Brought home a Buckeye!

[Scotter]

Cool story and congrats. And although I graduated from HS in Ohio and went to college in Ohio before transferring to LSU and then UW, I've grown to detest OSU to the point where I couldn't enjoy anything called a Buckeye. Haha. I wish the name would change. The Badger has a nice ring to it.

I moved from the Eff El Lay to the 'Scon after getting engaged to my wife. I lived and practiced in Madison for about a year and a half before we moved to The Land Of Fish Tacos. One of my FPR campmates sent me back to Cowtown with two cans of Spotted Cow which Eugene and I savored quickly while pickin' and grinnin'. Go Buckeyes! Go Badgers!

[V70416]

Love the tone of the mandolin Johnny Staats plays on his Wires and Wood album. Tunes like "Escape From Taiwan" and "Mandolin Meltdown". I think that was a Buckeye(?) For the sake of this thread,I hope it was.

Recent'y saw him playing an Apitius and a Red Diamond.

[Scotter]

The finish on the neck has a "speed neck" like feel to it. I thought it might have been lightly sanded but Pete says his finish is three base coats of shellac then lacquer on top. The neck is sealed with lacquer then he rubs linseed oil into it.

Pete is currently building four more mandolins this winter but they are all sold already.

By the way, Lauren Price's mandolin is The Buckeye F5 #59.

Any predictions for tonight's CFP National Championship game?

[Br1ck]

One team will win. I have a flawless system for prediction.

[mugbucket]

The finish on the neck has a "speed neck" like feel to it. I thought it might have been lightly sanded but Pete says his finish is three base coats of shellac then lacquer on top. The neck is sealed with lacquer then he rubs linseed oil into it.

Pete is currently building four more mandolins this winter but they are all sold already.

By the way, Lauren Price's mandolin is The Buckeye F5 #59.

Any predictions for tonight's CFP National Championship game?

I think the Tigers will win.

[Eugene]

Cheers, Holmes (aka Scotter)! It was lovely to catch up, see your pre-surgery (but still lovely) Buckeye, and sip a forbidden ale.

[Eugene]

Go Buckeyes!

Indeed . . . so long as they keep signing my paycheck.

[Eugene]

PS: Somehow, progeny no.1 found somebody who ships Firestone-Walker to Ohio. He sent 12 bottles spanning five different brews as a late Christmas gift, including four bottles of my holy Grail brew, §ucaba. If you manage to visit again quickly, Scotter, the picking will be festive indeed.

[ManjoMan]

I met Pete Hart back in the '90's at a festival in Clay City, KY. He is by far one of the nicest people I have ever known. I needed some work done on one of my mandolins and he said he would be glad to do that for me. He was currently building two mandolins at the time and we had arranged a meeting in Toledo at a bluegrass show there so he could take my mandolin home with him to work on. He brought one of his mandolins "in the white" (what he called it) - without any finish on it at all. I fell in love with it. I had to have it. I asked him to make a couple of minor adjustments for my liking due to my hand size. I really don't recall how long it took him to finish the mandolin from that point. I drove down and picked up both of my mandolins. I checked out the work he did on my existing mandolin and then I had to take a look at my new one. I was absolutely amazed. Deep, woody tone. It became my main instrument for quite a while. Like many others, I started rotating which mandolin I would play. A few years later, I talked to Pete about putting a radiused fingerboard on my Buckeye. I took it down to him and he happened to have a finished Buckeye there. I think it was #38. A great mandolin. He let me take it home to play it while he was working on my Buckeye. I really considered doing a swap with him, but because of the history I had with mine, I couldn't do it. Anyway, the new fingerboard was incredible. He absolutely does fantastic work. Since y'all were posting pictures, I decided to share my story and some pictures as well. Oh, and I have had my Buckeye #9 since 1994.



And if somebody could tell me how to get the rotation on the pictures corrected, I would gladly appreciate it...

[Scotter]

Hey, ManjoMan,

Thanks for giving another long term update on your Buckeye. I'm just amazed at how #87 plays and sounds so much better after he made the requested "tweaks" to it. That kind of customer service is really hard to beat.

P.S. Pete says you're a great picker comparing you to Doyle Lawson.

[Christian McKee]

I have #66 up here in Portland, and love it. Upon first arrival it was a little frail sounding, but that quickly changed and it’s among the most muscular sounding mandolins I’ve ever heard. I’ve played Gilchrists that I wouldn’t consider trading it for, straight up.

I’d like to echo all your remarks about how nice it was to work with Pete, not only was he happy to cut the nut on mine wider than normal and radius the fretboard, but he also worked to replicate the neck profile of a Breedlove instrument I had been playing for years and liked the feeling of. It’s quite similar, feels great to play. Beyond the feel and sound of it, I think Pete does my favorite sunburst finish out there.

I’ve recorded with this instrument a bunch at home and in “real” studios and gigged with it all over, including a trip to Germany with the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra in 2018, it’s never let me down, and always does me proud. I hope to really be enough mandolinist to earn it, so to speak.

Christian

[jesserules]

If anyone is interested, Buckeye #25 is up for sale in the Classifieds.

[Scotter]

I have wanted a Buckeye mandolin for awhile, just because I am a born and raised Ohioan, and I think it would be appropriate. You may have pushed me to make the jump, and pull the trigger on the next A-style one I see, as I prefer A-style to F-style.

I believe that Pete has an A-style that he is finishing that is available for sale.

[Scotter]

Just a quick update on #87:

I love this mandolin more than any other instrument I've owned. Since getting it back with a new neck from Pete, it has become my main instrument and I've put more time into study and practice into learning how to play mandolin than I have any other instrument. It helps to have found some good on-line instruction in the form of folks like Sharon Gilchrist and Matt Flinner but I've also been using this new knowledge to help develop and round out my solo derangements. I've since been invited into a group of acoustic singer songwriters who meet for open mic via Zoom once a week. I've been reworking some of my previous repertoire of originals and covers that I used to play on guitar or ukulele for mandolin but in other cases I've been able to use some of this knowledge the other way around and apply it back on guitar or ukulele.

It's nice to be performing again but now I'm far more likely to incorporate a solo into my solo performance (compared to ensemble playing) without fear of losing the groove. And, given the choice to perform with any instrument, it's almost always The Buckeye.

I should add that learning how to use the iReal Pro App with a Bluetooth speaker has also helped me in my timing, practice habits, and helped me solidify some of my improvisational skills. You can find a few of the charts that I've programmed here:

https://www.irealb.com/forums/showth...Scotter-charts

-Scotty

[Scotter]

Another quick update: The honeymoon phase with The Buckeye is still going strong. It's got tone that always makes me smile and continues to inspire me to play it every chance I get.

If anyone in the El Lay area wants to see and hear #87 in action, I'll be playing with a few friends at Bob Stane's Coffee Gallery Backstage in Alta Dena on July 24th.
https://www.coffeegallery.com/blog/0...n-friends.html
-Scotty

[Scotter]

Well, the Coffee Gallery Backstage gig has been moved to the 31st. If anyone is in Orange County, I'll be doing the singer songwriter thing with three other fantastic songwriters this Saturday, July 23rd from 6 to 8 PM at Moongoat Coffee at 1985 Placentia Ave, Costa Mesa, CA. I'll be playing a lot more mandolin at this gig so stop by if you want to check out The Buckeye, talk mandolins, songwritin', etc.

-Scotty

[tuhker]

Glad that you continue to enjoy this. Let me know if you ever venture to Northern Cal. Pete is a great guy. Btw, he title of this thread "Brought home a Buckeye!" reminds me of what my New York wife may have said to her parents after we started dating