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Thread: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

  1. #1
    Registered User Jozef's Avatar
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    Default Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    I fell in love with this mandola.

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

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  3. #2
    Registered User Glassweb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    can't really determine the actual sound of the mandola due to the acoustics of the room, but the playing is superb!

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  5. #3
    Registered User Jozef's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Hello, maybe this is a more realistic sound.

    https://www.facebook.com/vanamandoli...type=2&theater

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  7. #4

    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by Jozef View Post
    Hello, maybe this is a more realistic sound.

    https://www.facebook.com/vanamandoli...type=2&theater
    That is marvelous Jozef!! Great sounding mandola and playing as well. What piece of music is that?
    thank you!!

    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL

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  9. #5
    Registered User Jozef's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by lenf12 View Post
    That is marvelous Jozef!! Great sounding mandola and playing as well. What piece of music is that?
    thank you!!

    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL
    Thanks, Len - both are my own compositions for mandola.

  10. #6
    Registered User William Smith's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    That is one mighty fine toned Mandola! Nicely played! Vana sure did a fine build! I'm trying to get a bit better with my 24 Gibson TL-Dola conversion by Vessel and that low C messes me up after 20+ years on the mandolin!

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  12. #7

    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    I had to have another listen.... Good stuff!! I need to play my mandola more.

    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL

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  14. #8
    Registered User Glassweb's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by Jozef View Post
    Hello, maybe this is a more realistic sound.

    https://www.facebook.com/vanamandoli...type=2&theater
    Thanks for the redux! The mandola sounds great and the playing even better... beautiful compositions superbly played...

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  16. #9
    Registered User Troy Harris's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    I have a great deal of respect for the immense amount of research and skilled craftsmanship that Mira Vana devotes to mandolin making. I thought it noteworthy to post photos of his recently finished H-5.
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  18. #10
    Registered User William Smith's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    That is a gorgeous Mandola Troy! These really never make it here to the states for sale do they? I don't believe I've ever seen a used one "F-5/H-5" for sale anywhere even in the classified section? It helps that he can play really well-he puts serious pride in his builds that I've only had the pleasure of looking at through photos!

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  20. #11
    Registered User Jan Skovajsa's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Troy, thanks for sharing the pictures! I appreciate the Loar-like finish of the mandola and it's beautiful colouring. It's hard to capture the real colour-tones of the instrument in a picture. In reality the color-tones remind of 1924 Lloyd Loar signed instruments I've seen.

    I had an opportunity to try this particular Vana H-5 at Miroslav's workshop when it was finished. Personally speaking I was never a big fan of mandola though I had opportunity to play really good ones including two Lloyd Loar H-5 that were in the possession of David Grisman. To my surprise this one was completely different. It's perfectly balanced instrument with high dynamic range and beautiful, concrete tone. The C string behaves the same as the G, D and A. It was incredibly playable with no buzz anywhere. It worked well as a solo instrument as well as in a band situation. Miroslav had a few good Gibson mandolins (including the best Derrington F5 MM I've ever tried) and well-selected Martin guitars in his workshop. This mandola killed them all both in accompaniment and solo (!) playing. Experience of playing this instrument completely changed my attitude to mandola as a musical instrument. I'm sure Jozef will upload more videos of this significant mandola soon.
    Last edited by Jan Skovajsa; Sep-03-2019 at 7:22am.

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  22. #12
    Registered User Jan Skovajsa's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Miroslav "Mira" Vana is a researcher, an acoustic engineer in the best sense of the word who has spent incredible amount of time on research of the Lloyd Loar sound and construction as well as on restoration of mainly pre-war Gibson mandolins that he focus on. Therefore the actual amount of the instruments he has built is limited.

    The owners usually keep Vana instruments for the lifetime and, therefore, they are rarely seen in the Classifiers. I've been following his work for 15+years and I am aware of a very few people who sold some of his instruments.

    As far as I know Miroslav plans to have a representation in the US. At this point in time the best way is to make a trip to Europe and to visit him in his workshop that is located one hour north from Prague. You can also visit his website: http://www.vanamandolins.com and follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanamandolins/


    Quote Originally Posted by William Smith View Post
    That is a gorgeous Mandola Troy! These really never make it here to the states for sale do they? I don't believe I've ever seen a used one "F-5/H-5" for sale anywhere even in the classified section? It helps that he can play really well-he puts serious pride in his builds that I've only had the pleasure of looking at through photos!
    Last edited by Jan Skovajsa; Sep-03-2019 at 7:07am.

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  24. #13
    Expert on my own opinion Bogle's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Troy--thank you for posting the Vana H-5 photos.....elegant and Loar-like, to be sure!

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  26. #14
    Registered User Jozef's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Hello, since the sound quality wasn't good, I recorded the song again. The sound was recorded separately on Panasonic Recorder RR-US511 that was located 100 cm in front of me. No EQ or sound filters were applied.

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

    https://www.facebook.com/vanamandolins/

  27. #15
    Registered User Jozef's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by Jozef View Post
    I fell in love with this mandola.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncKueKHKcOE
    Hello, since the sound quality wasn't good, I recorded the song again. The sound was recorded separately on Panasonic Recorder RR-US511 that was located 100 cm in front of me. No EQ or sound filters were applied.

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

    https://www.facebook.com/vanamandolins/

  28. #16
    Registered User Jan Skovajsa's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great New Váňa H-5 Mandola

    Just adding a direct view link for Jozef's video so that you don't need to leave the forum ;-)


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