This is Steve Carlson, the man that founded Flatiron Mandolins, worked for Gibson for 6 years, now owns Zeta Violins. He told me the last time he brought a mandolin to NAMM was 28 years ago. That string has now been broken. My meeting today with him was to be the first person outside of Zeta to see the new line of mandolins he's building. They are under the Zeta brand name and the model will be known as "The Stage."
First up, A models, with F models already in early stages of production. I don't want to quote exactly how many but about two models per week initially so you can do the math and see that they are going to be producing a fair volume and then looking to grow from that point forward.
These are primarily acoustic instruments ready to plug in and be stage ready. While the two prototypes I played sounded very good acoustically and had exceptional finish work, frets, some really classy vintage arrow tuners, it's plugged in where I think they shine based on my hour plus with the two he had along, and that is the point of them. The electronics are all produced in-house and are unique, as is the bridge. It sounded amplified just like it did acoustic, but responded well to all of the possibilities the amplifier we were using had available to it Also unique is a tool to do on the fly adjustments from the bridge to lower and raise action without having to detune.
Now, I know how this works. You have lots of questions, and so do I, and didn't get them all answered. I'm going to let Steve be the person that fields those questions and an official news release will be forthcoming, possibly early next week. We're going to meet late tomorrow to discuss this more, and I'm working with someone outside the Cafe to perform an in-depth video review. He's tied up at the show through tomorrow evening late.
The point of this is to announce that mandolins are once again being produced in Belgrade, Montana under Steve Carlson, and you'll be surprised that a good many of the people that worked for him during his Flatiron and Gibson tenure have continued working for him various roles since.
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