*I just posted this on "Builders and Repair" but I'm not sure if that's the right place?*
I'm a looooong time MandoCafe ghost, but I've just been hanging out in the corner making that one cup of coffee last since about 1997
Being a bear of very little brain and limited dexterity, I've never had anything to contribute, so this will be my first post. Since I started playing, 21 years ago (you wouldn't know it if you heard me - my playing still has the youthful sheen of the clueless) I had a Tanglewood A-style forever, then picked up a 1939 Gibson A00 a little under 3 years ago.
Now, the Gibson, I love. We met by accident in Forsyths (Manchester, UK) and I fell for the tone straight away: rich, mellow and dark. It's no looker and structurally it has seen better days - so we have this in common
However, there are drawbacks: it's quite hard work to play at any kind of pace - and my left hand is in seriously bad shape (years of Judo, motorcycling and general clumsiness have filled it with fractures, scar tissue and arthritis). A couple of months' intense practice pre a Simon Mayor tutorial (5-stars for that, by the way, lovely chap and a great teacher. Plays alright, too) led me into a bout of tendonitis, just to top it off.
Ouch.
Also, the A00 ain't loud, and at the time I was playing in an ensemble alongside a very talented mandolinist who had the confidence to play her Kentucky F-style hard and I have to tell you, that is a *loud* mandolin. In a good way. (Also, it allowed me to hide behind her during the difficult bits )
I've found plenty of value on here over the years, and had all my questions answered without even having to ask, until I came to this point -
"What now? - I want a sweet, full sounding mandolin - not too bright - but loud enough to cut it in an orchestra without crippling my crumpled left mitt."
To cut a long story less-long, I scoured the length of the country. I'm no connoisseur, but I have been moving in mandocircles for a long time and I know a good 'un when I find one. So I played hundreds of mandolins from £400 to £6000+ (for reference only at the top end, you understand ) (although, it's worth labouring the point that expensiver isn't always betterer. Trust your ears, and your fingertips, say I).
Nothing hit the mark. A few came close, but they weren't *it*.
I remembered meeting a mandolin maker named Paul Shippey very many years ago, who had just been setting out on his own. At the time, I tried a couple of his instruments and was very impressed, but as a penniless student, these were pipe dreams. I decided to look him up on th'directory and lo and behold he had a website and everything.
I sent him an email and soon Gibson A00 and I were travelling by KTM to Weston-Super-Mare where I enjoyed an enormously warm welcome from Paul who had remained every bit as charming, sincere and personable as I had recollected.
Paul listened to my tale, and suffered an audience with my Gibson, then had me try one of his own part-finished models to see what sort of sounds I could make with it.
He was even polite enough to not visibly wince
He kept the Gibson overnight for measurements (the neck profile is *just right* for me) and it turns out that it was within a whisker of his own pattern anyway. We talked woods, and of our shared love of all things British (nothing jingoistic, just gratitude for our heritage and resources), then off I dashed to my home in the hills of the Narth.
A few weeks later, I wired Paul my deposit and told him to take his time as I would need a while to raise the full price of the instrument.
As it happens, just about a year after out first meeting, I got en email from Paul asking what sort of a finish I would like! How exciting! I literally didn't sleep for 2 days. By way of return, I sent Paul a few photographs of various instruments with finishes I like, even though "helpfully" enough, they were all rather different to each other. I also said that I was going to leave the final decision to Paul's good judgement, and that I didn't want to see it until it was ready.
Well, a few days ago I got back from Weston with my brand new Paul Shippey A5, and I am happy to report that the brief has been more than matched
What Paul has managed by craft and intuition is absolutely tremendous. The look, sound and feel of this mandolin could not be closer to what I wanted, despite my garbled and unintelligible descriptions. The quality of the finish and the detailing is immense - and it even smells fantastic!
As for the sound? - it's everything I could want. Rings like a bell, sustain for days, rich harmonics through the length of the perfectly-intonated fingerboard and so, so responsive.
Most amazingly, though, it opens up most when I play like me. By that, I mean that I can knock out a bluegrass lick or a Celtic reel and (tonally) it sounds just great, but when I start to play my repertoire, my way (I lean towards airs, classical and jazz standards), that's when it really starts to sing.
It's like magic.
5 days in and apart from the strings taking a beating, my left hand feels fine (relatively). I've had to learn to relax my Gibson Death-Grip, but the tendonitis seems to be at low ebb despite the many sleepless hours I've spent like admiring my new precious, like a grotesquely oversized Gollum
In short, this mandolin has given my playing a new lease of life, and extended the expiry date of my moribund left-mitt. It's crazy to think that for the same money as I could pay in a shop for a Chinese factory instrument - or a third of the price of a US-made one-trick bluegrass cannon - I've got a handmade instrument, carved and tuned back and top, in beautiful British woods, that sounds like me and fits like I grew up with it.
I can honestly say that I would not change even the smallest detail of my Shippey A5. Despite being a brute, I have played Monteleones, D'Aquistos and even a Loar F5 (at the late lamented Mandolin Bros as-was). I've played Eastmans, Capeks, Breedloves and a host of other fantastic factory-and-artisan made instruments.
Would I swap my Shippey A5 for any of them, as an instrument? - no.
And if that don't make it the Best Mandolin In The World, then what would? - only if I learned to play it properly!
I may yet get up the nerve to post some videos so you can hear it (in which case - no judging! I'm shy!).
For now you can see in instrument in question here:
http://shippeymandolins.tumblr.com
https://www.facebook.com/shippeymandolins/
http://paulshippey.co.uk
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