A visit to Mandolin Brothers
So today I decided that as someone who both takes mandolin playing seriously and lives in NY (albeit three hours upstate from the city) it was high time I visit Mandolin Brothers. Left after breakfast at my favorite diner in town and cruised down to manhattan - my original plan was to come back there afterwords and spend some more time in Rudy's Soho. I'd never been on the Staten Island ferry before, but found it easy enough - and then the good stuff happened. After several years of playing music all the time I guess it shouldn't surprise me when I make random connections - but it still does. Literally 2 minutes after I stepped on the boat I had a guy see me with my case and call out to me. I could see he had an instrument too, and on closer inspection it was a banjo - a nechville banjo! He was fairly new at it, but we picked tunes on the ferry all the way to the island and had a lot of fun. I told him I had no idea how I was getting to mandolin brothers and he said not to worry - he was getting picked up by banjo rep and overall wizard Marc Horowitz! Sure enough he was, and Marc was nice enough to give me a ride all the way there, talking about John Monteleon and how he once owned the second Grand Artist mandolin in existence. Entered Mando Brothers and met Stan right off the bat, then dived into to playing mandolins. I focused on the octaves/mandolas/mandocellos as I'd probably buy one before another mandolin, I love mine so much. I liked the weber F model octave, but the 2 point model they have really took the cake - clean and clear, with chords that could ring for days! Actually, the first mandolin room I went in had banjos all over the wall - talk about artificial sustain! It was a trip - I'm thinking I need to get a wall of banjos to put in my practice space now! I thought the collings mandola they have was really easy to play, and good for leads, but again the weber mandola sounded great with chords. As if that wasn't enough to put thoughts of killing my house down payment fund down the drain I entered one of the guitar rooms. I'm not much of a guitar guy, but they have a Bourgeoisie there with adirondack spruce top, slope sholders and a sunburst... pretty much everything I like in a guitar! Spent a good time playing and drooling over that (not literally!) Finally, I spent some time playing the 1925 Gibson Fern they have. Lands alive is that thing ever easy to play! I've played several Loars that were killer, and one or two that seemed to be sleeping.. but this was a whole other animal all together. Super focused, and the notes just seemed to explode from under my fingers the second they pressed the strings down. I picked a couple tunes with a couple guitar guys that were in the room, including a version of Tennessee waltz that probably didn't rival the Thile/Eldridge version, but was quite fun to play nonetheless. I think I may have ticked Stan off slightly by sweating a bit while playing it - I'm sorry but I can play on stage in front of hundreds of people without a twinge of fright, but with one guy (Stan) standing over me with hawk eyes the whole time I couldn't quite have that composure. A quick wipe down with a rag and all was good however... The best part was switching back to my own mandolin to pick another tune or two before I left. That Fern was mighty juicy, but every time I pick up my own mando I fall in love all over again. I'm happy to be able to rest in peace now knowing that my mandolin, while different in some ways, can hold a candle to a Fern, and there are things I can do - and sounds I can get out of it - that I just can't get out of anything else. I ended up spending so much time at the store that there was no hope of me making Rudy's before they closed, but I didn't really care at that point either. I picked my mandolin on the outside deck of the ferry all the way back, looking over at the lights on the NY harbor, and called it a day. All in all it was an excellent music filled adventure, as they always seem to be! Not sure why I'm writing this other than I have too much residual driving energy left and thought I'd share my mandolin brothers experience. The best part is now I get to go to bed and wake up tomorrow and spend the day playing the amazing instruments I already have! I might even end up starting to record my band's first album as well. Stay mandolin-y, my friends!
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Originally Posted by Michael Eck
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