Post a pic of your Randy Wood

**Christopher Standridge** · Apr-27-2009, 1:14pm

All right, I have had this for about a month and am just constantly amazed with it in terms of playability, tone, and vollume. I finally got some decent pictures and wanted to post them here. I know Randy has built close to 500 mandolins so there have to be a few Cafe'ers who have one or two. Please post some pics. I want to see how they have varied over the years and also hear some reports on them.
I will start with mine, #1808...

**joshua collum** · Apr-27-2009, 2:48pm

That's a sweet looking mandolin. I'm sure it's a good one. Enjoy! So your a Vancouver guy huh? I live in Portland and work in Vancouver. I have seen pictures of the mandolins that you build and they look great....

**Red Henry** · Apr-27-2009, 4:34pm

Great idea, posting some pics of Randy's mandolins. Randy Wood freaks may be entertained by these Dan Loftin photos of his #1 and #3 mandolins. I acquired #1 in 1971, and have played it heavily for a long time. My wife Murphy bought me #3 out of Monroe's estate auction 30 years later, and it is the one I now usually take out to pick.

**Christopher Standridge** · Apr-28-2009, 11:15am

Thanks Red,
Any shots of the backs?? Do you use those bridges or have you tried your maple bridges on them?? Also, you said that you played the second one out more, but which one is your favorite as far as tone?

**Red Henry** · Apr-28-2009, 11:47am

>Thanks Red,
>Any shots of the backs??

Thanks for your interest. We didn't think of getting photos of the backs that day, for some reason. That's too bad.
RW#3 has a very nice one-piece back.
RW#1 has a very tightly-grained two-piece back made from a piece of wood which the Gibson company had set aside in the old days for a mandocello back-- I speculate that it could have been from the same log as some of the Loars (except that the curl is a lot tighter than on any of the F-5s I have seen).

>Do you use those bridges or have you tried your maple bridges on them??

These pics were made in early 2002, before I developed the maple bridges. I have kept maple bridges on both mandolins almost continuously since.

>Also, you said that you played the second one out more, but which one is your favorite as far as tone?

RW#3 is a great mandolin (that's why I play it), but RW#1 has a wonderful Monroe-like tone as well as an amazing amount of volume. It sounds very much like Bill's mandolin (yes, that can be done) except that it is much louder, and in fact, Bill himself wanted to buy it when it was new (Randy had already promised to sell it to Bernie Michelle, and I bought it from him three years later). RW#1 is a dominant mandolin both in picking sessions and on stage. But it has now had a long and hard playing history, and I keep it indoors most of the time.
Right now it's at Randy's shop for some work-- I expect I'll need to "play it in" for a few months when I get it back, but that will be a pleasure.

Red

**joshua collum** · May-07-2009, 11:27am

Chris, I had fun pickin last night. That mandolin sounds great. Thanks for hospitality and letting me play your koa mandolin also a great sounding mandolin. See you again soon.

**Christopher Standridge** · May-07-2009, 12:48pm

Thanks again Red,
Hey doesn't your son also have a Randy? What # is that one?

Josh,
I likewise enjoyed the picking, it should be a regular thing!

Ok,
Where are more pics?? I know there have to be more pics!

**Red Henry** · May-07-2009, 1:31pm

Originally Posted by rovinmando

Thanks again Red,
Hey doesn't your son also have a Randy? What # is that one?

Yep, he plays Randy Wood #1281, that is, 1-2-81, which means, "Batch 1 from 2 (Feb.) of '81", which means it was dated the same month he was born. I bought it new. It's a mighty fine, woody-sounding mandolin with plenty of volume. And he does play it.

Red

PS-- 1281 was one of a batch of two which Randy made. Both, since they were from the same batch, had the same serial numbers. Emi Nakashima had the other one, at least for a few years. At an early IBMA, Chris found out that Emi's RW had the same serial number as his.

**BillD** · May-07-2009, 5:31pm

Hello All

Two very wonderful mandolins from Randy.

A 99 F style custom w/ Virzi and herringbone trim and a rare A style built in 92

Bill

**Red Henry** · May-07-2009, 5:44pm

Those mandolins are two REALLY nice items. The A-style, as mentioned, is scarce; I don't know if Randy's made many of them since he was doing 2-points years ago.

