Here is an interview/chat about the first of the Taran "Springwell" mandolins completed by Rory Dowling recently, with three comparison sets of tunes. Hope it is of interest!
Here is an interview/chat about the first of the Taran "Springwell" mandolins completed by Rory Dowling recently, with three comparison sets of tunes. Hope it is of interest!
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
excellent interview,and great mandolins from Rory.
Dave H
Eastman 615 mandola
2011 Weber Bitteroot A5
2012 Weber Bitteroot F5
Eastman MD 915V
Gibson F9
2016 Capek ' Bob ' standard scale tenor banjo
Ibanez Artist 5 string
2001 Paul Shippey oval hole
Great stuff, lovely sounding mandolins!
2018 Girouard Concert oval A
2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
1969 Martin 00-18
my Youtube channel
Ohhhhh. I can feel the MAS. I slightly prefer the sound of the second one. All three were over the top.
Just wonderful.
Last edited by JeffD; Jun-19-2016 at 12:03pm.
What an excellent interview, Kevin. Rory has such great ideas and it's inspiring to see the use of Scottish woods. The laminated sides and no kerfing is another interesting concept when applied to mandolins. Tone and balance of sound across all the instruments are really amazing.
I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores
While I could see the Sobell similarities I hadn't realized that they'd used Kevin's Sobell as a reference. Makes me want one even more now!
2018 Girouard Concert oval A
2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
1969 Martin 00-18
my Youtube channel
Totally unbiased of course but the sycamore sounded the best to me. Great pop for session playing I think and I will confirm it later this week.
John Liestman -
Eye new ewe wood lye kit!
Excellent video and comparison between the three differerent wood models, all wonderful in their own different ways (I have one of the Indian rosewood ones). Many thanks Rory for a great instrument and to Kevin for taking the time to demonstrate the mandolins!
Last edited by Shelagh Moore; Jun-19-2016 at 3:55pm.
"But wasn't it all stupid nonsense, rot, gibberish, and criminally fraudulent nincompoopery?"
- Neal Stephenson, Quicksilver
Here's the individual mandolins being played for comparison, though it is hard to separate them, in truth.
These had only just been strung up, and never played, so it was a real thrill to play them all from fresh, all utterly superb!
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
Fantastic stuff.
Ruth and I are just back from the "original" Springwell in Polbain and I've just been catching up with this video - really delighted to hear and see how well the mandolins have turned out.
Huge congratulations to Rory for all the hard work, care and dedication he's brought to this project - and to Kevin for his energy, enthusiasm and encouragement.
Also - congratulations to the new owners - you're going to enjoy yourselves.
Tim
Tim Jones
A very special day for me collecting my Taran Guitars Springwell mandolin no. 14 from master luthier and complete gent Rory Dowling. Swiss spruce with the most beautiful tight grain, glorious figured Mexican cocobolo, with reclaimed Scottish lime as the inner laminated sides, salvaged from an old bar in Anstruther! And beachcombed paua shell from NZ, by Rory himself as fretmarkers and the t. But what a stunning sounding instrument, tight, punchy, warm and ringing, balanced and loud. And the most beautiful classy skills evident in the woodwork. And brillianty set up, plays itself!
Rory has created a distinctive and unique mandolin in the family of mandolins pioneered by Stefan Sobell, with Rory's superb take on this. I cannot wait to play it out and about. Delighted beyond words with the whole spontaneous collaborative project. Ever upwards Mr Dowling!
Video will follow in good time ....
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
Congrats Kevin! You will love it. I am sure it is ALMOST as good as mine! :-) (Which you are largely responsible for me getting in the first place, so thanks for that!)
John Liestman -
Eye new ewe wood lye kit!
Looking forward to seeing it. Certainly curious as to how it compares with your Sobell and Gibson.
You certainly look happy enough. Cheers for Rory.
David A. Gordon
Lovely looking mandolin - I'm sure it sounds even lovelier!
2018 Girouard Concert oval A
2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
1969 Martin 00-18
my Youtube channel
Hugely enjoyed my visit to see Rory with Kevin yesterday. I had been very interested in hearing and seeing more about the cedar topped Springwell he had produced as I have an older Sobell with a cedar top that I've much enjoyed.
Suffice to say we left with 2 mandolins - and I'm just bowled over by the quality of the instrument and its musicality - look out for Kevin's videos as there's some wonderful work coming out of Rory's workshop - and I'm very pleased to have been able to move on from being an admirer of his work to join the growing group of Taran Springwell owners.
Tim Jones
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
It is quite a difference in tone between spruce and cedar top models. How would you describe the tone since you got to play them? Beautiful instruments both!
Kevin shot a video of the 2 instruments when we were at Rory Dowling's workshop -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADKm...ature=youtu.be
This gives you an idea of how the 2 instruments sound - the spruce is punchier - the cedar more mellow - both are fine instruments and it would be wrong to say one is better than the other - but they are different and suited to different styles.
I'm hugely happy with the cedar topped one and 2 weeks in I'm really pleased I bought it.
Tim Jones
Thanks! I got that sense from the video, but in real life you do have a fuller experience of the difference in tone and resonance. I own a Sobell style copy made by an Ottawa luthier with a cedar top and the mellow warmth is quite apparent.
They were not hugely different, given that all the rest of the components of theses two instruments were identical, but my opinion, and I haven't played cedar topped mandolins is that the spruce is brighter, slightly more punchy and marginally more responsive when driven harder with the pick. And that the cedar shimmers more. Perhaps when our instruments - Tim Jones is my brother in law - have settled and matured a wee bit, I will do another AB comparison. Hope that helps, but the best person to describe this would be Rory Dowling himself, perhaps. Cheers, Kevin
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
Kevin HJ Macleod
http://www.kevinmacleod.co.uk
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