Jason Harshbarger = Copperhead F-5

[tbrahan]

It's New Years Day, and I don't figure Mr. Harshbarger is open, or Id try to call himm for this question. Does anyone know how much his new F-5 Copperhead mandolins are going for these days? I haven't seen a thread on him lately, and someone has high-jacked his website. Don't go there. Thanks for any information.

[Mickey King]

The last Copperhead I've seen and played was at Smoky Mountain Guitars and it was I think $4999 or $5499. It sounded awesome and was a beautiful work of art. That was about 2 years ago. I later contacted Jason about a build he told me I would have to go thru SMG. I haven't seen any new copperheads on their website since then.

[tbrahan]

Mickey thanks for the information.

[adizz]

I will contact Jason and let him know there are some inquiries on here. He is still building mandolins but is working in a batch of guitars right now. I recently got a crow model mandolin from him. It's his monteleone inspired mandolin and is absolutely incredible in every aspect. If you aren't stuck on the traditional F style this is an amazing design. He is one of those hidden treasures in the luthiery world right now. Hopefully more people will discover his talents.

[Ed Goist]

Jason can be contacted through the Highland Strings Facebook page.

He recently told me he is in the process of rebranding his luthier business, hence the old website being down, and the pending website change.

[Mickey King]

It's New Years Day, and I don't figure Mr. Harshbarger is open, or Id try to call himm for this question. Does anyone know how much his new F-5 Copperhead mandolins are going for these days? I haven't seen a thread on him lately, and someone has high-jacked his website. Don't go there. Thanks for any information.

You weren't kidding about the website!!!

[tbrahan]

Thanks for the responses. Mickey, I warned you!!

I just bought a used Copperhead, and I'm waiting for it to come in. I hope its as good as everyone has said. Anticipation!!

[darylcrisp]

I will contact Jason and let him know there are some inquiries on here. He is still building mandolins but is working in a batch of guitars right now. I recently got a crow model mandolin from him. It's his monteleone inspired mandolin and is absolutely incredible in every aspect. If you aren't stuck on the traditional F style this is an amazing design. He is one of those hidden treasures in the luthiery world right now. Hopefully more people will discover his talents.

like to see some pics and specs on this Crow model if you have time-sounds interesting
d

[jasonharsh]

Hi All,

Thanks for the interest and kind words. When I first started my business I thought Harshbarger would be too hard to spell and too hard on the ears so I went with Highland Strings after a street and coffee house here in Cincinnati. Over the years lots of folks have encouraged me to use my name for the business. I finally decided I would, so I let my old domain expire thinking I would be able to re-register and forward to the new site after I established it. Turns out someone bought the domain name before me. My sincerest apologies to anyone who had to view whats going on there. I am in no way affiliated with it anymore. I just learned what was happening last Sunday and jumped into a new name and starting a new site. I am now Harshbarger Strings and the site is under construction at www.harshstrings.com

On to mandolin stuff. Thus far I have been a very low tech one off builder. I would draw/design something, cut it out, shape by hand, and glue it together. In the last year and half I have built a copy carver for roughing and am creating a more repeatable efficient process through the use of jigs and fixtures. It's been rather time consuming. So far I have set up to build one model of mandolin and two flat top guitar models. The mandolin model is my design inspired by the Monteleone Grand Artist. I've always been more interested in the unique and original than the classic and traditional so my F-5 inspired Copperhead hasn't been a priority. I don't know what the future holds for the Copperhead, but I haven't given up on the possibility of setting up to build more in the future. As Andy mentioned I've called these first few open scroll models Crows, but I have settled on the name Ophelia moving forward. I think it makes a nice pairing with my 2-point model named Orpheus. Besides who doesn't love The Band?

I'm going to try to follow this post with some pictures of Ophelia models. The photos are just from my phone as I haven't had professional shots taken of this model yet. I'm still working on getting my new jason@harshstrings.com address up and running, but you can reach me at jasonharsh@gmail.com

Thanks and happy pickin!

[jasonharsh]

Here's a quick and dirty video from adizz playing his Ophelia

[Mickey King]

I loved this one!

[Ivan Kelsall]

I love the Copperhead mandolin design. Here's one that belonged to one of our French Cafe members,Eric Deneve - it has my all time favourite fingerboard inlay - so elegant,
Ivan

[Ed Goist]

Thanks to Scott's assistance, the name of the Social Group for owners and fans of Jason's mandolins has been changed to Harshbarger Strings. You can find it here.

Additionally, I have edited the first post in the Information about... discussion thread of that social group so it reflects the new business name as well as Jason's updated contact information. For those interested, I have also included a link to the Harshbarger Strings Facebook page.

[jasonharsh]

A hearty thanks to both Ed and Scott!