Recently, I attended a Bluegrass music festival where I had the opportunity to compare the tonal characteristics of three top flight mandolins: a 2006 Ellis F5, a 2003 Gibson F5 Fern, and my 2008 Collings MF5. The owner of the Gibson (Hallmark498) and I borrowed the Ellis from the owner, and we played various licks and tunes on each of them to test the response of the treble, the mid-range, and the bass of each instrument. We selected two non-mandolin players to offer their own unbiased judgments: a fiddle player (Danbanjovi) and a banjo player. The mandolins were set up with D'Addario strings with mid to low action and two feet bridges except for the Collings which had a full contact bridge. The following details our observations:
The Ellis clearly won the bass battle between the three. Tonally speaking, this was its most definitive quality. It possessed an incredibly deep, resonant, and powerful forth string which never once became "muddy" in its projection. Its bass was not offensive in any way, but I can imagine as the instrument ages it will only become more bass heavy. By comparison, its mid-range and treble were not as powerful or resonant but were still very clear and crisp. Overall, the Ellis produced a very "wide-open" tone that when played projected a broad sound.
The Gibson in our estimation won the treble/mid-range battle and was, thus, its most noticeable quality. It produced a bell-like clarity up the neck on the first and second strings which seemed under developed in the other two mandolins. The exceptional treble and mid-range was loud and open which precipitated and showcased note clarity. On the flip side, its bass was not as present as the other two mandolins. Overall, we seemed to agree that the Gibson produced a very "focused" tone which when played projected a more directional sound.
The Collings on the other hand seemed to possess a very even, commensurate quality. The second and third strings produced a very punchy, clear, and round sound which we felt set it apart from the Ellis but not the Gibson. Its treble was more brilliant than the Ellis, and it had a similar tone to the Gibson but was perhaps a bit "drier" by comparison. The bass wasn't as powerful as the Ellis but was more powerful than the Gibson's. Overall, we observed that the Collings produced a very "balanced," "blended" tone which when played projected a woody/punchy sound.
A few caveats to this experiment must be noted. Clearly, the conclusions/observations we arrived at concerning each instrument are not an across-the-board representation of the three respective brands. Since the mandolin is a wood instrument, the properties of the various mandolins within their brand will have some variation due to the organic materials utilized. This experiment was an attempt to compare their strengths/weaknesses between each other so as to determine their particular "voice." One of the draw backs to this experiment was that both the Ellis and Collings were equipped with bigger frets than the Gibson which was fitted with the standard, thinner fret wire. This produced a "thinner" tone in relation to the other two. However, the Gibson had been played for many more years than either the Ellis or Collings. Admittedly, the extra years of play time on the Gibson has done it a great credit in maturing its sound production. The Ellis had recently been purchased by the owner and, thus, lacked the development extended play time brings, although it did open up significantly during our experiment. Finally, the ages of the strings on the three mandolins was varied.
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