David Hanson’s Brescian #3 now resides in my music room.
I thought I’d give it a brief review for those who may be interested in Brescians.
Materials: spruce sound board, birdseye maple back and neck, rosewood fingerboard, pegs, arm rest. The scale is 330mm. Strung with New Aquila Nylgut at a full tone below normal mandolin tuning: FCGD (A=393).
Build quality: Excellent.
Playability: Excellent
Tone: This is of most interest to me because I’ve never played with nylon strings on a mandolin. The closest instrument I’ve experienced to this Brescian is my 1890 Vinaccia: both instruments are light as a feather and the Vinaccia is strung with synth core G’s and D’s. The Brescian’s woods and the nylon strings result in a similarly round, resonant tone (is this partly because it is tuned down a whole step?) and seems particularly well balanced. The sound to my ears is deeply satisfying for the type of music I enjoy playing. An example might be the Fugue in Bach’s G-minor violin sonata (BWV 1001): the separate voices sound clear and balanced in ways that I haven’t been able to achieve with my other mandolins. [An aside: I intended to play the Brescian with my fingers rather than a pick but quickly realized that one has to develop this as a separate skill set. So, trying various picks in my box, I was delighted to find that a Dunlop .38mm pick, useless on my other mandos, was great on this Brescian.]
Not sure what more I can say. David has been totally great to work with, forthcoming with suggestions and responsive to every concern.
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