Post some details about your silver angel

  1. Don Christy
    Don Christy
    START A NEW THREAD IF YOU ARE POSTING ABOUT YOUR SILVER ANGEL! THEY DESERVE THEIR OWN THREADS!!!

    I thought it would be cool if we had a thread on each Silver Angel / Ratcliff represented in this group. So I started. See my thread on #225 Debbie.

    - Don
  2. D C Blood
    D C Blood
    Hi...mine is Cynthia, born 12/20/96, SN 040...She is a Silver Eagle, rather than Silver Angel, made just before Ken changed the name of his company. German spruce top, one piece Kentucky maple back (Ken's words) and neck and sides. With the extra "R" sound hole in the center. See photos on the group site. Anybody ever gets to Nashville, look me up...I'm always happy to let others try Cynthia.
  3. Michael Cameron
    Hey Silver Angel Fans! I don't have one yet;but,I get to play one on occasion.
    I think it is a unique model having a stylized "R" soundhole in the middle of the sound board.

    The SA I refer to belongs to Paul,a great picker I met recently.
    I will try to get some picks of his fine SA asap.

    Howdy,D C Blood,I finally made it over here.

    Regards,
    Mike
  4. Andrew Roberts
    Andrew Roberts
    Hey everyone. Like Michael, my Silver Angel is not in my hands yet. I drove up to Elliottville earlier this week and met Ken. He let me play the four Silver Angels that he had sitting in his house. I was very impressed, and am happy to say that I placed my order for one of his economandolins. As far as details go, I can tell you that I will have a cedar top on mine. I originally was hard set on going for spruce, but after playing some of his with the cedar top, I was very impressed and decided I would forget about the traditional materials and just go for a great sounding piece of wood. It will also have the same oil varnish finish that he finishes the distressed model with, but it will only have binding on the back. Those are all the specifics that I know right now, but as soon as the build begins I will start a thread on the forum to show the progress of my mandolin (provided that Ken is cool with me posting his pictures). Needless to say, I am SO excited about this build!
  5. tburcham
    tburcham
    Andrew,

    You should be excited. Those Econo A's Ken is building are the best value on the Cafe for a Professional sounding mandolin that plays great. In my pickin group we have three of Ken's mandolins (2 F's and 1 Econo A). All three are great mandolins! Congrats!
  6. D C Blood
    D C Blood
    OK, c'mon, guys and gals...let's get some more Silver Angel stories in here.
  7. Andrew Roberts
    Andrew Roberts
    Just noticed a mistake in my last post. And since this thread is presumably about correct details, I would like to point out that the mandolin will have binding on the TOP, but not on the BACK. Standard economando binding...
  8. Don Christy
    Don Christy
    I thought the back binding only was an interesting choice. Enjoy!
  9. Andrew Roberts
    Andrew Roberts
    haha. i guess it would be kind of cool to be the only one who could see the binding as I play...
  10. Mark Walker
    Mark Walker
    My Silver Angel - #231 and named 'Oliva II' - I got in 2005, and is the second Silver Angel I've owned.

    I originally bought 'Oliva' in 2002, (#192) which was an F-5 with the same flying angel on the headstock, German-spruce top, and lacquer finish. It was more of a reddish sunburst, and had a great tone and playability. (Like all Silver Angels!) I loved that mandolin, and it's even featured on a CD by a singer-songwriter from Tennessee, which she cut in 2004.

    I had some minor issue with Oliva in early 2005 - something like a fret lifted or the outer E-string slot in the nut cracked (can't recall) - and I'd sent it back to Ken. (He's got a lifetime guarantee on his mandolins of course.) Some kid stopped into Ken's shop and played mine after Ken repaired it, and fell in love with it. He yammered at Ken to sell it to him, so Ken called me and we struck up a deal to make my current mandolin, and agreed to sell my first one to this kid. (I can't recall his name, but I recall Ken said he went out and promptly won some state-wide mandolin playing contest a few weeks after he bought it.)

    Regarding my 'new' one, I had Ken remove the custom tailpiece from my original one and put it on this one. (I think it was the last or next-to-the-last one of those tailpieces Ken had struck; certainly one of the last few.) I also had him put a flying angel logo in the headstock (he had switched to a 'script' reading 'Silverangel'), finish it in oil varnish rather than lacquer, and my wife actually talked me into paying Ken to include the custom oil-painting of an angel on the back. The top is among a number of them he made from some 100-year old spruce he got from an old building in upstate New York that had been torn down.

    I've no desire to ever change mandolins, though at some point I want to get a two-pointer from Ken!
  11. Don Christy
    Don Christy
    thanks for the great info Mark.

    Hope you don't mind, but I re-posted the info into a new thread.

    I think it would be very cool to have each silver angel get its own thread.

    So if someone wants to post info on their mandolin, start a new thread for it. They surely deserve their own threads!
    DOn
  12. SilverAngelFan
    SilverAngelFan
    Elsa #233 was signed 9/22/05. It started off as a great mando from day one and has only gotten better. Its got a 100 year old red spruce top and a two piece back. It is varnish. I actually got to spend time at Ken's place and pick out every piece of wood personally. What are great guy! He let me stay the night and took me to breakfast the next morning. What other luthier would do that?
  13. tburcham
    tburcham
    Here is some information on Distressed Silverangel #257 (Aveena) Produced in 2007.

    This information was provided by Ken Ratcliff,

    "Timothy, this mandolin was made for Christopher Ryan Jones of the Bluegrass Mafia. The top is red spruce from an old dead tree. The back is one piece red maple from a violinmaker friend of mine in Indiana. While still "in the white", I decided that I didn't like the sound of it, so I removed the back and put X-bracing in it. It greatly improved the sound. The braces are made from Western red cedar that I got from a telegraph pole from the 1800's."

    This was the first X-braced F-style mandolin Ken had done since #68. Beginning with this mandolin, all of Ken's (at least through #274) have been X-braced. I believe this bracing pattern is one of the crucial elements that gives Ken's mandolins the deep, rich tone they are noted for.

    We have three Silverangels in our Bluegrass group and all of them are excellent mandolins (by any measure).

    Tim Burcham
  14. Don Christy
    Don Christy
    START A NEW THREAD IF YOU ARE POSTING ABOUT YOUR SILVER ANGEL! THEY DESERVE THEIR OWN THREADS!!!

    thanks
    Don
  15. mntmandoman253
    mntmandoman253
    Have posted shortly ago but will post again. Mine is Silverangel #253 and her name is Clementine. Ken delivered her to me on October 31, 2006. She has 100 year old Red Spuuce top and Sugar Mample two-piece back and sides. She is tone bar braced. Ken builds the finest sounding mandolins out there and you get a lot of mandolin for your money.
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