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Actually, I'm going to try again. My avatar is, also, a pic of this mandolin.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5z8Zz2kwPI2V6Q2haU8wpA?feat=directlink

Why did my photo not show up? I thought I knew how to make it happen. Someone enlighten me, please.

This is my Phoenix standard. They can be had used in the $2K range.

http://picasaweb.google.com/flatpicker9/PhoenixMandolin#5263805034062804978

They're great all around mandolins.

There is a great article on luthier, Bob Altman, in the Summer 2010 issue of Mandolin Magazine. It describes a bit about where he came from & how he developed the mind set & obsessive-compulsive...

If this was Knob Noster in '73, I was there. I was hanging around with Dan Crary, flatpicker extrordinaire. Dan was, at that time a PhD student at the Univ. of KS & had a Sat. night bluegrass show...

Some of you (those with nothing else to do) may remember that I have a friend with an Altman F5. I’ve been so impressed with it that I ordered my own (& I plead guilty to a bit of overgushing about...

Well, I did it. Me, who was so convinced that GAS & MAS were gone for good. This morning, I ordered a new mandolin from Bob Altman

(http://altmanguitars.net/home.html)

My friend, Belinda,...

Scott posted this morning that he & Bill Crahan will be playing in Lawrence, KS tonight. You can find out about it at:

http://www.tuesdayconcert.com/

While at that site, if you click on:

"I...

"The Beast With Five Fingers" has been mentioned. The following is a true story of what happened after I saw this movie.

I was 11 years old & my parents let me attend my first "midnight" movie...

Here's a follow on YouTube to the one posted above where he talks a bit about the piece. Unbelievable!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x76AgWdh9Yk&NR=1

When I had my MT (which I still miss, but that's another story), after much trial & error, I settled on Gibson Sam Bush Monels. To my ears, they just sounded great & lasted a long, long time.
...

My vote would go with Leo Posch in Lawrence, KS. He'll do a stellar job for you. See him at:

http://home.earthlink.net/~leoposch/home/

Someone mentioned the Guitar House of Tulsa. That would...

One of my all time favorite BG bands. I used to see them all the time at the Birchmere & at the Cellar Door. That was when John Starling was still with them. They were so tight instrumentally &...

Doug Edwards at

http://hillcountrystringworks.com/

has a drawing every month for a free armrest.

I was the winner for February. I just received my armrest about noon today. I installed...

I don't think this has been mentioned on the cafe yet, but this is a very interesting interview with Bill Collings. He talks a bit about how he got started & about varnish vs. lacquer.
...

You may want to contact Dave Wendler, who is conducting the sale of the Loar in the Kansas City area. He's the one who worked with a local bank to handle the instrument throughout the transaction. ...

In the article referenced above, it says:

"Curley owed back taxes. He was working to pay them. "I was on a payment plan, I thought I was doing good, things were going great with the business,"
...

I've found that, to me, all Collings mandolins sound great.

That said, I prefer the Englemann top on the MT. I think it sounds outstanding. And, for the money involved, the MT is the best...

This is pretty common with Elixir strings that have been played for a long while. I've never seen it happen on strings that are fairly new. I think what happens is that the GoreTex coating on the...

Big Muddy mandolins (used to be Mid-Missouri Mandolins) are a bargain & come with a 1 1/4" nut width option. I would seriously consider one of these to learn on. They are a very good mandolin to...

Laura,

Thanks for posting the info on double stops. Cool stuff!!

You've obviously done a lot of work putting it together. It'll be a big! help for me.

I really like Jethro's style. I've been listening a lot to his CDs, particularly the two he did with Don Stiernberg. I've been thinking about buying the Mel Bay book "Jethro Burns Mandolin". I've...

Thanks for your response, Brad. You've verbalized in a thorough way what I suspected was the situation. I have noticed that the Sully strap works fairly well if I support it somewhat with the...

I posted the following to another thread about strap buttons. I decided it would get more exposure if I started a new thread.

The strap button on my new Phoenix Standard is already installed, but...

The strap button on my new Phoenix Standard is already installed, but I have a related problem to the topic at hand. My Phoenix is, of course, a 2 point & the button is where the scroll would be on...