I had a style 20 go across my workbench a while back.
Good sustaining qualities. Very good trebles. A very rough description of its tone might be somewhere between an oval hole Gibson and a carved...
Type: Posts; User: rcc56
I had a style 20 go across my workbench a while back.
Good sustaining qualities. Very good trebles. A very rough description of its tone might be somewhere between an oval hole Gibson and a carved...
Primarily because of light build. Age might be a secondary factor, depending upon the condition of the instrument.
Style 20s are built quite a bit lighter than modern carved mandolins.
If you...
10 - 14 - 24 - 34 or 36 should be safe.
If you need more bass, you could probably get away with a 38 if the instrument is good and solid.
Metal tailpieces on violins are popular among fiddlers these days.
My personal experience with them has been that, at least on better quality violins, is that when I swapped back and forth between a...
1.3 mm? Is that height or width?? What is the width of your fret slots? It's hard to answer your question without more specific information.
Jim's suggestion is one solution, if the wire is...
I've seen old Gibsons that were worse. And also on a few small shop mandolins from the 1970's through the early 2000's, where I suspect that they laid off the fret slots using one of those old...
The Tam Lin legend is ancient, dating back to at least the mid 16th century.
One of those strange, lurid, and explicit ancient ballads from the British Isles.
A maiden is walking through the woods,...
If the flat tops aren't messing up the intonation and you don't mind your fingertips bumping into the board, you can leave it alone.
But if you notice a lot of soreness in your left hand, wrist, or...
They are living as quietly as possible, and both doing quite well.
Washburn is on my short list of brands I advise folks not to buy.
For reasons stated above.
Eastman is quite reliable. Your chances of getting a lousy instrument from them are small.
Some of the best?
A few old Gibsons that were head and shoulders above their litter mates.
A couple of Gilchrist's best efforts.
An exceptional two point oval hole D'Angelico that went through...
Why?? Here's a few things that those of us who repair instruments have found.
Some modern glues are good for instrument building, some are not.
Titebond Original has held up well over the years....
It all depends upon its lateral stiffness. Bracewood must be pretty stiff. If that's good, any pieces with vertical grain should be usable.
Actually, those of us who have worked on a number of 40's through mid 50's Gibson guitars might say "Only a Gibson isn't glued enough."
Gibson's wide-bodied mandolins were built from 1937 until 1942, when the script logos were standard.
The block letter logo was first used in 1946 or 47, after the wide body mandolins were...
I just took a brief look at Adrian's Maestronet link.
Interesting.
As far as numbers are concerned, Strad didn't have a frequency counter. He might have had a tuning fork. Did he have perfect...
I currently string mine 12 - 20w - 32 - 49 or 50. It sounds strong enough for me. I've tried 22's and 34's also.
Pete Ostroushko strung his about the same-- I measured the gauges of the set he...
You inquired about lodging.
I don't think you'll find much in the downtown area except hotels and motels.
You might find some AirBnB places in the residential areas.
But you might want to consider...
From what little I can glean from the work of Mike Longworth and Richard Johnston, the majority of Martin-built Ditson instrument were made between c. 1915 and perhaps 1925. Ditson went out of...
There's not much information available on Martin/Ditson mandolins.
Martin made instruments for Ditson as early as 1903, and their relationship continued until 1930.
If it's a flat back mandolin, it...
I've taught both instruments for many years.
The biggest difficulty is learning the difference between the pick and the bow.
On the violin, the bow does whatever is necessary to follow the...
While Doc was the Rosetta Stone for flatpicking for folks from my generation, I'll always remember his fingerpicking.
There's a couple of million of us who can double-thumb a guitar pretty well,...
She, along with sister Donna, now 90 years old, were/are our last direct link to the birth of American country music as we know it. And both were much better musicians than most folks realize.
...
A real Larson:
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Note the body shape-- the upper body is one continuous inward curve from waist to neck. I call it the Larson parabola.
...