# Instruments and Equipment > Videos, Pictures & Sound Files >  Vana mandolin f5 master model

## Jan Skovajsa

I've just taken few pictures of the Vana F5 Master Model. Although I've seen and played a few mandolins built by Miroslav Vana I was astonished again by its' visual and acoustic qualities. Enjoy!

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## MikeEdgerton

Hi. Welcome to the cafe.

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## Jan Skovajsa



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## Brandon Flynn

Looks nice!

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## J.Albert

That's a beautifully-done instrument.

Does Mr. Vana have any kind of "sales presence" in the USA?

- John

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## Jan Skovajsa

J.Albert: Not yet, unfortunately. As far as I know Miroslav Vana has built some instruments to the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe. You can also go for a visit to Prague, Czech Republic, Europe to see and play mine : -) (I am a proud owener of the Vana mandolin too)

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## Jan Skovajsa

There are a few more detailed pictures of the mandolin..

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## Bill Snyder

That is a beautiful instrument. You can be proud of that one.

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## Jan Skovajsa



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## Andy Nichols

Beautiful mandolin

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## Dan Voight

Very clean work. Nice coloring.

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## mandomick

Very nice all over. What kind of tuners are they?

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## Jan Skovajsa

mandomick: There are Waverly tuners.

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## grassrootphilosopher

Nice for sure.

How about posting a soundbyte? I´d appreciate that.

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## Jan Skovajsa

grassrootphilosopher: This particular Vana mandolin is not mine. I play great Vana A5 mando : -) This F5 has been already sent to the customer in Japan. I can make some records of my mandolin when I have time .. and when I buy some appropriate recording device.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Vana F5 in classical rectangular Gibson case.

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## Jan Skovajsa

.. Vana F5 versus late Derrington F5 mandolin

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## Gutbucket

I'm really impressed with that Vana mandolin. Soundbites please.

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## cooper4205

is his website still up? I haven't been able to locate it for a few months.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Gutbucket: I talked to Miroslav Vana today and he promised that he would make some.

cooper4205: His new website is in progress now. Miroslav spends all his time by research and building in the workshop so he hasn't managed to finish the website yet.

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## Jan Skovajsa

There are a few pictures of my Vana A5 Blackface mandolin. The instrument was built by mr. Miroslav Vana last year. I always wanted to have a mandolin with acoustic qualities of a master class violin. With this mando my dream came true : -)

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## Gutbucket

Very nice. I really like Mr. Vana's work. How's the trout fishing over that way? Maybe a trip to fish and pick one of those.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Gutbucket: I would fear for the gorgeous oil/varnish finish of the mando : -) For fishing, hiking and all other outdoor activities I have cheaper instrument with lacquer finish.

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## TVojtek

Hello guys,

I have one piece of Vana's mandolin. Its twin of the mandolin posted above by Hajd (made to the Japan), Lloyd Loar type of mandolin with Bill Monroe binding. Mira Vana made them in the same time. I think its great instrument.Incredible playability and amazing sound. I've compared it with the Derrington F5 and I was astonished by its juicy and strong sound. My new mandolin, which I love:-), is new instrument of course, so I can expect some new changes of sound, looking forward to wider frequency range etc... :-D

Precise tuned sound chamber, high-end materials, perfect spirit/varnish finish and rigorous hand made work made this instrument one of the best.... in my opinion.

At the moment Im working on some sound samples, with guitar etc...

Thanks Mira...:-)

Tomas Vojtek. www.skband.cz

Enjoy the photos.

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## TVojtek

and next...

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## TVojtek

And last some...

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## grassrootphilosopher

Tomas,

I didn´t catch your appearance at the EWOB-festival in May. Too bad. I hope you had a good time there.

I really like the Vana looks. There are quite an amount of good luthiers in the Czech Republic. It´s too bad that they are flying low and keep under the radar most of the time. That means other than in your country and to view outsiders these builders stay unknown. I have heard about a "Novotny" mandolin that reportedly sound good (lives with the mandolin player of Lusatian Grass). I have heard only good things about the Holubek mandolins (for the non Czech folks on the cafe - like me - Pavel (?) and Ondra Holubek build mandolins and (resonator) guitars of extremly nice quality), well of course there are guys like Janish, Lebeda and such but there´s a bunch out there that would be considered boutique builders were they wider known.

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to Caslav this year. 

Well, still I´d like to hear a soundclip of that Vana mandolin (if possible back to back with that Derrington F 5).

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## Jan Skovajsa

Just to avoid misunderstanding. The finish of this mandolin is not lacquier but french polished oil/varnish finish. (or what to express it in English : -) Varnish is carefully applied by hand with little brush, NO spray method is used. It is the same technique that has been used by top violin makers. Mr. Miroslav Vana provides ALL his instruments with this type of finish.

