Anyone had the chance to play the new F-5 from Weinman Instreuments at Gruhn's in Nashville?
http://guitars.com/inventory/mf8788-...nman-f-5-style
That's high praise from Mr. Gruhn right there!
Anyone had the chance to play the new F-5 from Weinman Instreuments at Gruhn's in Nashville?
http://guitars.com/inventory/mf8788-...nman-f-5-style
That's high praise from Mr. Gruhn right there!
It's a nice looking mandolin, it looks like they hit all the checkmarks.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Seen this a few days ago, never heard of one but for sure has the looks! Great build.
Gorgeous mandolin. I wish I lived in the vicinity of a place like Gruhn's - but I'd have a hard time keeping away if that were so. I'd probably become a bum and never get any work done.
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I wish there were sound clips available ! Beautiful mandolin and very good price with case and Waverly tuners , especially if it has a very good voice !!
BTW its WIEnman, not WEInman.
Are you considering $5.5k appropriate for maker with virtually no track record (google won't find ANYTHING except his new web and the few pics linked from MC, no other history in luthiery).
I do not question quality of the mandolins, the pictures look very nice. I just ask what is appropriate price of first builds of a new maker. It's quite easy these days to set up workshop with CNC (and many young folks can use computers and draw models themselves), make moulds and templates of all sorts (just browsing throuh MC will show you hundreds of possibilities how to make the job relatively easy for a handy man) and start building nice looking mandolins right away.
Adrian
It is all in the voice ! Very beautiful instrument however ! I wish I could hear it's voice !
From Adrian - " Are you considering $5.5k appropriate for maker with virtually no track record .." You mean just like Steve Gilchrist / Lynn Dudenbostel / Michael Heiden / Tom Ellis & all the other top builders ??. Nobody had heard of those guys until they began building & selling. Mr (i assume) Wienmann might have built instruments for many people before selling 'commercially' via a vendor.
To my eyes,that mandolin 'looks' excellent re.build quality,& i couldn't imagine George Gruhn accepting it for sale if it didn't sound at least 'good'. Better grab it before folk realise that there's another Steve Gilchrist etc. around !!,
Ivan
Weber F-5 'Fern'.
Lebeda F-5 "Special".
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Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.
Two misspellings of the builder's name within an 8-post thread...sheesh.
It looks beautiful, and I'm sure it sounds and plays wonderfully. The price is the price.
I like it all but the way the sunburst came out. That must be a hard thing to perfect
For the benefit of search engines I changed the opening title spelling but it'll still show up in most of the posts. You can always change the thread title (spelling, etc.) by going into Advanced mode and editing the title but only for a three hour window on your own posts.
For a guy that consistently revels in poking fun at people in public for these type of errors must be embarrassing to make two in one short sentence. Off to Google Instreuments now.
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At least the builder got the spelling correct on the head stock !
It’s pretty, as for price to value? We can only start to speculate after the sale of a few instruments. If the market bears the price, the answer is clear. I’m not seeing any serial number so if it’s his first, it’s a bit “brave” but, hey, askin’ ain’t sellin’.
But for reference, what did your first F-5s go for Adrian? And I’m not being picky I’m just curious, I’ve heard sound clips of yours but, never heard anything about pricing.
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
As they say, this isn't Gruhn's first rodeo. He wouldn't bother with this if he didn't think he could get that price. And to get the price, he must feel it is worth it, which answers the question about an early build...at least in my mind. YMMV
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I wonder ..... if this mandolin is built by Jamie Wiens ? Jamie told me a while back he was working on a lower price version of his Loar type mandolins. Just wondering !! When I look at the workmanship, and I've seen a good number of his builds since he lived 20 minutes away.
Dave
Heiden A, '52 Martin D-18, Taylor 510, Carlson Custom A with Electronics
Not according to the builder's site:
http://www.vintagebydesign.com/about.html
"Wes is a full-time second generation luthier, and is responsible for the lion's share of the building. He grew up around his dad's violin shop, and in a house filled with music. It wasn't unusual to have a Lloyd Loar mandolin or a couple of Italian fiddles around the house..."
"Welcome to Wienman Fine Instruments, where mandolins and guitars are hand crafted with passion, dedication, and attention to detail in the Blue Ridge Mountains just outside of Asheville, North Carolina."
Drew thanks for the info, good looking mandolins. I haven't talked to Jamie Wiens for a while. He has moved from Cranbrook BC (near me) to Calgary Alberta about 5 hours away. So I was just wondering when I saw the name WIENman.
Dave
Heiden A, '52 Martin D-18, Taylor 510, Carlson Custom A with Electronics
The wood and finish is certainly eye-catching and they (the builder and Gruhn) certainly bet on that but there are other aspects that I see here on MC such as resale value that depends on how consistent the builder is in quality (also tone, construction, looks, availability) Reminds me a bit of Troy Harris who emerged with totally impossibly clean work but somehow we don't see many of his mandolins - perhaps something with the pricing.... Also Wiens emerged with impressive work and high prices but that's another story.
I love to see other builders' work and often go visit their webpages to see how they are doing and so I did in this case not knowing the name. The pics of the workshop are pretty clean and the moulds etc show no sign of use so everything is fresh. I tried to find about his fathers violin shop and even his name found nothing but a rock band where the builder (or at least he looks like him) plays.
I don't want to turn it onto myself (I'm not in US and my pricing reflects local hourly wage, if you are really interested PM me) but I remember what Girouard went for few years back when he started and now I think he's still below the asking price of this Wienman, and he has been praised for consistency and beautiful work many many times.
Adrian
Very nice. Reminds me stylistically of a Newson.
Well, the story goes that when Gail Hester sent an F5 to Gruhn, he replied and told her he'd be glad to sell it for $8,500 and she could send him as many as she liked. I don't think a lot of us had heard of Gail at that point (a lot of us still haven't).
Gruhn can afford to be discerning; I am certain he doesn't take mandolins from every builder who sends him one. His imprimatur is still worth something, I should think.
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Both of the owners of company that built this mandolin are members of the Cafe. I see no connection with Jamie W.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
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