I recently purchased a used Ellis A5 and fell in love with the tone of it. Because of an old left hand injury, I needed to get the neck reshaped to make it work for me. I contacted Ellis Mandolins to see if there was room between the back of the neck and trussrod to do some reshaping, and Tom Ellis invited me to pay a visit to the shop so he could do the work for me.
I found some cheap Southwest tickets to Austin, and arrived there on a Monday morning in the middle of July. Tom gave me a tour of the shop (an amazing place) and then sat down with the mandolin and a file and started working on it.
To keep me occupied while he worked, he brought out an assortment of incredible mandolins for me to sample while he worked. A couple Pava A5s, a Pava oval, his personal Ellis F5 with the heron/crane inlay, a old Nugget A5. a 25 Gibson F5. Needless to say, I was in mando heaven. My personal favorite was Tom’s own Ellis. What a voice! I had never played a Pava before, and they were a real treat. One of the Pavas was the brown-face A5 that’s at the Music Emporium. A great mandolin. Pava was at NAMM in Nashville so I didn’t get to meet her.
Later that afternoon, I got to play the reworked neck and Tom fine-tuned the shape for me. I played it again for an hour or so to make sure it was going to work while Tom attended to shop details. Then he stained it and put a coat of TruOil on it. So much nicer than the speed neck look. If you look closely, you can see that works been done, but you won't see it from a couple feet away.
The next morning he put another coat of TruOil on and then it was off to Fiddler’s Green.
What a cool shop that is. The standouts for me were the Passernig mandola that is everything a mandola should be. A great C string. Tone everywhere. The Pava F5 they have there kicks some serious butt—loud with great tone everywhere. The Collings MF5 is very punchy and loud with great midrange. The Pono octaves were really nice. The National was LOUD! I found the Kentucky KM900 to be the best of the imports—loud and barky but a little one-dimensional after hearing the Austin makers.
Tuesday night Tom invited some great players over and we had one of the best jams I’ve been in for a long time. Got to meet Mark Seale and play his Gilchrist F5 and Monteleone A style. Just a fantastic time with some exceptional music being played by everyone. Caught the cheap red-eye flight out early Wednesday morning.
All I can say is Tom Ellis gives world-class customer service, and he has the most thoughtful approach to building of anyone I’ve been around. Every detail has been thought out to the furthest degree. It was so inspiring just being around the shop and the staff he has. Every one was so friendly and nice.
The shop was filled with rough-carved mandolin tops and backs, rough-carved necks, headstock overlays with inlays, jigs for everything. A top, back, and neck may sit there for 6-12 months before being used. If the wood is going to do anything funky, it’s going to show up before it ever gets used. Sap pockets and defects will show up during the rough carving so there's never a hold up because of a defect in tops or backs. There's plenty to choose from.
My only regret is not being able to talk Tom out of his personal Ellis F5, but then a lot of mandolin players in Austin are after that mandolin. #400 with the hummingbird inlay was sent to the finisher before I got there, so I didn’t get to see that one in person. I did get to see the bluebonnet inlay.
I’m thrilled with this Ellis A5 I have and the neck is a dream to play now. I’ll post some videos of it sometime soon. I didn’t shoot a bunch of pictures in the shop. I was just so happy to be there and to have a world-class luthier treating me like I was the most important mandolin player in the world. I smile every time I play this Ellis mandolin.
I keep telling myself I don’t need an Ellis F5, but there’s less and less conviction in those words.
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