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## grassrootphilosopher

Guys, 

it surely is interesting to read about certain instruments. What tickles me though is that there are a load of good luthiers out there in the Czech republic. I therefore wish to be instructed more about the czech luthier (and bluegrass music) scene.

Let me say thus. You czechheads have a great thing going. Even before the fall of the Iron Curtain have you performed bluegrass music and because of the lack of its instruments have developed a healthy luthery culture. Let it all be known outside your own country and let others (like me) take part in your experience.

Maybe you could take this wish a little farther and start a thread about czech lutherie itself (like "show us your czech mandolins") and music culture (like "czech bands of note"). 

I´m still waiting for some sountbytes.

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## TVojtek

grassrootphilosopher:

Soundbytes will be available as soon as I prepare recording setup. At the moment I'm too busy. So please be patient :-)

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## K3NTUCKI8oy

that mandolin is insanely attractive!

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## Glassweb

It's great to see the reaction of cafe members to this simply elegant mandolin. I've said it before and I'll say it again... the Loar F5 mandolin might be the most beautifully designed instrument in the world of string instruments. Now I KNOW I'm gonna get flack for this! #

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## mandopluker

> It's great to see the reaction of cafe members to this simply elegant mandolin. I've said it before and I'll say it again... the Loar F5 mandolin might be the most beautifully designed instrument in the world of string instruments. Now I KNOW I'm gonna flack for this!


...not from me brother

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## Jim Kasperson

Wow
Kasper

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## Yonkle

Beauty! Very "Loarish" looking top to bottom. I think I just found the color of my next 2 F5's.
 I usually don't like them real dark,but dark looks very classy on this mando, and I like the center of the burst being bright, good contrast

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## nagomi

Hello, I'm a Japanese mando player and this Vana F-5M's owner.
I ordered Mr.Vana only to build exact replica of the '23 Lloyd Loar 
without "The Gibson" logo. Surprisingly he accomplished it, the beautiful appearance and the sound. 
I owned and played a lot of professional use mandos till now, but I think this Vana F-5M is the best axe for me. 
In my opinion, Mr.Vana,who should be evaluated more highly.

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## F5GRun

I would love to get my hands on a Vana. I think he would be more evaluated if he had more of a presence in the USA. But I was totally unaware of this builder until this thread. Butcongradualtions on a great looking mando!

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## Five

Very nice work. If it sounds as good as it looks.....killer!

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## red7flag

Just beautiful.
Tony

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## Gutbucket

If I were to order a custom made mandolin right now, I would seriously consider Mr. Vana. I would only like to hear one. His workmanship looks impressive.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Hi, I was asked to post here these pictures taken by Nagomi.
There is his new Vana F5 mandolin accompanied by some other great mandos of his collection. Enjoy!

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## Chris Biorkman

Wow. That's a pretty impressive group right there.

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## miked500

ok, no fair.

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## David Horovitz

Ouch, that hurts to look at those five beauties.

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## bgmando

HONKING good -- what a wonderful worldwide thread -- and gorgeous mandolins.

bg

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## grassrootphilosopher

Now Hajid, 
explain to us freaks the tonal differences and similarities of the grouping.

nagomi,
how in all the world does a guy from Japan get informed about a guy in the Czech Republic that builds mandos? (I about have quite a story myself about another builder) And by what comparison do you go when you make your statement. Inquiring minds want to know.

Did I say that I´d like to have a soundclip?

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## f5loar

A serious case of MAS the seems to be getting worse.
Those Vana's are dead on it. I wonder what Loar he took apart to build them like that. Even got the side bound too.

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## Jan Skovajsa

I had tried the brand new Vana F5 mando owned by nagomi at mandolin workshop in Prague before the instrument was sent to him.
I was astonished by its sound and visual qualities. Therefore I took some pictures of it and posted them here. 

grassrootphilosopher: As far as I know mr. Vana had been advertising one of his F5 mandolins last year at the Cafe and nagomi was interested in it. Finally he ordered the F5 you can see here. I haven't played those particular mandolins showed in the pictures so I cannot pass any judgement. All these beautiful mandolins are in Japan in the personal collection of nagomi. He didn't know how to post them here so I was asked to do it on behalf of him. 

My MD went wrong and hasn't been repaired yet and I cannot afford to buy another recording device right now. I talked about it with Miroslav Vana and he promised to record some soundclips for his new website. Be patient please : -) #

f5loar: Suppose you are an accomplished mandolin player with vast knowledge of the mando sound.
I wish you could try one of recent Vana mandolins personally and base your attitude on them on personal experience.

