# General Mandolin Topics > Mandolin Cafe News Discussions >  Article: The 1978 Bob Givens Interview from The Guitars Friend

## Mandolin Cafe

You can view the page at https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/c...Guitars-Friend

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MikeEdgerton

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## MikeEdgerton

Great piece of mandolin history. There's some stuff that we could argue about but that's actually a pretty amazing glimpse into Bob Given's the mandolin builder. Lovely. This was before the grand sharing of information we call the Internet.

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## Mandolin Cafe

This was a really, really interesting project I felt strongly about and there was so much that could have been included here, but if you even read the two PDFs attached it's a lot of content. Ostrow is a really interesting guy who gladly offered to have this shared. Enjoyed a single phone call with him. He has a lot more mandolin content and I haven't fully investigated it all and don't know that I need to but it's an option.

As you might surmise in the article, Ostrow is still active in his calling from the late 1960s and 70s and works or teaches in a holistic health center I believe he told me.

I learned a lot about Givens that I didn't know. I'd heard he was quite the "character" and that was certainly true but that detail is for someone else to share. Everyone should definitely read the article linked to in the Additional Information section on Charles Johnson's site that is about Givens. Quite the eye opener.

Like every builder whose mandolins I've played, not every one was a real ringer (nothing more than my sole opinion), but the best ones I've played were nothing short of phenomenal. I ran into someone at Folk Alliance a few years ago with an F that still haunts my memory. It was immediately to my mind one of the single finest mandolins I've every played and I would give anything to own, but the current owner was quite happy with it.

As part of this, some of you may wonder, I did contact Steve Weill who worked with him but did not hear back so possibly that email ended up in his spam folder or was just missed. Can't say. Email is not a 100% proposition and if he wishes to weigh in here he'd certainly be welcome.

Happy to see this information come to light and be discussed. Suspect many reading it barely know the name and nothing more but Givens was the real deal in the luthier community and probably one of the first to study in-depth the work on the best Gibson mandolins for the short period in the early 1920s.

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MikeEdgerton

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## Mandolin Cafe

Note from Ostrow just now and happy to hear he was pleased with this. His words below:

I was an avid reading of James Joyce and have spent a lifetime enjoying Finnegans Wake. Also no apostrophe. And why I left it out.

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## Glassweb

I would have liked to ask him why he chose not to use a truss rod in his mandolins. I have seen/played a number of Givens instruments that had badly bowed necks.

I realize there are other builders these days who do not use them, but given the choice between a mandolin with a truss rod and one without I will take the one with the truss rod every day... especially one with double action.

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## mandrian

Great article. Thanks for bringing this to light.

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## mandomurph

> I would have liked to ask him why he chose not to use a truss rod in his mandolins. I have seen/played a number of Givens instruments that had badly bowed necks.
> 
> I realize there are other builders these days who do not use them, but given the choice between a mandolin with a truss rod and one without I will take the one with the truss rod every day... especially one with double action.


I bought a new Givens A3 in 1990.  When I took it in for a little work recently I was told that Bob Givens wanted to keep the neck slim so he didnt install a truss rod. However there were stories that he sometimes put a rat file in a groove under the fretboard for extra strength.  I heard he was a real character so it could be true.

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## MikeEdgerton

I just read the PDF's at the end of the article. I would like to order a Givens A mandolin and a Givens 16 guitar (I didn't even know he made guitars) at the catalog prices.

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## Benjamin T

The first really good mandolin I ever played was a Givens F. I wish I had listened to everyone that told me to get one then in 1992. I remember the Banjo Player I was playing with told me, "Just save your money, around $5,000 and get a good one." You can play this as much as you like until then. I ended up special ordering a Flatiron, which I wish I had listened to my mentors. My immediate feeling from the Givens I played was the heft of that first one. It felt like a Bluegrass Machine!

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## Kevin Winn

Great article - thanks!

And, yes, I'll also take two A's and two F's at the catalog prices....!

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## Mandolin Cafe

2nd Edition print copy of _The Guitars Friend_ on eBay for only $20. Tempting but I have so much stuff laying around I'll let someone else if they wish.

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## elephantrock

I may have published the last word on Bob Givens, a two part article that appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited, January and February 1992. Bob passed not long after that.

During his last months of productivity, Bob and his apprentice Steve Weill worked in an old Quonset hut outside of Hayden, ID. The state of Idaho had long since revoked Bob's privilege to operate a motor vehicle, so he walked to the hut from a small hotel room down the road. The only clue to what went on inside the hut was a truck muffler that hung by wire over the entrance door. Bob liked his privacy, and it took some doing to broker a meeting with Bob. After that, he opened up to a microphone and camera in a series of interviews that I conducted. 

In 1992 I bought an A6 from Bob, and soon after a Gilchrist F5 as a backup ax. The A6 and F5 are the only two f-hole instruments in my tool box, and either one can readily substitute for the other. 

If anyone would like a pdf copy of my article, or if you are really interested, a CD with all the interviews, let me know.

