Girouard Flamed Birch Mandola

**lauri Girouard** · Jun-29-2012, 3:18pm

Originally Posted by Spruce

I sent you some back in '08 that I recently found out was a street tree here in the NW...
Not sure of the species, but it had a broad slanted flame pattern....

I'll bet you can get that really nicely figured stuff in gentlemen's hardwood stores back there in the NE--true??
Just beautiful under a finish....

The second picture I posted (outdoors) is that wood Bruce! Loved it

We have a local lumberyard that sells boat wood. They have lots of birch and sometimes it has some figure on it. Thats all we found so far. That wild mandola birch is from old world tonewood.

Bruce, check out the mandolins in progress thread. That quilted maple was some you sent to us. It is awesome and I'm only at 120 grit.

**mrmando** · Jun-29-2012, 3:23pm

Originally Posted by Spruce

(And yes, I was under the false impression that there were a couple hundred thousand Gibson As and Fs sporting birch back and sides...)

Well, I mentioned only the serialized instruments ... I don't think that accounts for all the second-line Gibson instruments. How many of those were made, and how many used birch, one can only guess.

**Carleton Page** · Jul-01-2012, 7:31pm

I got tocplay to this mandola today. It was awesome! Fit and finish was really, rally nice. I really love the new varnish . Played really, really well. Killer sound! Just Wicked!

**Jake Wildwood** · Jul-01-2012, 11:05pm

Birch is great stuff -- to me you get more immediate cut and bark and honk from birch vs. maple which is a little more crisp and sustained. I say this generally as it applies to the many, many, many, many, many??? ...guitars and mandolins I've worked on that are spruce over birch from the 20s/30s.

**Max Girouard** · Jul-02-2012, 6:59am

I was lucky enough to have our friend Carlton give it a go during one of his shows. He is a multi instrumentalist, teacher and extremely talented mandolin (and mandola!) player in our area. It was so nice to be able to hear the mandola being played by him. Thanks Carlton!

**Carleton Page** · Jul-02-2012, 12:53pm

Thank you Max It was my pleasure! It is a wonderful instrument. I do not own a 'Dola. Maybe eventualy I can pony up the scratch to comission one. If you have something ready next week I would love to play one of your mandos too!