OK. About a week ago I bought a new mandolin. It is an Eastman 504: an oval hole, A-style arch-top. An unashamed copy of an earlier Gbsn design. The main obvious difference is the use of a heavier, cast tailpiece instead of one of those ubiquitous, adequate, stamped-out jobs.
A lot of Americans will have a problem with the Eastman (as I have seen on other boards) because it is handmade in China.
Be that as it may: it IS handmade. It is beautiful. The finish is a spirit varnish, with a laquer which has been rubbed so far back that the varnish lies almost unprotected on the top. You only have to open the case to smell it.
It is loud, woody, full, fruity… Individual.
It actually sounds better that the 3 Gibbo originals I looked at.
Mandolin falls so perfectly under the stretch of my smallish hands, and this new instrument is SO cool. I have never put in so much practice time, nor made such rapid progress.
Congratulations! Being in love is a great feeling.
I wonder how many American Chinese-mandolin-bashers do their shopping at Wal-Mart (huge warehouse discount stores where most of the stuff is made in China)?
In any case, a hand-made Eastman is definitiely a different matter from Johnson/Tyler Mtn/Bean Blossom/etc, which are factory-made – might get lucky with a factory instrument, might not. I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about the Eastmans, and the oval-holes seem to always be in short supply, so they must be doing something right.
Hmm… maybe. Trouble is that I get that thing where my fingers turn to marshmallow in the presence of an audience or a mic.
At the session we do on Tuesdays I usually just play rhythm on all the songs except a couple where I play the melody along with the singer, and a couple of hornpipes and jigs that I play near the end of the night after a few Guinnesses to kill the stage-fright!
Oh, and Duelling Banjos, of course! I might do a clip of my appalling solo version of that! We’ll see!
I just got the Sam Bush DVD tute. I’m going to try and get my head around some bluegrass tunes.
I had to laugh when I saw Blackberry Blossom on there. When I learned that tune on whistle it claimed to be an Irish tune: now it seems to be masquerading as bluegrass!
I’m having great fun. Even taking the mando into the office so I can practice in my lunchtime!
