What do you consider to to be the best recorded mandolin tone?

[Shelby Eicher]

I have several that I consider to be top mandolin recordings. The player, mic, preamp all play big rolls. What are your top recorded mandolin recordings. I'm not interested in style, type of music, what you like, genre, etc. What is the best recorded mandolin sound? It all about tone.

[jmagill]

1. John Reischman's Loar on his CD, Road Trip with John Miller.
2. Mike Marshall's Loar on his CD, Into the Cauldron with Chris Thile.

1. For an oval-hole sound, Robin Bullock's 1921 A-model on his new CD of Bach Cello Suites transcribed for mandolin.

[roberto]

McCoury on Noam plays Kenny plays Bill

[Atlanta Mando Mike]

Grisman on Garcia/Grisman
Flinner on Lattitude and Traveling Roots
Steffey on AKUS So Long, So Wrong and Grateful

[mcgroup53]

Reischman on The North Shore on Up In The Woods. Hell, all of UITW. Hell more, anything John's ever recorded. The master of tone, taste and timing.

[Mandoplumb]

Dempsey Young's Hutto on anything he recorded.

[Denny Gies]

Anyone who plays better than I do, and that's a bunch of folks.

[Tobin]

I have to agree that Reischman's tone is top-notch. How much of it is his Loar versus his particular style of playing, I dunno. But he always sounds great.

It's really difficult to judge tone as a stand-alone concept. It is very contextual, and depends on the tune being played, the player's technique, the recording equipment, the room acoustics, and a million other factors. Sometimes even the best Loar will sound like a dog (not to be confused with a Dawg) if it's in the wrong hands, playing music that's not well-suited to it, and with bad acoustics. All the stars have to align for the really good tone to come out and be heard.

Here's one recording that I think captures some wonderful mandolin tone. While he is not usually mentioned here as one of the top favorites for mandolin tone, I think this particular recording brings out some very nice traditional tone goodness.

[Steve Roberts]

Tony Williamson's Lloyd Loar Mandolins CD. He plays 13 Loars and Ferns, all except Dawg's Crusher recorded under identical conditions with new EXP74 strings. Very interesting to hear the sound differences-

http://www.mandolincentral.com/lloyd-loar-cd/

NFI.

[FLATROCK HILL]

The Reischman stuff that's already been mentioned is fantastic. One of my favorite moments in a mandolin recording though, is Butch Baldassari doing 'My Last Days on Earth'. The talent, the tone, the whole aura of a live performance. That has it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFolwEpA2-U

[Fretbear]

Two from very different places and times.

Ronnie McCoury on (all the cuts on) "The Mountain"

The Boss on "Master of Bluegrass"

I was always delighted that Bill cut that album when he did, as if to say:

"Yes, there has been a lot of water under the bridge, and there are an uncountable number of Bluegrass mandolin players (all inspired by me) but NO ONE can touch me on MY chosen instrument playing MY music in MY style....."

Very Bill........

[AlanN]

Dempsey Young's Hutto on anything he recorded.

+1

particularly the tune Sawmill Road off January Rain...thick and chewy.

[JeffD]

Any such list that does not include Avi Avital or Jacob Reuven and that Kerman mandolin, is just "no part of nuthin".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beq7ZqXLvUE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_hTMelx8vo


What I go for is consistent great tone across the board - in high notes, low notes, loud playing, soft playing, long notes, short notes.

[fentonjames]

Wow, so many. I'm partial to Sam Bush and David Grisman. Pretty much every thing they've done has been awesome. If I had to pick one, it would be this, based on variety of material and the use of historical instruments.

[AlanN]

This, I fear, is going to run the risk of 'my fave picker/recording is..."; but so it goes.

Another tone bone has to be some of the Wakefield stuff on The Kitchen Tapes; some of that picking just resonates so well off the coffee maker and linoleum flooring.

[UsuallyPickin]

Tone likes and dislikes are, after all, a matter of taste. The Grisman Rice recording Tone Poems is an excellent work to compare instruments in the hands of a master player. John Reischman can certainly get the best out of his instrument as can Mike Marshall. Sam Bush with an, IMO, different approach and tone rings Hoss like a bell. Ronnie McCoury does an excellent job on Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe. I would like to add Jethro Burns on " Playing it Straight". Adding his apprentice Don Stiernberg on Swing 220. Going on from here would be easy. But I won't. R/

[roysboy]

Not to sound like I'm pandering ...but I love ALL the tones ( and the great music ) from Shelby's record 'The Eichers' and was so enamoured by the mandos I had to e-mail him to get more info . ....he replied immediately.

Any instrument Chris Thile plays seems to co-operate whole-heatedly with him in terms of dynamics. I'm always impressed by how he finds the best/right tone for what he's trying to say .

[Willie Poole]

For me it is Dempsey`s Hutto, and a close second if Joe Walsh`s Gil A model....It don`t get any better than those two, I don`t care who or what they are playing...Now of course we all like something different..DON`T WE?

Willie

[JeffD]

I do think we could in theory come to an agreement as to the top five or ten recordings, on the criteria that these top ten highlight the best mandolin tone and perhaps the best recording of it.

Whether this thread will do that I don't have a clue.

[foldedpath]

Hard to single out just one example, but I'd go for the Mike Marshall and Chris Thile "Live Duets" album. Because it's live, it was recorded in a fairly basic way with (presumably) just a couple of small condenser mics, and possibly a touch of added reverb or room mic. The two instruments come across in a very honest way. And of course the instruments themselves are fabulous examples, being played by world-class musicians.

The trouble with analyzing "tone" in a recording, is that it's very common to use compression in the mix, and then some more again in the mastering phase. That can have a major impact on the sound of any acoustic instrument. This particular live recording has some compression but it's not overdone.

[Jr Brown]

Chris Thiles's Dude!

[mandroid]

FWIW, I liked Evan J Marshall's Gil.. Live .. Bought a CD @ the concert ..

[GuyIncognito]

1. John Reischman's Loar on his CD, Road Trip with John Miller.
2. Mike Marshall's Loar on his CD, Into the Cauldron with Chris Thile.

1. For an oval-hole sound, Robin Bullock's 1921 A-model on his new CD of Bach Cello Suites transcribed for mandolin.

Is robin bullocks album out yet? I've been waiting for it but I don't see any news anywhere or where to buy a copy

[jmagill]

Is robin bullocks album out yet? I've been waiting for it but I don't see any news anywhere or where to buy a copy

Someone PM'd me with this question. Here was my reply:

It's only been out a few weeks, but Robin's local to me and works as one of my staff instructors at the Swannanoa Gathering, so I got an early copy.

It's in my wife's car at the moment, but I believe it's called J.S. Bach: Suites for Mandolin, Vol. 1 and contains the first three Bach cello suites.

Email him at <robinbullock@yahoo.com> and I'm sure he can get a copy to you.

Happy Holidays,
Jim

[jmkatcher]

I agree with Tone Poems, noting that it also makes some pretty marginal mandolins sound great too.