Apitius Grand Classic in bound

[Denman John]

Hey all,

Last weekend my wife and I decided to upgrade our son's mandolin and pulled the trigger on an Apitius Grand Classic. We won't be getting to it until at least next weekend where we will be picking it up at a friend's house down in states. In the meantime, is anyone playing an Apitius or has played one and wants to comment on it? What strings worked best for you?

Although Oliver Apitius is Canadian, I've never seen one in the flesh and only have recordings and videos to go by. We're excited from what heard and look forward to getting the mandolin in hand. I'm told the mandolin sounds very similar to this:



I've done searches,but there hasn't been very much recent discussion here on the Cafe regarding Apitius. Any thoughts?

Regards
John

[darylcrisp]

every Apitius I've heard sounds fantastic.
interested to see what you think when you get it in hand, definitely give us a review and some pictures.

d

[Givson]

I have an older (1993) Apitius F5 with European spruce top and European maple back. It is a very warm and sweet sounding instrument, with lots of overtones. The carving of the top and back is very beautiful. Oliver is a talented builder and I think you will be very happy with your Apitius. I use D'Addario J74 strings on my Apitius.

[dscullin]

I have a 1998 Grand Artist which I love. It "popped" the first time I played it. I also use D'Addario J74's. It has a crisp, penetrating sound on the treble side and a warm, full sound on the bass end. Oliver Apitius stopped building for several years but reopened his shop a year or so ago. You son will love his new axe!

[Steve Ostrander]

I just played a Grand Classic at Elderly about an hour ago. I thought it was very good.

[Demetrius]

Check out Ashley Broder she plays one, and her tone is amazing as far as Im concerned.
They seem to have a good partnership going. Check out this video of Ash and her Apitius mandolin.
It is this video that has me really leaning toward an Apitius myself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAt_Ht3HxR0

[Spencer]

I played one at Elderly years ago, and at the time it was the best they had in the store, a fine mandolin in all respects. I'm betting you will like it a lot.

Spencer

[Denman John]

Thanks everyone for their comments. My son, Tai, is looking for something with more treble/cut in it and I'm glad to hear that this might be a good choice for him. The Ashley Broder video was excellent and her mandolin/playing sounded great. Have you checked out the "Recordings" section on Oliver's website? http://www.apitiusmandolins.com/recordings.html Great picking and sounding instruments. Here are a couple of pictures that the seller sent along to tide us over until it arrives.





Here is a video of Tai playing from a couple of weeks ago. Although we have been thinking about it for a while, it was shortly after this that we decided to look seriously into mandolin options. Feeling fortunate that we found this one and hope it fits the ticket!

[DataNick]

There's a mando guy here in SoCal (San Diego area) who has an Apitus F5 from I think 2004 if memory serves me correctly. I got to play it at one of the monthly bluegrass club jam/meetings about a year or so ago. My impressions: very well made, top quality mandolin in the areas of fit and finish. Feel, responsiveness and tonal characteriastics to me where comparable to a "good" Gibson...YMMV

[Denman John]

Thanks DataNick for chiming in. It was Jake Joliff's Gibson Sam Bush that pushed it over the edge. Although my son's current mandolin is really nice playing and sounding, the E string just doesn't have the power and crispness he wants when playing in loud situations ~ and he's finding himself in these situations more and more. We started looking and listening at Wintergrass this Feb. as there were a lot of nice mandolins all over the place. In a large gathering like that, there are certain mandolins that stand out and above for tone and volume. Hopefully this mandolin will be a step up in the right direction.

It's started it's trans~continental journey today and should be in Washington state by the end of Thursday ~ wish I was able to take the time off and do a nice road trip to go pick it up...

[Nick Gellie]

It takes a good builder to build a Red Spruce top that produces bright crisp at the same time nicely rounded responsive E strings. I have listened to sound clips of Apitius F5s. They are up there with the best.

[Denman John]

The mandolin has arrived at my friends place in Washington state and we are planning on heading out tonight. We'll probably sleep at the ferry terminal tonight in Nanaimo and catch the 1st ferry off Vancouver Island in the morning. The idea is to try and tie some camping in as well as pick up the mandolin this weekend.

ROAD~TRIP!

[darylcrisp]

The mandolin has arrived at my friends place in Washington state and we are planning on heading out tonight. We'll probably sleep at the ferry terminal tonight in Nanaimo and catch the 1st ferry off Vancouver Island in the morning. The idea is to try and tie some camping in as well as pick up the mandolin this weekend.

ROAD~TRIP!

sounds like a great trip,ferry crossing, an Apitius, camping, just doesn't get much better than this
I've been excited watching this thread for its arrival
we need a video from Tai

d

[Denman John]

Loading up the truck and should be heading out pretty soon. We should meet up with the mandolin around lunchtime/mid afternoon tomorrow. Excited!!!

[Demetrius]

Wow what a rush!!!!!!! Very happy for you guys, that mandolin deserves lots of play...

[Denman John]

Back I cell phone range again ... It's a keeper!