And these mandolins make me want to ask: Do people who own Randy's mandos tend to have more than one of them? (I should talk, with three RW mandolins and a MC around here! -- and out of the four RW instruments, I only heard ONE before I bought it! -- and all four are terrific.)

Red

**Raymond E.** · May-07-2009, 6:52pm

Evenin'
Different shots of my two point....we're gonna make some Mandolin history with this one...be a powerful Compton recording...
Mine has a one piece top and back , Red...I'm really proud to have it back

Raymond E.

**Skip Kelley** · May-07-2009, 7:06pm

Raymond, That is a sweet looking two-pointer!

**Red Henry** · May-10-2009, 6:35am

While we're on the subject, I'll post a photo of several of Randy's mandolins, taken at a party in Nashville several years ago. These instruments had all brought their owners to the party. In order from left to right, they are:

Randy Wood #1
Randy Wood #2
Randy Wood #3
Clarence White's mandolin, Randy's elaborate "showpiece" 2-point
Randy Wood #1281

...and a few minutes later, who should arrive at the party but Randy himself! He brought Vassar Clements with him, along with a brand-new 5-string mandolin which Randy had just made for him.

It was a memorable occasion.

**Red Henry** · May-10-2009, 6:52am

--and while I'm at it, here are a couple more shots.

The first photo is a clearer view of the mandolins above, less RW#2.

The second shows Randy examining RW#3. This was soon after the Monroe estate auction and it was the first time Randy had seen the mandolin in over 20 years. The first thing he said, was, "Well, it's going to need a neck reset." (Bill apparently hadn't stored the mandolin very carefully, and it needed some work!)

All these photos were by Lynn Hedgecoth.

**Rroyd** · May-10-2009, 9:10am

#4 is pictured in an old thread that was titled something along the lines of "show us your fake (?) or counterfeit F5s. If time allows later today, I'll try to repost them, but for now you can look at them there. It's just across the river from you, Chris. A couple of calls and I'll bet you could locate it and give it a lookover.

**gweetarpicker** · May-12-2009, 8:20pm

Randy Wood four string resonator mandocello.

**mandof12** · Oct-13-2011, 11:14am

Originally Posted by BillD

Hello All

Two very wonderful mandolins from Randy.

A 99 F style custom w/ Virzi and herringbone trim and a rare A style built in 92

Bill

Hi I beleive I now own the 99 F5 with virzi displayed in the picture. Can you give me some history on this mandolin? how did you acquire it, who was it built for ect... it would be greatly appreciated.

**mandof12** · Oct-13-2011, 11:15am

Hi I beleive I now own the 99 F5 with virzi displayed in the picture. Can you give me some history on this mandolin? how did you acquire it, who was it built for ect... it would be greatly appreciated.

**eastmountain** · Oct-13-2011, 12:30pm

I usually get a little wood when I'm feeling randy.

Okay, I have to go wash my mouth out with soap now.

**Denny Gies** · Oct-13-2011, 12:58pm

I'd love to but don't have a durn camera. My F5 is #3993, made in September of '93. It is a beauty and got the endorsement of Herschel Sizemore who wanted to buy it. I love it and someday may get 1/2 of the mojo it has in it. Still learning. Fun thread.

**Amandalyn** · Oct-13-2011, 2:09pm

Here's my 2-PT.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/at...0&d=1248300328

**mtucker** · Oct-13-2011, 2:24pm

Gotta love that frequensator tailpiece...gotta love those mandolins.

**grassrootphilosopher** · Oct-13-2011, 3:18pm

What´s the top wood on your mandolins? I read about the Roland White F-5 (and you can check it on the Gruhn site) that it has a sitka top. That´s interesting. I allways wondered about its sound (sounds good anyhow). What does Randy Wood use for top woods these days, Chris, Raymond?

**Amandalyn** · Oct-13-2011, 5:12pm

Originally Posted by mtucker

Gotta love that frequensator tailpiece...gotta love those mandolins.

The look of it is awesome, but not easy to change strings. I ended up changing it to a Bill James TP.

**mikeyes** · Oct-13-2011, 9:29pm

Here is a picture of my Randy Wood A-50 to A-5 conversion. It is number 13 in a series and was originally made for Larry Sledge. I've seen one other and I think that the picture of Sam Bush in the Tottle book is another.

These are great sounding mandolins.