What's your pick and why? Thanks in advance!
What's your pick and why? Thanks in advance!
I have played both. This would be a very difficult decision. Every Collings I have played was very precise in terms of tone and feel. The Mowry Fs I have played less so, but very solid. I would place the Mowry somewhere between the tone of an Ellis and Collings. I am not sure how to put that in words. Mowry is strong, more in the modern frame of mind. Personally I would side with a Mowry when looking at F5s, but that is more the tone I prefer. Collings fit and finish is perfect. Mowry is close, but more human.
Tony Huber
1930 Martin Style C #14783
2011 Mowry GOM
2013 Hester F4 #31
2014 Ellis F5 #322
2017 Nyberg Mandola #172
Which one sounds best to you?
Not all the clams are at the beach
Arrow Manouche
Arrow Jazzbo
Arrow G
Clark 2 point
Gibson F5L
Gibson A-4
Ratliff CountryBoy A
It's a close call. I think maybe the Mowry sounds better, but the collings plays better. However, by 'better' I might just mean 'different'. I don't think I can go wrong with either choice; they both feel good. I will gladly accept donations so that I can purchase both . In the meantime, I look forward to reading the peanut gallery debate.
Just so you know, the Mowrys don't usually have adjustable truss rods (at least not the mandolins). I owned a mandolin (not a Mowry) without a truss rod which developed an issue. While it had carbon fiber rods in the neck, the neck began to twist and things got a bit ugly.
I'm very fortunate to have a luthier who is quite used to dealing with these issues, but I'm a bit reticent to buy anything now without an adjustable rod.
Twisting can happen in an adjustable truss rod just as much as a carbon fiber truss rod. In fact, I'd gander a CF truss rod has less chance of twisting if installed properly.
Isabel Mandolins
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arche...50923841658006
Get both of them, one for the right ear, one for the other. One day you'll prefer the sound of one, another day the sound of the other. Ears are fickle, especially old ones.
John A. Karsemeyer
Right. And Andrew is nothing, if not extremely careful in his wood selection, (and everything else).That's more to do with wood selection than anything else.
Bill
IM(NS)HO
1924 Gibson A Snakehead
2005 National RM-1
2007 Hester A5
2009 Passernig A5
2015 Black A2-z
2010 Black GBOM
2017 Poe Scout
2014 Smart F-Style Mandola
2018 Vessel TM5
2019 Hogan F5
Andrew Mowry
Mowry Stringed Instruments
http://mowrystrings.com
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Sylvan Music in Santa Cruz has a great sounding Mowry F5. I kept going back and playing it because it sounded so good all the way up and down the fingerboard. ( I get above the octave a lot.) My problem was the neck/fingerboard. They were just not do-able for me. I figured a new neck would fix the problem but the mandolin is already way over $4K and what ever the maker, AM, would charge over that to replace the neck made it not possible to consider.
Billy Packard
Gilchrist A3, 1993
Stiver Fern, 1990
Weber Fern, 2007
Gibson F4 Hybrid #1, D. Harvey 2009
Gibson 1923 A2
Numerous wonderful guitars
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