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Kevin Winn, 

Mandolin Cafe

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## Mandolin Cafe

> I may have published the last word on Bob Givens, a two part article that appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited, January and February 1992. Bob passed not long after that.
> 
> During his last months of productivity, Bob and his apprentice Steve Weill worked in an old Quonset hut outside of Hayden, ID. The state of Idaho had long since revoked Bob's privilege to operate a motor vehicle, so he walked to the hut from a small hotel room down the road. The only clue to what went on inside the hut was a truck muffler that hung by wire over the entrance door. Bob liked his privacy, and it took some doing to broker a meeting with Bob. After that, he opened up to a microphone and camera in a series of interviews that I conducted. 
> 
> In 1992 I bought an A6 from Bob, and soon after a Gilchrist F5 as a backup ax. The A6 and F5 are the only two f-hole instruments in my tool box, and either one can readily substitute for the other. 
> 
> If anyone would like a pdf copy of my article, or if you are really interested, a CD with all the interviews, let me know.


You'd be welcome to attach that interview here if you'd like. Just go to advanced mode and click the paper clip icon. It's the same as adding an image. Or if you have problems happy to assist.

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## MikeEdgerton

I can only speak for myself but I'd love to see that here on the Cafe.

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## Bill McCall

+1.  Not available on Bluegrass Unlimited.

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## Kevin Winn

+1

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## Mandolin Cafe

Here is the interview elephantrock put together for Bluegrass Unlimited. Not sure if Bluegrass Unlimited will have issue with this but I'd think since those issues are no longer in print nor for sale and unlikely to ever be digitized that we're OK doing that. I like to err on the side of being safe but for information that may just virtually disappear or is in the process of doing so should be preserved if possible and posting that here accomplishes that.

_Edit: new version of article with improved readability:_

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Bill McCall, 

Kevin Winn, 

MikeEdgerton, 

Steve Roberts, 

WaxwellHaus

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## MikeEdgerton

If I ever run into Roger Sprung again I'm going to ask him about that "D-45"! This is great stuff.

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WaxwellHaus

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## Russ Jordan

Interesting read, thanks.  I attended a session with Randy Woods, Will Kimble, and Paul Duff at Monroe camp that was very good, with most of the focus on Randy and his history.  We should have been asking questions about Bob Givens!

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## Kevin Winn

Great reading!  The photos are a nice bonus.  

Assuming the guy in the photo with Bob behind his company logo sign is Steve Weill and the other guy with full beard is Tut Taylor?

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## Paul Statman

Thanks so much. Bob Givens: The pioneer of that approach mandolin building we are enjoying today?

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## MikeEdgerton

It would appear from the last interview posted that Bob Givens kind of created the A-5 market. It does not say that he ever took apart the Ms. Griffith Loar as is the rumor that has been around for years. I'll also note that he apparently surmised, as did Darryl Wolfe, that the body of the Ms. Griffith Loar was based on the standard Gibson A models of the time. Lot's of good stuff here. I love seeing his jig for fitting bridges to tops.

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## dbilello

On same weekend Russ mentions above at Monroe Camp, Randy Wood was sharing Tut Taylor stories later that evening and I specifically asked about the rumor of Givens taking apart the Griffith A.  Mr. Wood indicated that never happened (at least to that instrument).  Thanks for sharing the Givens article. Cool stuff.

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## James Vwaal

Thanks for posting the interview! It brought me back to Memory Lane.

I bought my first mandolin in Missoula, MT, when I was studying at the U of M. It was a $60 beater. Two years later after graduating, I saw an advert in _Mandolin World News_ for Givens mandolins and if I recollect correctly, the A model was going for either $650 or $675 and the F model for $950 or so.

Anyway, with my first paycheck I called up Bob and ordered an A model. He told me that the top would be Sitka spruce. This was Autumn of 1978. I sent a check and several months later the Givens A arrived via US Post. I still own that mandolin and play it every day. It is one of the few things I still have from that time period (mostly textbooks) and pre-dates meeting my future wife. (I remind her of that and then she hits me in the shoulder.)

As for the lack of a truss rod, the neck on the mandolin slowly warped over the years, but a refinish of the neck in 2013 brought it back straight and the instrument never sounded better than it does now. There is a Guitar Friends sticker visible on the back through the treble sound hole, and #176 penciled on the back visible through the bass sound hole.

Thanks again for featuring Mr. Givens. His contribution to society was great IMHO.

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Mandolin Cafe, 

Paul Statman

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## MikeEdgerton

> On same weekend Russ mentions above at Monroe Camp, Randy Wood was sharing Tut Taylor stories later that evening and I specifically asked about the rumor of Givens taking apart the Griffith A.  Mr. Wood indicated that never happened (at least to that instrument).  Thanks for sharing the Givens article. Cool stuff.


Luthiers that held the Ms. Griffith Loar in their hands said the same thing, that the back had never been off.

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Paul Statman

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## darylcrisp

amazing article and wonderful to read.
thanks so much for posting all this.

d

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## Kevin Winn

> In 1992 I bought an A6 from Bob, and soon after a Gilchrist F5 as a backup ax.


Heh.  Probably the first time I've heard of a Gil F5 being used as a backup...

