Monty tailpiece *cover*?

[Mando Mafia]

I have a very early Monteleone mandolin made before he started using the now classic one piece tailpiece, back when he was using an engraved tailpiece like the old Gibson tailpieces with a cover that slid off. My tailpiece cover is missing and I’d like to get a reproduction made. Does anyone have such a tailpiece cover with the Monteleone name engraved on it that they could post a photo of? Any suggestions as to who could come up with a reproduction, complete with engraving?

Thanks,
Pete

[Jim Garber]

Hey Pete:
Contact John and ask him. If he doesn't have anything (I doubt he would) he may have photos of what was on that mandolin. You have that two-point with the wavy headstock right? The one you posted pics of here?

[Mando Mafia]

Hey Pete:
Contact John and ask him. If he doesn't have anything (I doubt he would) he may have photos of what was on that mandolin. You have that two-point with the wavy headstock right? The one you posted pics of here?

Good idea, Jim. I’ll try that, and yes, that is the mandolin I’m talking about. The tailpiece cover that was on it when i bought it was a very roughly shaped piece of aluminum, obviously not what John would have put there originally.

Pete

[Jim Garber]

Actually, I wonder what he did on the F-5 copies early on when he put The Gibson on the headstock. I would guess he copied the Loar F-5 tailpiece cover although yours does not look like a copy of anything. I would guess either he had his name on it or nothing. There was a guy upstate NY who had one of the few A-5 ones with no points. I think his name was Joe something. That was a lovely mandolin. He let me play it years ago at CMSA.

[Mando Mafia]

Actually, I wonder what he did on the F-5 copies early on when he put The Gibson on the headstock. I would guess he copied the Loar F-5 tailpiece cover although yours does not look like a copy of anything. I would guess either he had his name on it or nothing. There was a guy upstate NY who had one of the few A-5 ones with no points. I think his name was Joe something. That was a lovely mandolin. He let me play it years ago at CMSA.

The photo of mine is a little confusing because there’s a strip of leather under the strings at the bridge end of the tailpiece... it kinda looks like an old Gibson tailpiece base to me. The cover originally on mine had John’s name engraved on it, don’t know what was on his F5 copies.

Maybe the upstate NY guy you were thinking of was Lou Martin(aka Harry Gilmore)? I think he was from Syracuse, a contemporary of Tony Trischka. Here’s a photo of an LP of his I have, with his A style Monteleone on the cover:


Pete

[Jim Garber]

No, I think John might have made maybe 4 A models altogether. I heard of Lou Martin but never met him.

This was another A model dated 1985 (same year as my GA mandola) from Mandolin Brothers circa 2007.



I wonder if Lou bought that one or maybe he had another?

For your entertainment, here is Stan's inimitable ad copy, courtesy of the WayBack machine in 2007:

15-5735 John Monteleone (used, c. 1985) “Style A” mandolin, #93, excellent plus condition with non-original hard shell case.
Considered by many people including his own wife and Jon Singer to be The Finest Archtop Builder in the Known Universe, John Monteleone continues to lead a quiet life in relative seclusion on his 1,125 acre estate in the Catskills in a structure that greatly resembles Bran Castle in Romania, which was once the home to a Count Dracos after he made short work of Freddie Brasov back in, well, let’s see, I think it was 1460. Little is known of Brasov except that he was an ardent mandolin player (“Hey, let’s meet at the castle tonight and play some jazz tunes of the 1420s. Bring your flail in case we have to beat off a horde of zombies.”). Bored nearly senseless by nightly walking the production line in the east wing where dozens of well-trained artisans in elf clothing fabricate Grand Artist and Radio Flyer models by the thousands, John felt that his line needed a bit of zest and so one day he designed and produced a model he called “Style A” which, unexpectedly, has a teardrop or “pear” shaped body featuring two sweeping S-shaped soundholes. The center of the soundholes is the precise spot where the two-piece carved ebony adjustable bridge is placed, below which is the proprietary, quick-load Monteleone gold-plated one-piece tailpiece and this component is etched both with his logo and the words “Style A.” The abbreviated pickguard (just a wisp of a thing) is polished ebony while the headplate is also polished ebony and inlaid with a script “Monteleone” logo at a slight angle. A plastic truss rod cover is held pin place by two roundhead gold screws; tuners are etched-plate, gold plate and pearloid button capped. The ebony fingerboard with its twice scalloped peninsula with 8 partial frets, bears 7 mother of pearl dotmarkers and is gently radiused to ease your way into that unseasonably warm evening. Top and back are bound in grained ivoroid; back, sides and one piece neck are three-dimensionally flamed maple finished in an hypnotic, let’s all fall in and tread water clear coat of glossy lacquer. This mandolin barks so loudly you’ll think you own a quarter-ton huskie, and yet its upper mids and trebles are so lyrical you may feel that this is the instrument chosen by the Bell Bronze Halo-Equipped Greeting Committee for your entrance into the Great Bragiole, yet when played in an unthreatening manner the sound is so sweet and flowing you’ll think somebody failed to fully turn off the nitrous oxide all-season multi-room humidifier. The condition is “virtually unplayed” with just a suggestion of fret contact. This is a mandolin about which to shout from the parapet “It’s mine! Mine, I tell you!” until dusk when Uncle Vlad comes out. $14,429 or at our cash discount price $13,995.

[Jim Garber]

I can't believe I actually remembered his name. I don't want to post it here—he hasn't posted anything on MC since 2013 but I am a FB friend so I asked him if he still has that Mandolin. I actually found photos of him playing but he was playing a Collings A. I did send him a link to this thread so he can find it. I will let you know if i hear of anything.

It is truly amazing that I remembered his name. Crazy what trivia I have in my head. I can't remember what I ate for breakfast but I can remember someone's mandolin and then his name from 2004.

[Mando Mafia]

I can't believe I actually remembered his name. I don't want to post it here—he hasn't posted anything on MC since 2013 but I am a FB friend so I asked him if he still has that Mandolin. I actually found photos of him playing but he was playing a Collings A. I did send him a link to this thread so he can find it. I will let you know if i hear of anything.

It is truly amazing that I remembered his name. Crazy what trivia I have in my head. I can't remember what I ate for breakfast but I can remember someone's mandolin and then his name from 2004.

I can relate. I surprised myself that i was able to remember that Lou Martin LP.

That description by Stan Jay was about as over the top as I have ever read! His catalogs were always such a pleasure to read..everything since is just so pedestrian.

Here’s a track from that LP, with Tony Trischka on banjo, Russ Barenberg on guitar and Larry Cohen on bass:


Pete