Originally Posted by
Gunnar
Hey y'all! It's been a while since I've stuck my head in here... Been busy with life and stuff, but I've still been playing plenty of music!
I had the privilege of volunteering at Banjo Ben Clark's cabin camps this year, and had so much fun! Anyway, the second week was banjo only week, and one of the events was a field trip to a couple different places, including the Nashville Banjo Company workshop, and Gruhn Guitars. But, Gruhn was only letting students and instructors in for the shop tour because of capacity restrictions etc. So, while they were there, I went to Carter's!
I have never played so many nice instruments in one place! I played mostly mandolins for a half hour, and was quite surprised by several mandolins.
I will say, most of them had dead strings, and would sound better with fresh ones. But several mandolins I expected to be blown away by were just ok, and a couple that I wasn't expecting much from were awesome. I particularly loved one Gibson H1 mandola, and if I had a spare few thousand laying around might have bought it. I also was really impressed by a couple of Webers.
While I was at the mandolin wall, I noticed a guy pick up a mandocello (eastman) and took note because he seemed like he knew what he was doing.
I then went and played some dobros, which was cool because I'd only played a couple to that point. I noticed the cello dude at the mandolin wall while I was playing dobro, and he was playing with a Giacomel 10 string that I had been rather disappointed by.
A little while later, I'm back at the mandolin wall, and I hear two mandolins jamming, but I didn't know where from. That's when I saw the door.... The door to bankruptcy and discontent lol. I walk into this room and notice that it must be the high end room. There, the guy I'd seen playing mandolins and another dude are jamming some tune I know, so I ask "can I join?" they didn't hear what I said, just that I said something, so they stopped and said "what?" (oops) I repeated my question, but sorta like, "it's a moot point now cuz y'all stopped" and the dude I'd seen asked me to introduce myself, saying to his buddy "this kid's pretty good, I heard him playing everything in the store" So I introduced myself, and asked his name, he said he was Mason Via, and that he plays mandolin with Old Crow Medicine Show. I refrained from offering my opinion of the band, as a job is a job, and I don't judge people for making a living. His friend turned out to be James Kee, from the East Nash Grass, whom I've seen on Instagram a lot, and is a good friend of Banjo Ben. We conversed for a while, and he was trying to justify buying a dudenbostel or if it was too expensive to tour with. Then Mason gave me his card and said if I ever wanted to pick send him a message. I told him that I don't live in the area, but that next time I'm around I'll drop him a line.
They then went to lunch and I played some high end mandolins. I don't remember exactly which ones I liked, but I remember playing a Ricky Skaggs DMM that I really liked, and a blonde that I liked, but I can't recall the maker.
My main takeaway from the whole trip, surprisingly, was that I really like my Kentucky KM 150, And don't really need an upgrade. And that it would take a few thousand dollars to get something noticeably better.
I did also discover that I like Radiused fretboards. Several of the mandolins felt easier to play, and they all were set up well, it was just the fretboard curve.
All that to say, my passion for music has been freshly stoked, and I am quite content with my mandolin. Which isn't to say that I don't still look through the classifieds regularly, and stalk mandolin builders on facebook......