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## nagomi

Hajd:At first I thank you very very much for posting pictures instead of me. 
grassrootphilosopher:The opportunity that I knew Mr.Vana was just what Hajd wrote. 
I am not a collector, only an amateur mando player. But fortunately, I was able to have opportunities to try great mandos such as Gilchrist, Duff, Cliff Sargent, Apitius, of couese some great Gibson F's and more till now. All mandos are splendid,and hard to acquire the superiority. But in my opinion, my new Vana F-5M is most resemble to Loar F-5 all over the sound and appearances.
Please try Vana mandolin if you have an opportunity. You will be surely satisfied with it.

Good pickin'
nagomi

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## zoukie

That's a nice mandolin, both the A and the F. How's the sound? Do you have any soundclips?

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## grassrootphilosopher

Hajid,
I´ll be looking forward to Miroslav Vana´s website and for soundclips. 

I´ve been at the Festival at Laroche sur Foron in France the other day (they had great mandolins there, Wayne Henderson, Krishot (Eduard Kristufek), Giacomel, Hervé Coufleau, Jan Pals, Duff, Novotny, Lebeda a couple from a french board member - forgot his name, sorry - and others) and got to talking to Czech people about builders there. 

In our conversation I asked about Miroslav Vana but it did not ring a bell with the Czech folks yet. I am well aware that he sold some instruments over the Cafe website. I have been watching his sales on the classifieds. As far as I understand he works a daytime job and builds his mandolins "on the side". This apparently is the way quite a number of now wellknown builders got started behind the iron curtain because back then you had to build your own instruments in order to get a decent quality. So I did not expect to see a Vana mandolin at the festival or to hear rave reviews about him all over. 

What I would like to mention though is, that I really like the appearance of the instruments shown on this thread(as opposed to many other instruments I have seen over the years). It would really be a shame if this great impression would not be heavily underlined by a builders website (SOON!) and soundbytes. I think that a builder that does not want to fly under the radar (like possibly Adrian Minarovic aka HoGo on this board if I´m not mistaken) and that possibly wants to get into building fulltime or at least to some extent needs to represent his work.

Tomas, Hajid or Nagomi, what´s the going price for one of the F models these days?

By the way, the Henderson mandolin at the festival was good though certainly not up to the hype that I hear about. The Hervé Coufleau mandolin on the other hand was a steal at about 3.500 EUR (aprox. 5.000 USD). It had tone bars a reddish sunburst, Elite tuners, it played like butter and at about one month old sounded really nice. If I was mandolin short - which I am not at the moment - I would have jumped at the mandolin. Though now I would only jump at a mandolin if it was so exeptionally great that it would be insane to pass it by (like a Gilchrist F 5 tone bar D-log at 9.000 USD  or an instrument of similar qualities for an appropriate price). I´d have to play it first though. Until then I´ll stick to my Duff 5 (yeah, ggggrrrrreat sound) and my Strad-O-Lin (can´t never ever beat the value of this one, it sounds highly professional).

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## pickinNgrinnin

These Vana's are great looking Mandolins. Very impressive. I'm continually taken back by the number of builders out there today - here in the states and from other countries, that are producing this level of work. What a golden age of Mandolin building!

You mentioned Adrian Minarovic in your above post. He is also building part time but his profile is a bit higher here at the cafe as he posts in the builders section and many builders and non builders alike have purchased his Loar plans through Elderly Instruments. He lives in Slovakia and may be in a very small group of builders living in Slovakia. Great guy and I'm fortunate to have his #07.

It would be nice to see folks like Adrian building full time if they desire such a move. The builder's website with soundbites is an interesting idea as it could showcase the builders, their insight and examples of their work.

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## grassrootphilosopher

pickinNgrinnin,
I agree. It is especially interesting to keep a close watch on the "small" or part-time builders. Often enough their work is astounding. I only know of Adrian Minarovic because of the café and the posts concerning his loar plans and his mandos. It would surely be nice to play one, as well as a mandolin by "billbows" (on the cafe), a Stan Miller... and the list goes on. It´s just great that there are so many of them out there and the choice is hardly limited.

Sadly enough the part-timers are flying so low under the radar that you just see a great mandolin and you wonder where it comes from. It reminds me of the stories of the 70ies when Doyle Lawson got his first Paganoni. As far as I know John Paganoni was a part time builder himself, being in the army (?). Here too you´d have to find the needle in the haystack.

And yes, I second the motion to have a builder´s section with aditional information/links to soundbytes, youtube, video chanels and such. 

I really cherished Mr. Mix approach to testing different mandolins on mandozine. I still go there once in a while to listen to the test cuts. I also drove my wife nuts while listening to the mandotasting CD.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Vana F5 MM mandolin - sound samples !!

