Originally Posted by
j. condino
One of my students, Zach Dease, and I received a generous Folklife grant from the North Carolina Arts Council to build a matched quartet of our choice from all North Carolina woods. This is my second matched quartet; a manner of building that I enjoy and has me thinking much deeper into how all the instruments work together as a cohesive unit. Most of my builds are from the last of the Lorax trees that were cut 50-100+ years ago and were coveted by several other luthiers before I purchased them from their widows. I've been wanting to get away from that and this local build was a great opportunity.
After a lot of deliberation, we've settled on a double bass, flattop baritone guitar, 16" L5 guitar, and an F5 mandolin. A slightly non-traditional combination that represents the spectrum of lutherie and musical possibilities that we wanted to build. An octave mandolin on the 16" L5 body was a strong contender, but in the end the L5 guitar won out. I couldn't imagine a North Carolina grouping without and F5, even though the fiddle was considered. In my double bass heavy world, nothing but a big double bass is even an option....no fretted small bodied mandobasses or long scale hurdy gurdy or mandocellos or any other close but no cigar substitutes. Those may work for some folks, but I play at least 75 gigs a year on the upright bass to a room full of rockin' grindin' dancin' beautiful fit sweaty hipsters run through a giant PA system and my big bass OWNS the room.
Here is a little sneak preview of the L5 fingerboard from local persimmon (Diospyros Virginiana). It is from the same log as the binding and rest of the fittings.
'Shoutout to the North Carolina Arts Council for all of their support and always to the Hampton Brothers for the finest tonewoods in the nation from the coolest guys in the business, many sourced locally right down the road from me.
More to come.....
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