I predominantly play Irish trad and have ordered a long neck oval Girouard mandolin; should be finished around April. I grew up playing on a 1918 Gibson A1, which I still love, but the top is sinking and I want an instrument with a long neck.
As many people have already stated, there's so many options available these days, it seems we are in a really healthy period - lots of excellent builders and many of them building oval hole mandolins.
Girouard's would be worth a look. Here's a page from the Music Emporium with some details, photos and video of an A oval:
http://themusicemporium.com/mandolin...-studio-deluxe
Lots of other options similar, including Pava. There was a nice one listed on here the other day:
https://www.elderly.com/pava-oval-pr...dolin-case.htm
I tried Weber and Collings, neither were to my taste, but I only tried a handful of instruments. One of the best modern mandolins I've tried for trad was the Northfield F2S Brendan O'Regan had. An amazing instrument. I've not tried Old Wave, Pomeray or Black mandolins, but judging by photos and their reputation, I imagine they're excellent instruments.
Anything by Phil Davidson that I've played I thought was brilliant. I played an carved oval in Hobgoblin in London years ago and remember it being one of the best mandolins I'd ever played. I've two colleagues who have flat top Davidson's and they are both beautiful instruments.
A vintage Gibson is always an option, but you should check to see if the top has sunken any (like mine has
). Mike Snyder mentioned the mandolin player from Dave Munnelly's Band (Paul Kelly). I engineered a couple of albums that Paul played on and to my knowledge, it's a teen oval Gibson that Paul had a new f-hole top put on; probably when he was converting it to left hand. Lovely sounding instrument, and Paul's a lovely player. Well able of holding his own against the rest of a loud band.
As you can probably tell, I prefer carved mandolins to flat tops - I find there's more complexity in the sound, and a wider timbral range of sounds available compared to the flat tops. But that's just my personal preference. Lots of great flat tops (and flat top players) out there!
Best of luck with finding your ideal mandolin.
Sean
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