I have an F5 that needs frets and a '24 F2 I traded for with a repaired scroll that was a bit on the ugly side. There aren't many luthiers in my neck of the woods here in Iowa -- well, there's a guy who works on orchestra instruments who is great, but he's not in the re-fretting business.
Both those projects sat on the back burner a goodly long time awaiting my next trip to Nashville, Lawrence or Denver. But then Dale Ludwig's name popped up.
Dale's a mandolin builder and cabinet maker in DeKalb, Ill. I knew of him for building both traditional mandolins as well as some out-there instruments. Somewhere back in my brain is an image of a green mandolin, which are definitely rarities.
Anyway, short story long, I hoped in my SUV Monday with some mandolins for the drive over to DeKalb, which is about 30 miles east of Chicago.
The shop is located on the ground floor of what used to be the Wurlitzer Piano Factory. Dale is a heck of a friendly guy. We sat and chatted for more than an hour. He checked out my two repair projects and a couple of other show-and-tell mandolins, and then was kind enough to walk me around his shop and share some of his work.
Dale had one of his F5s in the shop, his personal baby, which has a neck to die for. One of the best-playing necks I've ever had in my hand. Like butter, as they say. And good tone to boot.
He also had a redwood-topped oval A that is probably the loudest oval I've ever run into. Dale was able to get his hands on some apparently freak redwood from Orcas Island that is a lot lighter than typical redwood. Kind of a "secret sauce" wood.
He also showed me some A and F tops he's working on, his setup for getting tops ready to carve, and a couple of guitars he has in the works.
It's great to have a resource like Dale in easy driving range of my neck of the woods. DeKalb is a whole lot closer than Nashville!
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