"blown away by this mandolin"

[darylcrisp]

well, I just had a few minutes with what is probably going to be the coolest looking,playing, sounding mandolin I've ever had in my hands.

was waiting for me today when I arrived at work, huge thank you to Dennis at TMS(does the guy ever sleep?). I think I emailed him sunday night around 1am about a used specimen he had in shop(I had looked at it a week or two before and immediately zero'd in-but I practiced cyber distancing and quickly closed the website). so I pulled up TMS around 1249am sunday, it was still there! I tried all the mental skills I could muster to build walls, to walk away, to look towards another direction.
the one on the left shoulder said "request a soundclip, that way you can see its not for you and you can truly dismiss this totally". never, ever, never, listen to the one on the left shoulder.
Dennis sent the soundclip around 330am(no, he never sleeps). I listened to it around 4am and of course, it sounded too good. I asked a few more questions but all the answers were high positives. it was over, I was hooked.

I'm really busy with work this week, but i'll get to it soon and send some pics. to stand behind what was in the mandos description, "blown away by this mandolin".

+1 on that.

and to come clean, I wasn't even thinking about any mandolin. since Dec 2019 I've been pretty absorbed with the dark dark side. I set up 2 PRS guitars for 2 teen girls at church, and suddenly, out of nowhere, I wanted something electric. I traded an acoustic for a nice USA PRS, then I got hooked on telecasters, was going to build a partscaster, it never ends.................

but, check out another cool $119 I spent 2 weeks ago, it needed some fretwork, but the pickups sound really good, it plays excellent, feels excellent, and it lives set up with 11's and in Open E, glass slides are its friends.





and the other one that followed me home a month or so back, humbucker in the neck, twisted single in the bridge, vintage blonde

[GDAE]

So what kind of mandolin was it?

[Mandobar]

it very well might be Kevin Brigg's former MT2???????????

[Tom C]

Im confused. Aren't those guitars? Well at least, they have 6 strings.

[pheffernan]

So what kind of mandolin was it?

Reading the tea leaves, I believe it to be this one:

https://themandolinstore.com/product...ron-prototype/

I’m looking forward to daryl’s report. Around 2006, who would have built this Flatiron prototype and with an eye toward producing them where? It doesn’t look like any A4 I ever saw (blonde finish, long neck join, no fretboard extension, etc.) and is more reminiscent of the Breedlove OO’s of that era, but it could have received some special attention from some fine builders at Gibson during that time and might be a heckuva player.

[Caleb]

I’ve got a seafoam green Squier telecaster just like the one in the original post. I also took off the headstock logo. I put on a Fender logo from one of those Etsy stores but it didn’t last. It cracked and came off after a bit. I’m a lousy electric player and really have no business with even a Squier telecaster, but now and then it’s fun to get it out and cranked through a Marshall. But after a few minutes it’ll be out of my system and I’m back to acoustic where I belong.

[FLATROCK HILL]

[darylcrisp]

Heffernan nailed it.

here are some quick messy pics from the work table. i'll do better ones later and a little more indepth info.

light as a feather, haven't weighed it yet. balances very well sitting. 1 1/8" nut width, bone nut.

I do not know what brand tuners these are but they are smooth as silk and hold tune fine. the tuner buttons are something of a white/gray pearl look, really nice looking. rosewood bridge. pretty headstock inlay.

neck profile isn't fat or thin, not rounded or V, its just right for my hands. I never think about it when playing-that's when I know it works for me. rosewood fretboard with probably ebony binding.

very small tiny frets-did I say small....and tiny....lots of flame everywhere. tortoise body and soundhole binding. the neck is just about dead flat. 2 frets need just a touch of leveling, I think 8th and 13th. the action is very low, a 1.2 mm wegan is a snug fit and raises the strings at the 12th. fretting is truly effortless for just about the whole fretboard-no hump or fall off with regards to the neck-just straight.

no radius on the FB, I have found that I can play flat boards fine, and for many reasons really like them.

the tone is full, woody, resonant, and just downright pleasurable. i don't find myself wanting any more of anything with regards to the whole mandolin. I get lost with time when I pick this thing up, i just start exploring all kinds of fingerings and notes all over. its a mandolin that draws you in. sounds really good with different picks(golden gate, pro plek, wegans, charmed life)and the tone reacts really well with the different picks. satin finish.

the story so far: prototype built before the big flood, was found up on a rack downtown later and was placed out of the way.

this much i can say, imo, if they built these now, with this feel, this tone, this look, they would fly off the shelves after a few folks played one-and word spread.

poor quality pics, but here you go.

[Joe Dodson]

Thanks Subby for making my GAS/MAS seem tame. Well, maybe not tame, but at least not wildly out of the norm. Congrats on the new wood and wire.

[pheffernan]

Heffernan nailed it.

Thanks for sharing this response and in particular this closeup picture of the label. I was wondering how it was braced.