meldrum's excellent setup tutor to get it to play at least decently. Strip, or paint right over, the factory finish using automotive spray paints which are available in a huge range of jazzy colors. I once built a kit version Les Paul clone and painted it Fusion Orange to match my wife's Pontiac Grand AM an the results were excellent. In any event, it would look great hanging on the wall.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
I've seen plenty of blue mandolins through the ages. When I first started and was obsessed with cheap mandolins on Ebay, I loved the Marcus Martini blue mandolin.
Max and Laurie of Girouard Mandolins have built some really beautiful blue mandolins as has the Weber.
I'm cool with not traditional colors (the Condino Cricket (green) is a favorite as is Dale Ludwig's Greenie).
Jamie
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
There's a used Weber River at a local shop [nfi].
http://www.sprucetreemusic.com/produ...mandolin-2013/
The back is gorgeous in person, I think the main front shot they have does it a disservice as it seems too dark.
I played it and it was quite nice - nice woody sound. To my ear it beat the other similarly priced Weber mandolins in the shop.
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
My mando is orange. And I have a blue guitar.
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Jerry Garcia sang about his blue guitar in "Stella Blue" - which would be a nice mando tune if you like songs with more than three chords.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
The Sorensen for sale on his website is stunning. But reality is people would much rather have a conservative burst. Same goes for gold tops. Otherwise they'd be cranking them out.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Wife and I both love the color blue. If only that would help her endorse my commissioning a custom blue Sprite from Steve S., or a blue Tenor Guitar from Bill B., or one of those purty F5's from Dale. I did have a beauty of a wide blue denim guitar strap with soft buckskin leather ends that I used on my '56 Southern Jumbo. Miss then both!
Scott
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Br1ck
Same goes for gold tops.
I saw a gold top Eastman and was suprirsed at how much I disliked it. How bad does the wood have to look for you to want to 100% obscure it?
I saw a blue mandolin and said `that sure isn't for me, but isn't it amazing how blue + wood grain is quite beautiful'.
IMO, while they likely sell the same [extremely hard to sell due to very small market] - I found I had two very different reactions to blue vs goldtop.
Anyway - back to blue ....
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Markus
I saw a gold top Eastman and was suprirsed at how much I disliked it. How bad does the wood have to look for you to want to 100% obscure it?
I saw a blue mandolin and said `that sure isn't for me, but isn't it amazing how blue + wood grain is quite beautiful'.
IMO, while they likely sell the same [extremely hard to sell due to very small market] - I found I had two very different reactions to blue vs goldtop.
Anyway - back to blue ....
A friend has a black top Pava, #1 actually. He took it back to the Ellis shop for fretwork and they were very happy to see it. Asked why Pava #1 was a black top, Pava herself said they screwed up the finish. Any little thing like a drop of water is enough to make it a sand it back to bare wood a necessity. So it got a solid black top. Tom Ellis said it has always been that way. Screw it up, paint it black. So I always think of that when I see any solid color. I think the gold tops are very cool, buy my preference is to show the wood. I think the classic burst covers too much wood grain.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
I was eye-balling those blue Eastmans. I likey. But I likey the gold top Eastman mandos even more! I've had a bunch of blue guitars and none of them ever stuck around, so I question my ability to keep a blue mando. Then again... I binge and purge pretty much EVERYTHING... regardless of color.
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Here's my (former) blue Rigel A Plus Deluxe, great mandolin with a beautiful finish.
Len B.
Clearwater, FL
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Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Big Mon never played no blue man'lin...no part o' nothin', IMHO.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Blue Star's electric Mandoblaster came in blue, 4 or 5 string.
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Re: Man....I had a blue guitar...
Well didn't Buzz Busby or Frank Wakefield spray paint a Loar F-5 Blue once upon a time? This is something I heard through the proverbial Bluegrass grapevine?