[darylcrisp]

we need pictures John, and a video of Tai woodshedding on it. I know you need time to get home, but definitely feed the bears here.

d

[Denman John]

Wow ~ what a whirlwind trip! I had everything covered for the weekend and got home fairly early Thursday afternoon to have some time to pack and get organized for the weekend. Shortly after I got home, there was a fire on the island that I had to respond to and only had about 45mins afterwards to shower and catch the last ferry off our island. Thankfully my lovely wife picked up the slack and had everything ready for when I got back. We made the last ferry off our island and made our way down to Nanaimo to catch the 5:15am ferry to the mainland. As you can probably imagine, it wasn't the most restful night/sleep for everyone.

We found ourselves in Monroe, WA around 10:30am and had some breakfast and organized a meeting place in Gold Bar with our friends for 12pm. From there we went east on hwy 2 towards Stevens Pass, and took a dirt road for about 10 miles into the mountains of a National Forest. These are their stomping grounds, so they knew where to go. We got a campsite all to ourselves right on a river that reminds you of some Brad Pitt movie. Beautiful, awesome and inspiring ~ and all for free! That impressed me from a visitor's point of view!

After setting up camp, it came time to opening up the box. Although I had dropped a lot of hints, Tai still had no idea there was a mandolin involved with this trip. He knew I had e-mailed about the mandolin earlier and we had watched and listened to as many Apitius' as we could find on the internet. I showed him the updated listing that had it as sold and that was about it. He mentioned it a few times that it was too bad we missed out on it, as he really liked it. I show him a lot of mandolins on the web, although he's more into playing them,but Apitius caught his attention.

When he saw the box, I think he knew what it was. It was really well packed and came with all the original documentation in the case. I'll let the video show from there ...



It came with light strings and shortly after the video we changed them to EJ74's as recommended. What a boost it gave to an already wonderful sounding mando!

The backstory on this mandolin from what I can gather is that Oliver Apitius brought this mandolin to Merlfest in '94 as his personal, demo mandolin and even Emory Lester played it on stage. The owner was impressed enough that he wanted that particular mandolin, but Oliver didn't want to give it up until he could replace it - 18 months later. Elderly was his dealer in the US, so the owner put in an order for the exact same mandolin and he got this mandolin when Oliver caught up with his backlog. The owner was much more of a guitar player and didn't really play mandolin much after acquiring it, as the condition tells. It was described as "essential brand new" and it is. There is almost no fret wear on this 22 year old mandolin.

In regards to the tone, it's a whole new level ~ the way a mandolin should sound to my ears ~ big open woody tone with an almost hollow sound and ringing trebles. Push it and it just gets louder without breaking up. With the medium strings it brings everything out even more. It was fun watching Tai adapt his playing style over the weekend to adjust to the new mando. It just has more of everything compared to what we have played in the past and happily exceeded my/our expectations. This mandolin will be around for a long time to come!

[DataNick]

Congrats!

Tai should truly be a "happy camper" for years to come!

[darylcrisp]

simply excellent John!

Tai is a lucky young fellow, first for having a dad like you, second for having an Apitius.

Have Tai come back on every so often and show us a new video-that'd be awesome.

d

[Atlanta Mando Mike]

There are very few things as exciting as getting that next level mandolin. That don't want to put it down feeling will hopefully give his playing a boost to the next level as well. He is at such a prime age to learn and improve at an exponentially faster tempo than we adults can - exciting times!!!

[ollaimh]

i played an apitius A body with two points, at the twelveth frett a decade ago. one of the best sounding mandolins i have ever heard or played. lovely apointments as well.

[Demetrius]

I love this thread....

[Denman John]

Thanks for the responses and kind words. This mandolin is incredible and just keeps getting better ~ or maybe we're getting to know the instrument better and getting the tone we want out of it is becoming more familiar. The nut is 1 3/16" and feels so comfortable under the fingers.

Atlanta Mike: Yeah, kids are amazing! I started playing way too late, but kids are like sponges and suck everything up. By the time he was 10, he was playing better than me. He plays a lot (Contra Dance Band, open mics, gigs, fiddle jams, festivals, lessons, busking ...), and it felt like the right time to upgrade his mandolin as he's ready for it. He also plays guitar, fiddle and bass.

As mentioned earlier, we started seriously looking around at mandolins around the time of Wintergrass. We got to hear, see and play some wonderful instruments but came back even more confused. Tai mentioned that it would be nice to have something made in Canada, so that helped us narrow down the list a bit. The primary candidates were Apitius, Sawchyn and Heiden. The Apitius came along and presented itself at the right time and we are so thankful for that. I would say it's more at the Nugget end of the spectrum sound wise. I'm so glad that Oliver's building again so that more people can experience and enjoy his instruments. They are truly world class as is the builder!

[Denman John]

Saw a couple of recent posts regarding Apitius mandolins and thought I'd update this a bit. After 4 months of daily play, it's still more than we ever expected. Such a great tone that can fit in multiple genres. I'd love to play and hear that one that's at Carter's right now. Anyone had a chance to play the Yorkville model yet?

Here's a video from last night shot with an iPhone ... still probably better than I could describe it with justice