Gilchrist Summer 2014 Batch

[sgrexa]

Mr. Gilchrist never ceases to amaze with his hard work and single handed mastery. I think I see a few rarities in this batch. "Crazy week...glue pot just turned off"



Sean

[Pete Jenner]

Disgraceful.

[Amanda Gregg]

Disgraceful.

A joke? Something I'm missing?

[blauserk]

What is the big oval hole? Octave mandolin? Too small to be a mandocello, isn't it?

If you have any other pics, keep 'em coming. I love the views inside Mr. Gilchrist's workshop. Seeing that makes me gaze longingly at my bank balance, wishing it were larger.

[blauserk]

That is a real bumper crop of Model 5s, too. I'll be interested to see the fern/flowerpot breakdown. In the few batches I'm most familiar with, there seem to be outbreaks of enthusiasm for one or the other--never seems to be evenly divided.

[sgrexa]

John, it is a K4 mandocello. I think the A next to it is an octave mandolin, but I would like to hear what others say. I have never seen one of those!? His output is amazing, the guy must not sleep much.

Sean

[Austin Bob]

I'm drooling.

[blauserk]

His output is amazing, the guy must not sleep much.

Gilchrist is supposedly incredibly efficient. Note this quote from John Hegecoth of the Gruhn repair shop, from a post of mine that promptly withered (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ve-Gilchrist):


"Stephen Gilchrist has been making mandolins since 1976. When he came to work at Gruhn Guitars in the early part of 1980 he had made at least 80 mandolins - as he said himself "The mistakes never made it out of the fireplace". George recalls the revelation as Steve was able to examine and work on Loar and Fern F-5s "in the flesh". George recalls the first mandolin he made in March of 1980 as being a "totally new instrument in sound and appearance". Steve made 20 instruments between March and December of 1980 including at least one L-5 guitar, an incredible H-4 mandola with a larger body and longer scale than Gibson had used, and a "piggy" guitar (so named for it's body shape-two points like an F but no scroll) designed by George.

"Steve is the best woodworker I've ever seen. I'd walk by and see a block of maple dogged down to his workbench as he picked up his gouge and mallet. Thirty minutes later he'd have an F-5 back roughed out-scroll, recurve, points- needing only final scraping and sanding. He would finish a mandolin "in the white" in about two weeks. No mystery there. Just a guy who knew what he was about enthusiastically liberating mandolins from blocks of wood."

[Hendrik Ahrend]

A joke? Something I'm missing?

A very respectful joke from a fellow Australian marveling at Steve's output and quality, I'm sure.

[sgrexa]

[QUOTE=blauserk;1309422]Gilchrist is supposedly incredibly efficient. Note this quote from John Hegecoth of the Gruhn repair shop, from a post of mine that promptly withered (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ve-Gilchrist):

John, thanks for sharing. Amazing that he was capable of building twenty mandolins in 3 months as early as 1980. Five years earlier, he built his first from just looking at a picture of Bill Monroe's on an album cover. Almost supernatural talent for sure.

Sean

[Pete Jenner]

A very respectful joke from a fellow Australian marveling at Steve's output and quality, I'm sure.

Yes. It's a pity we have to explain them.

[sgarrity]

That's the stuff MAS dreams are made of!

[trevor]

Does Steve work alone or does he have help?

Sean, I make that 20 in 10 months unless I'm reading wrong.

[Zissou Intern]

Consider the future for those 17 instruments. Where will they end up over the coming decades... a century, or two, from now? Who will own them? How many times will those F5's play Rawhide, or Bach, Handel, and Beethoven?

[ides1056]

I wonder how many are spoken for?

[F-2 Dave]

Great picture.

[sgrexa]

Does Steve work alone or does he have help?

Sean, I make that 20 in 10 months unless I'm reading wrong.

Trevor, you are correct but it is still a marvel and he has gotten a bit more proficient since. As far as I know he still works alone.

Zissou- What a great thought, and I often share the same about my own instruments. One thing that will be very different is that there will be a lot more information available about their history and ownership. Who knows how technology might change to make searching for recordings, videos, Cafe' posts, etc. a very simple process probably much different than we are using now. In some ways some of the mystique and magic will be lost, but there are many I suspect that will go to owners who quietly play them at home and don't have much to do with these types of forums and technology in general.

BTW, I should have made the title "Winter of 2014" as it is indeed quite chilly in Lake Gnotuk now.

Sean

[sgrexa]

The only builder I am aware of that comes close to Gilchrist in building batches of instruments in numbers like this is Marty Jacobson. Even with CNC help I don't think he is doing 17 at a time, with F5s, A5s, octaves, K4s, and L5 guitars in the mix! Do you know of anyone else who builds in batches like this?

Sean

[sgrexa]

I wonder how many are spoken for?

I suspect all of them, or nearly all.

Sean

[Pete Jenner]

Sean, where did you get the photo?

[Mandomusic]

The big oval hole is a K-4.5 (mandocello with maple neck, larger version of Mike Compton's F-4.5).

[sgrexa]

Sean, where did you get the photo?

Steve was kind enough to attach it in a recent correspondence. Of course, this picture surely speaks more than a thousand words and I have a couple of questions I would love to ask, but I respect that he is quite busy so I hesitate to bother him.

Sean

[Zissou Intern]

Sean: A hundred years from now some MC forum member may be posting your picture and telling everyone that his F5 is the third from the right and was originally shipped to... well, unfortunately, not me!

[mandroid]

old interview : STEVE GILCHRIST: Well I've always been interested in timber, trees and timber. I grew up sort of living in trees almost on the river and always made instruments. That's all I do for a living, all I've ever done.

[blauserk]

Chris Thile plays a Gilchrist mandocello. (But one with ff-holes.) Sounds wonderful.