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Nobody’ll miss my Eastman if they bury me with it but I think some people would be upset if y’all took your F4s or Loars to the grave :cool:

That’s one way to look at it. Another way is, Norman isn’t getting any younger and he has played and collected a huge number of instruments over the years. You can’t keep every instrument forever....

Don't think too hard about this. If you use Spotify, you get to listen to music on demand. Then they give you a fun recap of the music you've listened to. I may not have listened to Chris more than...

I just checked..... Chris Thile in all his various iterations! Kind of surprising because he wasn't in any of my yearly top songs. But there was a clear swing toward bluegrass and newgrass over the...

Because amber + tortoise binding is the best color scheme out there!

(sorry for the accidental hijack)

In my case, it was basically a do-over / afterthought / experiment -- I was decently pleased with my thin shellac finish but ended up wanting a tougher topcoat....

Is the Behlen’s stain alcohol-based? If so: Whether you spray or hand-rub, you’ll have to take care not to smudge the stain. I don’t like using water-based dyes in general, but as shellac is my...

I used an astute combo of careful listening, comparing against known recordings (Tone Poems) and blatant guesses. I'm thinking I got 3/10 on purpose and maybe a few more by accident.

Had the pleasure of seeing them in Chattanooga a year ago. There were barely a dozen people in attendance, so Joe and Mike turned off the amplification and played fully acoustic. We all squeezed into...

Richard, it’s not a mandolin but a flattop steel string guitar.

My neighbor picked up an older Giannini Craviola steel string flattop for cheap and brought it to me to fix up and make playable. It appears to have suffered from some "hot car syndrome" -- the...

I chose a middle-ground option with a 1913 A that had been completely stripped and random hippie sanded. I wanted it to go from nasty dull brown to “well loved” pumpkin. I also had to re-color the...

I wouldn't say there's one widely accepted standard but I just did some research from "modern" makers and found this interesting:

Northfield talks about their A5 Special: "Fingerboard Material /...

I built a StewMac tenor uke kit last year and, for various reasons, it hasn't gotten much play time. I tuned it in "fifths" last night, but with the caveat that the fourth string is still higher than...

Finally -- the album we didn't know we were waiting for!

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but in the picture of guitars hanging in the finishing booth.... are all those tops flatsawn? I don't see a single piece of anything resembled quartered wood. What...

I'm about 20 minutes from there. Maybe I should see if he'll take a trade for my Eastman (although I'm not sure how that white would look under stage lights... front-row listeners might be blinded).

You’re right, there has been a noticeable uptick in SA recs lately! I still don’t see many in the wild though. I think the cafe might be more clued into them. But Collings probably makes 20x more per...

Not that ridiculous of a question. Yeah there are too many individual models for a true consensus. But what about “most recommended”? My money is on a Collings A style. Every time somebody asks what...

I have a set on my Eastman 515 right now. I have to say, I don't love them. They are slightly easier on the fingers, but it seems like they rob my mandolin of its mids. They sound a little bit like...

Would it be possible to add bracing to a too-thin back in order to strengthen it and add mass? I realize it would be unconventional for a carved instrument, but this seems extreme anyway (almost 50%...

The new Gruhn's does indeed have the upstairs room. I went to pick up my Martin from some extensive repair work, and ended up spending over an hour with George. We played several high-end mandolins...

I think he means he will also treat Gibson mandolins as an afterthought (to the alternative high-quality builders).

When you say playing up the neck, are you referring to fretting notes, or actually picking/strumming over the end of the fretboard? That mandolin and many other Eastman (and other major brands)...

In my experience, teachers can be really good at spending their students' money. When I was studying saxophone in college, I was essentially forced to buy a professional instrument to remain in the...