Looking for Austin Area Mandolin Setup

**Lucky Deacon** · Oct-28-2015, 10:04am

I'm new to mandolins and am looking for someone in the Austin area to do a complete setup on a new instrument right out of the box. If anyone has experience with a particular luthier, please let me know.

Thank you.

**renoyd** · Oct-28-2015, 10:19am

In addition to Ellis of course, Stefan Passernig is excellent. Besides producing their own fine mandolins, I believe both would do setups on other makes.

**Josh Levine** · Oct-28-2015, 10:20am

Ughh well depending on how much you want to spend there are some great luthiers in your town. Collings does one of the best setups in the business, not sure if they work with instruments other than their own. Or you could give Fiddler's Green a call and ask how much they charge. Tom Ellis is in town, but not sure if he does set ups or not.

**doc holiday** · Oct-28-2015, 10:30am

Fiddler's Green is the place to go.

**Lucky Deacon** · Oct-28-2015, 4:44pm

Thank you all for your suggestions. I have been going back and forth for the past three weeks or so, trying to decide what instrument to buy. Should I buy an inexpensive instrument to learn on; or should I invest in a higher end instrument that could end up sitting in its case for a really long time.

Being a mandolin novice -- I'm playing on a borrowed Fender 52E -- I finally decided to order a Rover RM-75 from Folk Musician. I figure the setup alone will make it sound like a better instrument. Can't wait to get my hands on it and see how it sounds.

Now I'm looking for some good mandolin instruction. Will be Google-ing / YouTube-ing that to see what I can find.

Wish me luck! Oh, wait...they don't call me Lucky Deacon for nothing!

**Austin Bob** · Oct-28-2015, 6:24pm

Your Rover should be fine to learn on, especially since it will be set up from the get go. Good luck and have fun.

In case you ever need it, Dave Trexler works out of Fiddler's Green and has worked on both of my mandolins several times. I've found his workmanship to be topnotch and his prices reasonable.

**ccravens** · Oct-28-2015, 7:19pm

Speaking of instruction/lessons and Fiddler's Green, you might see if Ben from there gives lessons.

I know he has before. Good player and teacher.

**TheGourdsFan** · Oct-29-2015, 8:39am

You should definetly stop into fiddler's green.
I was in austin a few weeks back, stopped in and played/tried out many nice mandolins, including an rm-75 . I have an older rm-75, and it was nice to compare a new one to mine.

Fiddler's Green is a nice little store. I was impressed that all of the mandolins I tried seemed to be tuned up (to my ear). Very different than some of the larger stores I've been in-some are so out of tune.

**Lucky Deacon** · Oct-29-2015, 10:11am

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. While Collings and Ellis are way out of my price range, I definitely plan to stop by Fiddler's Green when I'm in the neighborhood. Sounds like Dave Trexler has a lot of fans as well. Had I bought from anyone other than Folk Musician, I would definitely have asked him to do the setup.

Now if I can just get my pinky to stretch to those chop chords!!