This echoes something I've believed, said, and written a-plenty over the years. I would scoff at those hell-bent on trading up and spending more and more on mandolins in order to find "that sound" - whatever ideal they had in their minds. I would adamantly express my firmly-held belief that one must improve one's playing or at least develop skills to pull the music one wants out of one's mandolin. It's all in there; you just have to figure out how to bring it out. This is concurrent with my belief concerning such things as whether one can get a good chop on an oval hole mandolin; yes- it's the technique, not the instrument. It's not what you play, it's how you play it.
Part of this may have been derived from my having started my mandolin journey from a pretty high level - a teens Gibson A, a gift from my mom when I was 15. That was it for me, didn't even have a hankering for anything other than that because it sounded just fine, even great, until I got to thinking about an F-style, seduced by its snazzy, even futuristic look. It just looked more rock 'n' roll than the stodgy A. I picked up an F-12, which (as I learned later) wasn't much, dating from the 70s, q low point in Gibson's production quality. But that was my main instrument for thirty years. During all that time, however much playing I did with her, Mandy Lynn never really opened up or flourished as I would have liked. Some fifteen years into this period I began to acquire other instruments, though they were chosen specifically for very specific reasons - a 1916 mandola to enable me to play songs with certain chord patterns whose fingerings weren't compatible with my vocal range, a banjolin and National Triolian steel tenor guitar to very my sound in the jug band in which I was playing. (I wanted a steel mandolin, but though my luthier had one on his wall, it was not for sale; the Triolian was.) But none of this had anything to do with a compelling desire to find and acquire a "better" mandolin. These were acquisitions based on practical concerns, not emotions.
Then my F-12 got stolen. Among my efforts to recover her, I discovered and joined the Mandolin Café, and started checking eBay often - not only to see if someone was reselling Mandy Lynn, but to find a replacement. The first led to me learning from experts about her sub-par quality, which led me to concentrating on replacement more than recovery, and finding another teens Gibson A. This turned out to be a much better instrument than the F-12 was or would ever be. Molly just sounded so good, right out of the box, that I walked over to that night's gig and put her to work. Several years later, when I was in another band that was playing so often and I was playing so hard I would break a couple of strings nearly every gig, my solution was to get another teens Gibson A so I could swap out mid-set. Again, an acquisition driven by practicality, not emotionality.
All that said - and it's a lot, I know - this year something else began to happen. Without looking for anything else, a few instruments came to my attention. First, in a facebook group based on vintage mandolins, I saw a notice about an estate sale in Virginia that featured an early twenties A-4. It had the bling I'd long missed (plain A's are just that - plain, not even a logo on the headstock), it had the cachet of being a higher-end model, it was going foir about 2/3 of the usual price. I bid on it and ultimately won it. I had my doubts spending that much on something I hadn't played, but i figured it was a safe bet. Turns out, it was not - maybe it was the strings or the set-up, but it didn't really sounf=d better nor even as good as Molly. I felt a bit of a fool having let MAS overtake my rational mind. But then, a few months later, someone at the Café posted about a very nice-looking 1923 F-4 for sale at a shop in Missouri, again for about 2/3 of the going rate. Having just come in a bit too late on one being sold through Bruce Weber - a darned good indicator of quality - and the F-4 being my dream machine, and even more so being from the start of the Lloyd era, I pulled the trigger on it. Again, this turned out to be a bit less impressive than I'd hoped, but a change of string helped more than I'd have thought possible, and I expect a set-up will improve its sound even more. Then I saw an A-3 which had suffered some odd misuse - stripping the finish on the top, then left like that - but seeming fine structurally, I pulled the trigger again. Even after it is refinished and otherwise tweaked, I will be in for about half what they go for - if you can find them.
So yeah, I admit I developed a bit of a problem, after all this time.
I still believe it's more important
how you play than
what you play, but I'll grant you've got to start with something good enough. I can justify these purchases from a practical standpoint, getting them at something resembling bargain prices, but still ... I play Molly more than all of them put together.
I haven't even seen the A-3; it was shipped to my luthier. Maybe it will be The One; who knows? I'm no longer convinced such a thing exists. But if it does, it may still be that 1917 plain A I call Molly - she just sounds the way I like a mandolin to sound. I've been having some fun with these others, but if I had to choose just one, it would be her. I think.
Bookmarks