Post a pic of your cbom's

Jan-18-2005, 6:25pm

Id really love to see what some of you guys are playin on,Share notes perhaps.

**Mike Crocker** · Jan-19-2005, 8:22am

I can't post pictures at the moment, but my guitar shaped bouzouki can be seen at www.house-guitars.com at his photo page. It's the one with the rising sun inlay on the fretboard and purpleheart rosette.

Peace, Mooh.

**otterly2k** · Jan-19-2005, 9:41am

Mooh-- the purpleheart rosette is sweet! (couldn't see the inlay). Will take post some pics of mine soon...

Jan-19-2005, 11:12am

Well Ive posted a couple pics of my zouk on another board, but this would be a most apropriate board to post a pic. I'll start us off then.....

Jan-19-2005, 11:19am

Mooh,

That guitar shaped zouk is very nice.I like the rosette alot. Hows she sound?

**Mike Crocker** · Jan-19-2005, 12:25pm

Thanks for looking folks! (In that site, just click on the image for the whole thing.)

The purpleheart was from Lee Valley Tools and I had several pieces on my shop so I asked the builder to use it. The walnut from the neck was mine but the back and sides walnut were the builder's, the inlay is heavily figured birdseye maple, cedar top.

This thing has sustain forever, and I like that, but the tone is divine. I've had trouble prying it out of the hands of the local players so far. The side port helps me hear it too, and catches my drool and cracker crumbs.

Peace, Mooh.

**BluegrassPhilfromFrance** · Jan-19-2005, 3:58pm

I'm gonna get my brand new Coufleau "Mandolin on Steroïd" tomorrow so I'm gonna send some pictures very soon. Yeahhhhhhhhhh !!

Jan-20-2005, 11:21am

Post some pics of that badboy.....

**Lefty&French** · Jan-20-2005, 1:06pm

Come on, Phil...
Last time I saw your Coufleau OM, it was in the white, and looked very very impressive. Just whistle, and I'll come hearing that beauty!

**steve V. johnson** · Jan-20-2005, 9:44pm

OK, here we go, the 'history'...

My first was a Johnson MA-550. We didn't get along well at all. <G> Here is the Fylde Octavius that I bought from a kid in the far north of Canada. I loved this one! Its neck is very guitar-like, with a zero-fret and a (guitar-style) pin bridge. Even with the small body, the pin bridge gave it a lovely warmth. Mahogany neck, back & sides and a cedar top. Many wonderful sessions and gigs were had with this one!

stv

**steve V. johnson** · Jan-20-2005, 9:57pm

Then, having gotten a much better idea of what I wanted in a zouk, I explored luthiers until Phil Crump turned out to be The Right Guy, and I ordered a B-II two-point bouzouki from him, with cedar top and rosewood back and sides.

Here is a pic from a concert last summer. The crowd was having fun, I was having fun, and I always do with this zouk, I love it so!

**steve V. johnson** · Jan-20-2005, 10:05pm

So... the Crump has such a powerful low end, and I am so capo-debilitated (I'm getting better...) that I thought it would be nice to have a shorter octave mando to complement the big B-II. #So I hunted around and finally found (on the Cafe Classifieds, of course!) this lovely Fylde Touchstone. #I had had a really good time with the Octavius, so I tried this one out. #With back and sides of sapele, a mahogany neck and spruce top, it was very different from the others. #The lows are huge, the top really sparkling and the physical size really comfortable. #In fact, the tonal range was deeper than I had expected, so it did (for me) things a bit too much like the Crump. #The neck is also a very different shape, wider a the nut and increasing in width up the neck, and so -very- different from the Crump's narrow shape all the way up. # After advertising this one here to no takers, I sold it on eBay last week. #I kinda miss it... <G>

**steve V. johnson** · Jan-20-2005, 10:12pm

Wooops.... left out the pic... Sorry!

I still think it would be fun to have a 22" or 23" scale OM, esp with a more dry, mando-like tone. Maybe ... a Sobell, Smith, an Arrow or ... I do want to hear a Michael Kelly F-model, too.

Here's the Touchstone:

**steve V. johnson** · Jan-20-2005, 10:15pm

I sort-of had another one here.... It was a lovely Trillium that Mike Dugger of the Glen Road band was selling. I really enjoyed it but knew that it just wasn't for me. Our pal Otterly2k has it now, and it seems that they suit one another quite well! Maybe she'll show us that one?

And maybe we'll get luckier still and AdareSteve will post pictures of his Fylde and Freshwater zouks here! He let me play the Fylde all evening at a lively session there in Adare, and it's a real sweetie.

Thanks,

stv

**PhilGE** · Jan-20-2005, 11:08pm

A few pix of my Spira Mandola and a quick sound byte of John Brown's March.

**Mike Buesseler** · Jan-21-2005, 10:00am

Ohmygod, PhilGE, that thing sounds like a cathedral! I'd have sworn it was an OM. I never thought I wanted a mandola, but now I'm drooling....VERY nice. Nice playing, too!

**steve V. johnson** · Jan-23-2005, 11:15am

Beautiful Spira, Phil!!

stv

**BluegrassPhilfromFrance** · Jan-24-2005, 12:22am

Originally Posted by (Lefty&French @ Jan. 20 2005, 13:06)

Come on, Phil...
Last time I saw your Coufleau OM, it was in the white, and looked very very impressive. Just whistle, and I'll come hearing that beauty! #

Hello Lefty Boy,

He, he, he ... the Coufloctave is at home now. We might organize a jam very soon so be ready and keep your ears wide open ... the phone might ring soon !

**halfdeadhippie** · Jan-24-2005, 5:54am

I like the Spyra - looks and sounds nice,

I'll admit I'm not a fan of the wide tear drop

wasn't it mandola man who had a beautiful sounding and looking mandola?

for some strange reason I find myslef back on mandolin more - so I think I am gearing up for a new mandolin

I saw Mike Marshall playing his Monteleone Mandocello - unbelieveable tone - probably goes without saying.

I still like my freshwaters though.

stormymorning

**danb** · Jan-24-2005, 7:02am

I don't own it anymore, but it sure is pretty..

**oldwave maker** · Jan-24-2005, 9:19am

21.5" scale 47-34-23-13 unisons no whammy bar yet, since we dont play celtic surf music

**PhilGE** · Jan-24-2005, 1:13pm

MikeB et al, yeah - that's the sound of the Spira alright. It has an amazing sound, not like a traditional archtop. It's kind of like a blend of mandolin, piano, and harpsichord. There's plenty of volume, too. Enough raving about it for now...

To give credit where due, it was Dolamon who turned me on to Jack Spira. I came very close to buying an Old Wave mandola, but for some reason didn't (I've said plenty about my Old Wave oval-hole A mandolin). Jack made the whole process very easy (as did Bill for my mandolin). Thanks again to Dolamon!

-Phil

P.S. I'm back home after an arduous weekend tending to my daughter's surgery to correct a depression fracture in her skull (long story, those on Comando have a clue). I'm grateful to be back home and to play music again for my children. Now, for a well deserved nap!