pandini owners

[Bill Foss]

I've been thinking of getting an instrument from Gabriele Pandini. Are there any owners out there? How do you like yours? Did you buy it directly from Signore Pandini? I'm looking at one of his Napolitan models. Can I ask what you paid? Grazie!

[August Watters]

Very few of those here in the USA, since Sr. G. Pandini speaks no English. I went to his workshop in Ferrara and met with him, and played several. High quality instruments, obviously, and I've seen quite a few around his region, Emilia Romagna. I found his concert mandolins, like those of many other skilled builders, to be similar in price to Calace ($3k or so).

[Jim Garber]

When Carlo Aonzo offered his mandolin workshop in New York he brought over a few of GP's mandolins. I owned one and it was my main classical instrument for quite a few years. As I recall it was a very robust and strong sounding instrument. It was strung with Dogal Calace medium strings and I never put any other strings on it. Carlo's is one of his earliest made in the 1990s. It is still his main instrument. The few folks I knew of here in the US sold theirs.