I made the trip down to Nashville Yesterday to have my annual Mandolin Tasting Day with a friend. The drive from Louisville is less than 3 hours and it's a fun way to catch up over the holidays.
Caveat...just squeezing all my random thoughts in here. Sorry if it's a little disorganized...rambling.
Prior to departing I made a spreadsheet with Google Drive to write notes on each mandolin that I really wanted to play and test out. I wanted to have a guide to remind my mind in the future which ones i really liked, etc. On the spreadsheet, I rated each mandolin in several categories. I rate the bass strings, GD, in terms of "modern" vs "traditional" tone. I also rate the A and E treble strings on the same 1-10 scale in terms of "modern" vs "traditional". I also rate overall volume, responsiveness, finish quality, etc. I wrote a few notes about each one too.
I'll start by saying I brought a snark tuner along and a CT55 to test every mando...strings however...wow. Some were new, and some looked like LLyod Loar himself put them on. This accounts for a very different tone.
I've been playing a LOT this year and my ear has gotten much better. This trip completely changed my thinking about several opinions I had formulated prior to yesterday.
One such notion I had prior to yesterday was that higher appointed models tend to sound better. I know on the Cafe here I've read many accounts of people who claim lesser appointed models sounded better than higher appointed models. An example would be the MT2 Collings vs the MT, or the Pava Satin vs the Pava Pro, The Eastman 305 vs the 805, etc etc etc.
Prior to yesterday most higher appointed models that I had played blew away the lesser appointed models... specifically in my history; A Gibson A9 vs A5, a few MT's vs MT2, and the Pava Pro vs the Satin. Well... Yesterday my mind was changed COMPLETELY. One particular Collings MF blew away two different MF5's that I played. A 2015 Gibson F9 was one clear winner above some Gibson F5Ls! that Gibson f9 was mind blowing... I remember report of a fellow cafe'r who'd done a blind test last month and chose a Gibson f9 even though his budget was much higher!
There was GREAT inconsistency among the models I played yesterday. (As in, the same model #, but one was awesome and the other was not...This was across the brands...) One giant victor on the day...top 5 definitely, was a 2003 Gibson Doyle Lawson. It was heads and tails above all the other Gibson f5Ls. The Doyle Lawson Gibson was only $6750 and it rivaled the Ellis models, and several of the Altmans, etc. The F5L's were very inconsistent. That Doyle Lawson though... WHEW! It could blow away nearly ANYTHING...EVER.
I didn't rate my overall ratings on whether or not I liked the tone, which is why I rated on modern vs traditional tone, as well as overall responsiveness and quality. (I tried to keep it objective.) I was shocked that some of the Gibsons were NOT as much in the traditional tone camp as I expected. Specifically, the new f5G and the F9 that I played which had an amazing bass course, rich deep rich woody lows, and clear loud ringing treble courses with no tinny metallic ringing.
The f9 I'm raving about was loud and rich, but the tone wasn't as complex as some of the more expensive models. The brand new F5G was firing on all cylinders and POWERFUL! Its hard comparing it to my dream mandos, the Ellis A's and F's. They're both nice.
The Gibson doyle lawson, the 2015 f5g and 2015 f9 were powerful and begging to be beat like a mule, they were responsive, loud, complex etc.(the f5g was way more complex than the f9) The Ellis A5 was very complex and beautiful, but not very loud, and the E and A strings were a little too traditional for my tastes...not what i was expecting. Don't get me wrong. I REALLY liked it, but it wasn't the holy grail I was expecting. I prefer my Collings, or at least I don't feel like selling my collings MT2 to buy the Ellis A5 which I thought I would. It was quite a delicate exquisite mando, but not powerful... more dark and complex. There was a big difference in two of the Ellis f5s. I loved one...it was probably in the top 5, and the other didn't impress me as much. Needless to say...great mandolins, and to be honest...I played some Collings MF's that were stellar.my personal Collings MT2 held it's own against most of what I played, but some of the MF's...wow. awesome. I still prefer my MT2 though.
My absolute favorite on the day was the Heiden A5 and the Altman F. One of the Altmans said "The Altman" on the headstock, and the other just said Altman. I MUCH prefered the one that said "The Altman". It matched or maybe beat the Heiden in terms of power, responsiveness, etc. The Altman was $13500 and the Heiden was $6750. the Heiden A5 was preferable to me over the F on tone, overall build, volume, power,etc. surprising.
I'd say my top three...
Heiden A5 $6750
The Altman F5 $13500
03 Gibson Doyle Lawson $6750
Close contenders.
2015 Gibson f9.
2015 F5g. (I'm not a Gibson person, so that says how amazing these new ones are. They are GREAT)
2010 Ellis f
2015 Summit f200 MAN OH MAN! This was a BEAST! Explosive and loud, perfect. I don't like traditional tone, but this is a world class mandolin.
Wilson f5. this was a good one.
The Webers were all typical Webers. Very nice and consistent.
I wrote that the Henderson F should be in my Top 3, but I don't know what happened. I got hung up on the Altman and Heiden. I would like to play it again.
I played hendersons, gilchrists, giacomel, brw,duff,kimble, pava, summit etc. But the above are just my personal favorites. this could be due to strings, etc. Who knows.
Oh...I ended up buying a Northfield f5s! Crazy good. Was it as good as a few of the $5000 mando's? NO. But it was pretty awesome.
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