G
erry Hale from the Guitar Gallery advises that they now run regular monthly workshops.
The Guitar Gallery is located at 30 Johnston St, Fitzroy, and specialises in acoustic instruments. The focus of the shop has broadened to include a great selection of banjos, mandolins, and dobros as well as guitars. The Guitar Gallery is owned and staffed by musicians who also run a range of workshops and take classes and lessons in guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin in various styles such as Irish and bluegrass.
The tutors have many years of experience as performers and teachers of their chosen instruments. They create a warm and encouraging environment for students, from beginners to advanced.
Workshops run on Wednesday nights 7:00pm to 9:00pm:
- the first Wednesday is always banjo workshop
- the second Wednesday is always mandolin,
- the thiurd Wednesday is always Dobro
- the fourth Wednesday is usually eother fiddle or guitar
Gruhn Guitars has taken on distribution of Duff Mandolins. Western Australian luthier Paul Duff will now have his highly sought after instruments available through one of the worlds most notable instruments dealers in Nashville Tennessee – Gruhn Guitars. This makes Duff Mandolins available through three USA music outlets including Elderly Instruments and Mandolin Central.
Paul told us of his recent experience while on tour with Bluegrass Parkway last year where George Gruhn bought one of Paul’s instruments. In fact he purchased the very mandolin which Paul was using on tour. George fell for the instrument after hearing it and offered to take it after Paul had finished the tour. Paul delivered the instrument and it sold within a few weeks. George then bought another which was shipped to the USA just prior to the IBMA annual showcase. Four days later, that one sold too. Gruhn Guitars has since purchased a further two mandolins which they have taken delivery of and has agreed to become one of three Duff Mandolin distributors in the USA.
Gruhn Guitars claim to always have the world’s premier collections of vintage and used fretted instruments. Further, Gruhn Guitars also claim that if you need information or advice about buying an instrument, their sales staff are one of the most knowledgeable and experienced in the vintage world.
Mandolin Cafe reports that Mike Marshall will be accepting a limited number of students next month, by offering lessons both in his Oakland, California studio and for those who wish to study with him via the Internet utilising Skype technology.
Read the full article on Mandolin Cafe.
Contact Mike Marshall via his web site
Mandolin players, if you have ever wondered what it would be like to play an vintage mandolin from the 1920′s then this is the story for you.
Bill Graham has read or talked about the holy-grail mandolins since the 1970s. He has listened to them make music on recordings and marveled at the rich, clean tones.
He went for years with only faint hope that he would ever get to play one.
…the sound, feel and playability were different for me, too. I’ve held a Loar in disrepair, but this was my first opportunity to actually play one, high adventure for a bluegrass/jazz-grass fan - Bill Graham
Read Bill Graham’s article on Mandolin Cafe
Famed Australian luthier Steve Gilchrist, has started building a series of new Style 1 mandolins to be distributed through Nashville’s historical Gruhn Guitars – U.S. representative for Gilchrist mandolins.
Steve is also building a limited number of his highly sought after F5 style mandolins. Orders for these are now being accepted through Gruhn Guitars, with delivery expected to be early 2010.
The Style 1 mandolin features red spruce top, single strut brace, ebony fingerboard, clamshell tailpiece, Elite tuners, spirit varnish finish and Calton case at a price of $7,500.
The Gilchrist Model 5, inspired by the original Loar F-5, with the same options is priced at $22,500.
Visit the website – Gruhn Guitars.
The MF5 is Colins’ fully appointed oval hole F-style model. Colins’s website states that the larger oval sound hole and extra mass of the F-style body produce rich and vibrant tone that is well suited for jazz, swing, classical, Celtic and old-time styles. With a high gloss lacquer finish and elegant curves, this mandolin is a class act.
Features Include:
- Select Adirondack spruce top
- Premium maple back, sides and neck
- Full high-gloss nitrocellulose lacquer finish
- Grained ivoroid binding on body, neck and peghead
- Black/white purflings
- Grained ivoroid rosette and bound soundhole
- 13 frets to the body
- 22-fret radiused ebony fingerboard
- Adjustable truss rod
- X-bracing
- Collings adjustable ebony bridge
- Mother-of-pearl Collings logo
- Pearl dot fingerboard inlays
- Ebony peghead overlay
- Flourish peghead inlay
- Bone nut
- Collings original one-piece tailpiece
- Nickel or gold tuners
Dave Wendler of Wendler Instruments, advises that a friend of the family brought in an ‘old mandolin’ for him to repair. The instrument apparently belonged to her grandfather and had been in the family for at least sixty years. Dave advises that her mother wanted to get the mandolin into playing shape so perhaps one of the grand kids could learn to play.
Dave says There is some work to be done, and most of the mandolin experts I’ve spoken with in the last few days say that Steve Gilchrist is the guy to do the restoration, and he’s Australian. Perhaps one of you folks need a fine old Gibson? We are not going to restore before the sale, we felt it was best to leave this up to the purchaser.
Additional reading:
Travis Tackett writes for the Bluegrass Journal about Danny Roberts’ 1922 F5 Loar Mandolin.
Danny Roberts of The Grascals fame finally possesses what the mandolin world considers the Holy Grail — a Gibson F5 made by or under the supervision of Lloyd Loar.
But the prized instrument didn’t simply fall into Roberts’ very capable picking hands. In fact, its odyssey and Roberts’ quest to own the Loar make for adventurous tales.
For those living outside the mandolin realm, Lloyd Allayre Loar was a Gibson sound engineer and master luthier in the early part of the 20th century. He is most famous for his refinements of the F5 model mandolin, but also known for his work on other Gibson products, including the L5 guitar, H5 mandola, K5 mandocello and A5 mandolin.
Read the full story Bluegrass Journal
erry Hale from the Guitar Gallery advises that they now run regular monthly workshops.
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