Nyberg Mandola

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For the past two years my musical journey has focused on learning the bass to play in a number of settings. For the past two weeks, spending a lot of time at home with our new rescue pup, I have been putting the mandolin family back on track. Because our rescue pup is very skittish, I have been playing my Mowry GOM (Guitar shaped Octvave Mandolin) being in a lower register. Due to an accident with the Mowry that resulted in her being placed at Carter Vintage for some cosmetic repairs, out comes the Nyberg mandola. This is an awesome little baby, but a bit of a weird duck. I asked that he put the larger carved onion shaped body, I think used for the bouzouki, with the short neck of the mandola which gives a deep resonant sound, but is easy for my playing style. We went with padauk wood with is red and brown striped and sounds much like fine Cuban mahogany, at least to my ears. Like most Cafe builders, Lawrence Nyberg was a pleasure to work with. His workmanship is outstanding. I could not be more pleased.
In the past when playing this mandola, I tended to focus on folk, Irish and Gypsy music, I guess assuming that this lovely would not be very suited to bluegrass. Lately I have been playing in a band with a great mandolin player and jumped into some grass with this Nyberg. I have to say an onion shaped mandola feels weird in my hands playing grass. Kind of like a bag pipe playing Mozart. But, play she did. Not only play but excel. She sounded awesome. The Nyberg has very clean and strong tone. And while I was not playing in a band setting, I don't think would have trouble cutting in a jam. I plan to take this love next Tuesday to an eclectic jam and see how she accounts for herself.
I will post some pictures as soon as they upload.

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Here are some pictures taken of the Nyberg this morning.

[Markkunkel]

What a GREAT story! I had one of Lawrence's short-scale citterns many years and many instruments ago, and it is on my short list of the "wish I hadn't let that one get away." He does such beautiful classy work that manages at once to be exceptional and understated. Hope this one brings you many more years of playing in all kinds of venues and all kinds of genres.

And it's always nice to see instrument pictures in which there are those tell-tale smudges on the fingerboard that reflect hours of time spent under the fingers!

Enjoy!

Mark

[J.C. Bryant]

Great story. I wish I had the ability, even though I have a great mandola, to fit into a bluegrass setting with a mandola. I love the sound of the mandola and the mandolin. I think (just my opinion) they both sound great when played in fiddle tunes to a much slower tempo than the common breakneck speeds. Sounds like rationalization, but the music of fiddle tunes is sometimes lost to the speed. Enjoyed your mandola story. thanks.