I'm sure this has been asked over and over again, but I couldn't find this topic.
Who in bluegrass, or old time music, uses an A style mandolin?
I'm sure this has been asked over and over again, but I couldn't find this topic.
Who in bluegrass, or old time music, uses an A style mandolin?
Joe Walsh from the Gibson Brothers plays a Gilchrist A.
We have done this list before. Maybe Mike the expert searcher can come up with it. Tim O'Brien is one of the more high profile A-style players. There also Jody Stecher and Carl Jones, Curtis Buckhannon, Norman Blake. Lots more in old time music.
Shaun Garrity
http://www.youtube.com/user/spgokc78
Pretty broad question. In addition to their F, most of the bluegrassers I know have and play, (on occasion) an A mandolin. In oldtime most of the people I know have and prefer an A oval hole and some have F ovals as well and F hole models for bluegrassin. Don't sweat the small stuff play and enjoy and buy what YOU can afford and like. Don't matter what I or anyone else thinks.
Last edited by Jean Fugal; Feb-05-2014 at 12:02am. Reason: correct spelling
Jean
Pair of 96 Flatiron Fs
Me, and some other guy, oh what's his name - Tim O'Brien.
I thought every mandolin in old time was an A. Except for the Fs.
First time I saw Sam Bush in Colorado he was playing an a model. That would have been 1973.
f-d
ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A
Red Rector was a A style player.
I do. Like Joe Walsh in the above video and Kym Warner from the Greencards I opted for a Gilchrist A model, and saved enough money to buy an F model from most major manufacturers.
One of the best sounding mandolins I have heard on a video. Wondered what it was, thanks.
I can't seem to locate many videos of these players using their A's
Sam was playing an A when he was with the Nash Ramblers backing up Emmylou in the early nineties.First time I saw Sam Bush in Colorado he was playing an a model. That would have been 1973.
Living’ in the Mitten
You can compare A's and F's on this one
I noodled through Big Sciota on an oval hole flatback A the other day... The Bluegrass Police only gave me a $437 fine; usually they just drag you out into the desert and peck at your face with their pointy F-style headstocks like ornately-carved buzzards.
--Tom
I'm considering an Ellis A or a kimble A. I've played both of these. The Ellis is fab and sounds a lot like an F. The Kimble is LOUD and less balanced but woofy and in your face. Loved both! A great value really. They sound better than a LOT of F's.
Every picture I've ever seen of Buzz Busby he was playing a Gibson A with f holes. He was hardcore bluegrass!
And ol Buzz would speed up his heart to get the fast tremble he did.
Loads of pickers down through the ages have played the bluegrass on A styles.
Norman Blake
Gypsy Renegade
Logic is a function of desire
I do not own any Fs but not for trying.
I mostly play old time and usually play the Brentrup A4C (oval hole) or my 83 Flatiron A5-2 (f holes and more bluegrassy sound).
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
You mean a real A model?
I have the world in a jug, and the stopper in my hand.
I wonder why you felt it necessary to include that last sentence. I read a certain amount of comments/complaints on these boards about people looking down, especially in bluegrass, on those who play A models. But I haven't experienced that and I played a Givens A, mostly in bluegrass circles, for over twenty years. Now that I play an F model, nothing has changed.
What I am seeing though is some defensiveness on the part of A style players, like they have to justify their choice. That's how the last sentence reads to me. The satirical comment about the bluegrass police is in the same vein. It doesn't make any sense to me to pit one body shape against another and treat the topic like there are opposing camps. Or bluegrass "police". Nothing like that exists, except in some people's minds.
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