Newell mandolin

I am a novice Mandolin player and have been playing a Kentucky 256. I recently purchased a Newell A style mandolin from a pawn shop. This mandolin looks like a work of art. It sounds louder and crisper than my Kentucky. It is dated 2007 And signed by Keith Newell. It has an cage with an arm rest and looks like it has never been played. In fact I think it had the original strings. When I initially tried to tune it one of the strings broke. It came with an extra set of strings. I was able to find some information on the builder on line. Any information regarding this mandolin would be appreciated.
Attachment 188081Attachment 188081ewell

Unless you paid two arms and a leg for that, you have a winner. Keith Newell tried to break into the mandolin business but never had the market power to compete successfully with the Webers, Collingses, etc. He made great mandolins from his shop in Canby Oregon. I had one (an F model) for a couple of years but got seduced by a Collings. In retrospect I should have kept the Newell. The Collings is now gone, too. Kind of a long but irrelevant story. It (the Newell) had a tailpiece just like the one on yours.

You might be able to contact him by way of Mandolin Cafe private message. His username is still listed (it is "keith newell") (duh). Mandolin Cafe will forward PM's to the email address of record for him. I'll bet he will remember the mandolin and give you some info.

No need to post more than once about this mandolin. We will find you.

Thank for the information. Very cool that the mandolin builders are part of the community.

Sorry for the two postings. I placed the first post in the General Discussion before I realized the was a discussion specifically related to information on specific mandolin.

Hank gave you a lot of good information. I owned a flat top Newell for a while. It was not you average flat top, it was fully bound and top quality woods and materials. Fit an finish were very good, a talented luthier. I exchanged emails with him and he seemed like a nice guy as well. A year or two ago he sold all his building equipment and materials so unfortunately there will be any more built. You should have a very nice mandolin.

Alas, Keith is no longer with us. He passed away in September 2019. I had the great fortune to be in a Celtic band with Keith for a while. And it was a great privilege to see some of his works of art both in progress and the final result.

Rest in peace, brother.

Very sorry to hear of Keith's passing. I bought some tools from him years ago, though we never actually met, he was very good to deal with. RIP Keith.

Oh that’s so sad. I didn’t know Keith had passed away. We talked several times through emails. I had never met him, but you could tell he was a great guy. Prayers for his family.

I’m really sorry to hear about this. I was in touch with Keith years ago about a mandolin of his that came through my shop for minor repair. He was helpful and very excited about building mandolins. I send my condolences to his family and friends. Ward Elliott

I am very sorry to hear this sad news.
I bought a Newell flattop from somewhere that needed work so I contacted Keith.
One thing led to another and I ended up buying a bunch of tools from him.
A while later I ended up buying his mandolin molds.
Very nice very professional molds in aluminium and some made of polyethylene.
Nice man to deal with.