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Paul Statman

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## CarlM

> As part of this, some of you may wonder, I did contact Steve Weill who worked with him but did not hear back so possibly that email ended up in his spam folder or was just missed. Can't say. Email is not a 100% proposition and if he wishes to weigh in here he'd certainly be welcome.


I recently purchased some wood from Steve Weill.  He really does not do internet much.  If you give him a phone call he responds and is really good to talk to.  His phone number is on his website and he makes the statement on there that eh does landline and snail mail for the most part.

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## Bernie Daniel

Interesting for sure and a trip back to the 70s and 80s -- a time warp.  But there is another long narrative story about R.L. Givens that exists too.  It used to be on line in the early days of the internet and you would find it by jusat searching "RL Givens" -- I read it at least twice.  But maybe 15 years ago it disappeared -- probably the site died or was abandoned.  That story covered some of the stuff discussed in this article -- but it was not nearly as long.  However the other piece I'm thinking about did cover some other aspects of his life.  For example his packing up part of the shop one night and leaving Nashville for Idaho.  It also contained a lot of details about how he dealt (or refused to deal with) the cancer that eventually took his life.  Sometime this week I will try to dig up an old hard drive from a computer I built back in the early 90s to see if that article was saved.  I know that it is not a SATA drive so I'll have to do a little finagling to read it.  I seem to recall that I did save a copy.

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Paul Statman

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## Mandolin Cafe

Fair amount of that information covered in the article that's linked to on Charles Johnson's web site near the end of the piece. Maybe not the same article, but reference to how and why he left Nashville and then how he dealt unsuccessfully with his own cancer.

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## Bernie Daniel

> Fair amount of that information covered in the article that's linked to on Charles Johnson's web site near the end of the piece. Maybe not the same article, but reference to how and why he left Nashville and then how he dealt unsuccessfully with his own cancer.


That sounds like the same article I am thinking about.

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## MikeEdgerton

The article on Charles Johnson's website:

http://www.vintagemandolin.com/givens_history.html

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James Vwaal

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## elephantrock

In my most humble admission, the photo you refer to is not Tut. That is the author of the article, my much younger self, and I cannot explain what this is doing in the article. I have uploaded to the Cafe a more readable copy of the original B.U. article, minus the bearded unidentified.

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Kevin Winn, 

MikeEdgerton

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## Mandolin Cafe

> In my most humble admission, the photo you refer to is not Tut. That is the author of the article, my much younger self, and I cannot explain what this is doing in the article. I have uploaded to the Cafe a more readable copy of the original B.U. article, minus the bearded unidentified.


Actually, you emailed that new version to me. I'll replace the original post of the PDF with the new version here in a few minutes and see also about adding the audio file you sent.

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## Mandolin Cafe

User elephantrock sent this MP3 of Givens talking about mandolins and guitars.



Your browser does not support the audio element.

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James Vwaal, 

MikeEdgerton

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## Lorenzo LaRue

....Back in roughly 1983, I was visited by a friend, a woman that had lived near me in the Northwest Nowhere previously.  At that time she was married to Bob and they just showed up in my front yard one afternoon.  We didn't have long to talk, and even though I was already a mando picker, although really knew nothing at the time of who I was actually talking to, except that he built mandolins....If I only knew then what I do know now....I would have probably plagued him with way too many questions....

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MikeEdgerton

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## Steve-o

Thanks Scott for the interesting articles. The Guitars Friend read was particularly a blast from my past, since I took guitar lessons at Music, Strings, and Things in Birmingham, MI. I later moved near Sandpoint ID, so my path paralleled Larry Ostrow’s (apostrophe intended) a bit (sans alchemy ;>). I didn’t pick up the mandolin until 2005, but it’s allure grew from my youthful experiences at MS&T.

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## Aaron Smith

Fantastic read and many thanks for the work making it available.

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Paul Statman

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## Mandolin Cafe

Published one year ago today!

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Chris Cantergiani, 

MikeEdgerton, 

Paul Statman

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## Nick Gellie

One of the best articles on A-5 mandolins on the cafe.  Very instructive!

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## sunburst

> I may have published the last word on Bob Givens, a two part article that appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited, January and February 1992...


I remember that article. I was working for a small manufacturer at the time, and when I came in to work one morning a coworker handed me the article and said to me "you can't be a mandolin maker, you're not crazy enough".

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John Soper, 

Paul Statman

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## Greg Schochet

thanks for all this great Givens info! 

Scott, that was my F you played at Folk Alliance some years ago, a great memory for me, as well. Maybe all mandolins sound better in a stairwell at whatever in the morning it was! That one is #393 from '87. 
I've since gotten a Givens A6 five serial numbers from that one. It's very different and a great instrument, too. 
thanks again!

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## MrMoe

I apprenticed with Nick Kukich. Nick and Bob were lifelong friends and close collaborators. Nick cared for Bob during his illness right up to Bob's passing. Mike Dulak and Bob were also friends and at one time room mates.

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## Mandolin Cafe

Noting the anniversary of this one. Had a lot of fun getting this into digital for future readers.

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## Mandolin Cafe

Nothing the anniversary of this feature interview.

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Paul Statman

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