Excellent interview with Maui luthier Steve Grimes

[Ron McMillan]

I hadn't even heard of Steve before a friend pointed me to this excellent interview, but now I fantasize about going to Hawaii and see if he has any mandolins lying around. His E7 model is seriously beautiful.

[F-2 Dave]

Yes it is. I'm sure he'd ship, but if I was to commission a build, I'd have to go there to pick it up. Never been to Maui. Heard it's nice.

[Jess L.]

I bought one of his early mandolins before he moved to Hawaii.

Great sounding mandolin, nice looking too (good fit and finish), plus at that time it was the only mandolin I'd ever encountered that didn't go out of tune every 2 minutes when playing outdoor stages.

Nowadays his stuff would be way out of my price range, but back then (a) prices hadn't went up very much yet, and (b) I had lots more disposable income back then.

I haven't personally seen any *recent* examples of his instruments, but if his current mandolins are anything even remotely like that early one I had, they've gotta be awesome.