Originally Posted by
dwc
Carter's can be dangerous...
I was in Nashville for a long weekend about a month ago. That Saturday my wife and I took a side trip to Carter's before grabbing lunch. I had bought my Bourgeois from Carter's, so if I was only going to hit up one high end music store while in Nashville, it would be Carter's. Plus they had two Bourgeois Banjo Killers that I wanted to play.
When I walked in, one of the guys working there said that I could play whatever I wanted. The first thing I grabbed was a Pava F5. Excellent sounding, well built mandolin, but I was really there to play guitars. I played both Banjo Killers, both were very good, but one was slightly better. I played two Collings. Both guitars were good, not great, and I played a H&D, also good, not great. I really like the Bourgeois sound for flatpicking, and I didn't play anything that I would trade my Vintage D for. Funny story... My wife pointed out that there was a guy following me around, playing each guitar right after I did. I think he was following me because I tuned each guitar prior to playing it, so I was saving him some trouble.
My wife came over to me as I was finishing up playing the guitars that I wanted to play and said, "You know that there is a whole other room, right?" I said, "Yeah, but I am not really looking for anything vintage or super expensive." She said, "You should still go look." So I acquiesced.
I am not really into vintage gear, so I gravitated to the mandolin side. The first thing I grabbed was a honey amber Dudenbostel A1. Being a huge fan of Chris Thile and especially the tone he got on the first two Nickel Creek albums, I was anxious to see what a Dude sounded like. It was love at first strum. About four notes into "Soldier's Joy" I thought, "This is the mandolin tone that I have been searching for." But the thing was, I wasn't looking for a mandolin. I was firmly entrenched as the guitarist in my band, and we already had a mandolin player. I put the Dudenbostel up and decided to play a few more mandolins. I played an Ellis, 2 Duffs, a Kimble (side note, the punchiest, grassiest mandolin I have ever heard was a Kimble; this one was nice, more mellow, darker, not at all what I was expecting, but a really nice mandolin), and a few others, but I was already sold on the Dudenbostel. I went back to it again, having just played a handful of nice mandolins, and I was still drawn to the Dudenbostel.
My wife had wandered in by now, and I said, "Of everything in the store, this is what I would take home." She said, "Then get it." So I did.
This was truly one of those, "The wand chooses the wizard... It's not always clear why." moments. I don't really think that the Dudenbostel was the best instrument in the whole store, but it was to me. And above a certain price point, in my opinion it stops being about being "better" and really becomes about sounding "different". Ellis, Duff, Kimble, they could all be lifetime mandolins for even the most discerning palete, but I bought the mandolin that I bonded with.
Fast forward a month and I am now the mandolinist in our band and we have someone who is a better guitarist than I am, so I am completely satisfied with my purchase, but paying that off at the end of the month was... bracing, to say the least.
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