Willow Creek Instruments

[zakry3323]

Hey folks, just putzing around online and I keep seeing these Willow Creek mandolins and guitars pop up. Looks like the company is based in Indiana, manufacturing done in China. I looked at their product line and it seems like they're able to offer a lot of lower-end prices using rather expensive woods.

Can anybody share any info about this company and the quality of their mandolins/guitars? Maybe it's just my google-fu failing me but I don't see a lot of info out there.

[Jill McAuley]

Where did you find any info about "expensive woods"? A Google search turns up their website which doesn't appear to mention anything about the grade of woods used and looking at the instruments they just appear to be kind of bog standard Asian made entry level instruments, nothing about them stands out when compared to other Chinese made instruments such as Eastman.

[zakry3323]

Thanks for your reply Jill!

To clarify, the expensive wood I'm referring to is the rosewood and ebony used for the back and sides of some of the products in their guitar lines. Most tops are solid spruce or western cedar, AA or AAA, some book matched, some not. That's just what I'm reading from their website, and I have no insight as to any other aspects of their quality. I don't see a lot of rosewood or ebony used in the typical bog standard Asian made instruments - makes me wonder if something is different about Willow Creek's source to offer these at the entry-level.

[Jill McAuley]

Thanks for your reply Jill!

To clarify, the expensive wood I'm referring to is the rosewood and ebony used for the back and sides of some of the products in their guitar lines. Most tops are solid spruce or western cedar, AA or AAA, some book matched, some not. That's just what I'm reading from their website, and I have no insight as to any other aspects of their quality. I don't see a lot of rosewood or ebony used in the bog standard Asian made instruments - makes me wonder if something is different about Willow Creek's source to offer these at the entry-level.

Right, but where does it mention any of the woods used in the mandolin line? Going by stuff like the over glossy finishes, cheap looking pickguards etc. I don't see anything about their mandolins that would make me sit up and take notice. It's not uncommon for cheaper guitars to be heavy on the bling and "figured" wood, just walk into a Guitar Center and look at some of the low end acoustics on offer - shiny guitar shaped objects. Ebony and rosewood are found on cheap instruments as well as better made ones. These just look like the kind of "mandolin shaped objects" that show up on Amazon all the time, nowhere near the quality of Eastman or even Kentucky. Do you work for Willow Creek?

[zakry3323]

The two mandolin offerings they have indicate spruce tops and maple backs/sides, I'm sure you've seen.

Thanks for asking about my employment. I am actually a bum at the moment- having left my park ranger career a few years ago so that I could move out to (almost) the middle of nowhere with my wife and kiddo to attempt some better level of sustainable living in the countryside. I think you might be misunderstanding my intentions- I'm in no way a proponent of Willow Creek or of any instruments with quality so low that they're "hobby-killers".

Since I couldn't find any info online and Willow Creek hasn't answered my email or FB Message about the sourcing of their wood, I thought I'd ask about the company here. Again, my Googling abilities must be lacking, but Willow Creek looks to me like they use proportionally more "exotic" woods for some of their products than others at the entry level, and as a conservationist, this is something that may be of a concern to me.

Thank you for taking the time to respond to me, and for confirming that these are indeed "you get what you pay for" instruments. I've been enjoying my little Eastman 304, purchased at the suggestion of the good folks on these forums, for the last few years. I'm not quite ready for an upgrade yet, but when I am, I'll be sure that it is indeed an upgrade!