Hooray, there are some recordings of a brand new Vana mandolin owned by TVojtek and showed here in this discussion above.

Big Sciota (wav, 9,6 MB)
Nine Pound Hammer (wav, 4,8 MB)

The recording was taped outside by Zoom H2 recorder. No EQ was used.
The same same distance from the mandolin and the guitar was preserved (appox. 1 m).
The Vana F5 mandolin is played by Honza Maca, the Martin D35 1978 guitar by Tomas Vojtek.

The new Vana mandolin website will be finished soon .. stay tuned : -)

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## cooper4205

Olaf,

the last I saw, he had a beautiful, Loar-style F5 for $2,000. His A5's, Loar-style too, were also around the same price. But that was about a year ago, so things could have changed between now and then.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Vana F5 MM mandolin - sound samples works again !!
Sorry for unavailabilty in last few days..

Hooray, there are some recordings of a brand new Vana mandolin owned by TVojtek and showed here in this discussion above.

Big Sciota (wav, 9,6 MB)
Nine Pound Hammer (wav, 4,8 MB)

The recording was taped outside by Zoom H2 recorder. No EQ was used.
The same same distance from the mandolin and the guitar was preserved (appox. 1 m).
The Vana F5 mandolin is played by Honza Maca, the Martin D35 1978 guitar by Tomas Vojtek.

The new Vana mandolin website will be finished soon .. stay tuned : -)
Hajd is online now Report Post   	Reply With Quote

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## Jan Skovajsa

The sound samples works again!
Please use the links posted below (post #56).

H.

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## Rob Powell

It sounds fabulous!

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## Pavel Bulin

Hi, there is few photos my Vana mandolin F5-M, mandolin was made in July 2007.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bulin.pavel/MyMandolin#
Pavel

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## mandomania7923

can we get a hint on their prices?

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## Chris Biorkman

this guys work appears to be pretty perfect.

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## Kerry Krishna

When I first saw the name of this thread, I thought I'd pop in and make some comment like" So were is Pat Sayjak?"  Having seen the pics, it looks to me that I would have been out of line if I had done it. They all look REAL nice!

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## Jan Skovajsa

mandomania7923: Write him an email for current pricelist. The contact mail is at http://www.vanamandolins.com/

Regards,

Jan

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## grassrootphilosopher

Hajid and Tomas,

is there any chance that you will be at the EWOB festival next week? I´d love to see and play a Vana mandolin and the Czech republic is not on my travel itinerary (though Caslav is coming up I don´t know if I can make it there).

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## Jan Skovajsa

Hi, if you want to see pictures of the current generation of Vana mandolins and mandolin family instruments check his facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/vanamandolins
(You can search it even if you're not on facebook)

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## Bill Snyder

> Hi, if you want to see pictures of the current generation of Vana mandolins and mandolin family instruments check his facebook page here:
> https://www.facebook.com/vanamandolins
> (You can search it even if you're not on facebook)


No you can't.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Bill, I can open the page and browse the photos and information included even when logged off the facebook. When logged off I cannot of course “like“ or comment the pictures.

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## Mandoborg

WOW !! Just stopped by his FB page. He does some seriously clean work. Thanks for the heads up on yet another name I've never heard, turning out amazingly skilled work.

Jim

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## Dave1066

Some very nice Mandolins posted here.

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## Jan Skovajsa

Vana mandolins have a new website! Have a look, watch the photo gallery and videos. More content to be added soon ;-) 
http://www.vanamandolins.com/

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## billhay4

Nice site.
Bill

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## Timbofood

Yep, nice site indeed!

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## Glassweb

this guy has been on my radar for years... apparently somewhat of a mandolin virtuoso as well as a master builder. VERY impressive in every way. now if only i could walk into a store and buy one!

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## George R. Lane

Glassweb,
All you have to do is fly to the Czech Republic and walk through his door. There you go problem solved.

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## Glassweb

I'm on the line to my pilot as we speak. Glad to have won that Mega Lotto a couple of weeks back! (sigh, if only...)

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## Jan Skovajsa

Glassweb, I can't reveal more at the moment, but you will probably have an opportunity to do so in the US later in 2016 ;-)

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## Ken Waltham

Those mandolins look absolutely amazing. They look so "right". I enjoyed the sound clips too, really beautiful playing.

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Glassweb

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## Don Grieser

> Glassweb, I can't reveal more at the moment, but you will probably have an opportunity to do so in the US later in 2016 ;-)


Please let us know when you can.

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## Jan Skovajsa

For sure I will. In the meantime please check Miroslav Vana's website and Facebook from time to time if you want. There are some exciting photos, videos and other materials that he will finish and upload when he has time to do so ;-)

web: http://www.vanamandolins.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vanamandolins/

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