My first ever octave mandolin arrived yesterday. It’s a 2016 Weber Gallatin octar:
I purchased this from Bernunzio’s where it showed up on the store’s New Arrivals listing last Monday as a “Weber Gallatin Irish Bouzuki (2016)”. The photos were beautiful (I’ve always appreciated the Gallatin aesthetic), and having wanted an octave for some time, and being familiar with the quality of Weber builds (I have a 2013 Yellowstone mandocello), I sprang for it. It arrived yesterday and I tuned it up this morning.
My online search for information brought out the fact that this was marketed in its day as an “octar”. It’s serial number, 1613807, tells me (according to earlier Cafe postings re octars and Weber serial numbers) that it was the 138th octar built as a Weber. Bruce, responding to my query, emailed me to say that it was one of the last — built in late 2016 by TOH after Bruce had left and was signed by his son, Bruce
J. Weber.
It is a formidable machine. The instrument is in nearly pristine condition. It is built with a carved tonebar braced Sitka spruce top and mahogany carved back, rim, and neck. Its scale length of 23 ˝ inches will take some getting used to … fingering will be like a tenor guitar or tenor banjo. I can’t say exactly what the strings are, except that they are thick and will cause me to grow deep and profound calluses. The sound is rich and clear (as long as I fret properly) and with its 4 ˝ inch deep body, it rings with a sustain that does carry on — the former owner had rubber grommets both below the bridge and above the nut.
Whatever will I do with this beast? In the short term, it will let me strum chords comfortably in old time jams. Further down the road, I hope to explore using it in a classical vein … but exactly which vein I’m not sure.
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