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That Courante was really nicely done! The tone of your instrument is very clear. I'm working on this same suite but have a long way to go.

Nice voice on that one!

I think the word "Larson" should be changed to "MacGuffin." In many Hitchcock movies, and other thrillers (and, as Wikipedia points out, the holy grail in Arthurian legend), it's an object or device...

While I've heard reports that reverb.com has had more quality-control issues in recent times, I've had good experiences buying (and selling) on the site. Owned and run by Chicago Music Exchange, it...

A recording of Avi Avital playing Bach's Sonata in E minor back by harpsichord is featured on the April 3 Performance Today program. For your listening pleasure (click the Hour One link):...

Whew! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_LhXKBSNi8

In my posting, I was going to add "I think Allen Hopkins might be one of very few owners of these instruments (and plays it regularly). Hope he weighs in." Glad you did!

Avi Avital takes on the Chaconne from Bach's Partita no. 2 in the July 18 edition of Performance Today. It's at the end of hour one on the website (some nice playing from guys named Thile and Ma...

BTW, that's not a Gibson L5 Django is sporting. It's a Swedish-made Levin archtop, and went up for auction last May. Not sure of the result, however....

Some interesting reading on the history of music in Boston, highlighting the contributions of Oliver Ditson (only natural, since the book was a product of the Ditson Company, now available for free...

I second Jim on the possible German origins of mandolin no. 1. The binding and pickguard are very similar to many versions made in the Markneukirchen region for several decades in the twentieth...

Oh, so that's what "overall wear" means. No wonder some would rather bid on Bill Monroe's toaster.

Thanks, Martin, for bringing such interesting repertoire to light and always having such high standards.Your work is an inspiration!

No, I'm trying to play the Allemande from Cello Suite no. 3 in that pic. That wasn't the first (or last) grimace!

The guy who refinished mine found two layers before getting to the original finish, which he said had been black. I thought about getting something closer to a restoration than a refinishing, but its...

Here's a pic of me and my 1913 (ser. no. 15250, if I'm reading faint pencil marks correctly) Gibson K-2 mandocello. It had to be refinished, since when it came to me, it had a heavy black lacquer on...

Thanks, Allen! I really appreciate the insight. Yes, 44 ribs.

My instruments get distressed every time I pick them up. Choose another, they say.

Robert Bancalari's J. S. Bach for Mandolin, mentioned above, is a good place to start. A couple of charming and relatively easy pieces to get started include two Marches and a Menuet from the Anna...

I have a 1908 A1, very similar to this one, and it definitely has a different sound than teens instruments and certainly twenties and Loar-era instruments. The low neck angle provided by the...

That was my thought, too, Allen. It looks like Gumby with severe focal kyphosis.

Mandolin cafe member August Watters has an excellent book, much discussed in various forum pages, called Exploring Classical Mandolin, that I've found extremely useful as someone who came to mandolin...

Can certainly be a problem. In this case, I'm guessing that it's simply illegible—quite common on penciled-in serial numbers, especially of this age. Looks like a respectable outfit with many...

Still some good deals out there. I bought my 1910s Wm A. Stahl mandolin on ebay, after offering $70 on a $90 listing. I suspected from the pictures that it had an ebony fretboard, and Stahl is one of...

My beagle, Rusty, has shown little or no interest in my musical instruments—until I acquired a 1911 K-2 that came with a case (not sure it's original, but it's nice). As soon as I opened it, he...