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Ne Plus Ultras
The Ne Plus Ultra project began a year and a half before completion with the purchase of an outrageously figured plank of 100+ year old maple, reported to have been in the estate of a New Hampshire luthier. Since the cost of the plank was also outrageous, the two mandolins the wood could produce would have to beyond special, beyond the Ultras, all the way to the Ne Plus Ultra -- an all-wood, plastic-free unique art mandolin. It would prove the most challenging project of my forty-year career. Read more about this special project...
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Charis's Custom Neoclassical
I met Charis at Mandolin Camp North three years where her friend, Bill, bought a Neoclassical. This year she decided it was time for her own mandolin, and she had a plank of 200-year-old maple to contribute to the project. There was just enough wood in the nicely flamed plank to make the sides, back, and multiple-piece neck. To best match the old maple, I used a piece of 100-year-old European spruce for the top. I had suggested that she might want some custom inlays, and she thought about it and responded that she'd like a crescent moon, some random stars for position markers, and maybe a luna moth. I down-played the luna moth idea but did it as a surprise to her. To fit the "night theme," I suggested a blue stained finish. With great trepidation, she finally agreed. The result was stunning but subtle, a perfect match for what Charis wanted.
She wrote:
"I took the mando to my mandolin teacher and had him set it up he was one of the few who when polled about color said to go for traditional at least until he saw this mando. So far
the response to seeing it is WOW
the response to playing it is also WOW
the response to hearing it is also WOW
awesome."
The sound was exceptionally clear and clean, as you would expect from old wood.
"Moose"
The idea for "Moose" started with a visit to Maine's celebrated Common Ground Fair where I saw some exquisite jewelry carved from moose bone. It was such a dense, beautiful material that I wanted to try it for a mandolin's nut and saddle. A friend who is a retired butcher got some bones for me, but it seemed like the mandolin ought to have more than just the moose bone nut and saddle. The inlay theme ought to center on moose. I decided on a bull and cow on the finger rest and a partial of a bull on the tailpiece. I first tried rosewood for the moose body, but it was too dark and disappeared into the ebony when buffed. Of course, real moose are very hard to see against a dark background, but this was impossible. So, end-grained mahogany was used for the moose bodies with grey-black pearl for antlers. Fingerboard position markers took a long while to imagine, and they finally emerged as moose tracks in grey-black pearl. For an additional touch, trees were cut from alternating pieces of green Ablam and inlaid above the nut---mooses and spruces! For body wood, I had a gorgeous semi-striped, semi-quilted one-piece back from Pennsylvania and a quilted neck and semi-quilted sides with an excellent red spruce top. I graduated it and set the tone bars to the standard of the Deluxe model for all styles of playing and installed a Feather pickup. Then the finish was a custom warm dark brown---moose colored. Gold hardware went best with it all. It is subtle but eye-catching. The most interesting part to me was the sound; I think the moose bone nut and saddle added something very distinct. It is one of my favorite mandolins for a clear but rich sound. "Moose" is available for $6,000 at Mandolin Brothers.
Europa Neoclassical
The Europa Neoclassical was one of six Neoclassicals built with outstanding European tonewoods. A local luthier discovered a rare cache of planks of sycamore maple of the quality used in the finest hand-made bowed instruments. I bought six sets of that wood which included sides, one-piece backs, and two-piece necks with an ebony center lamination. The best viola spruce went into the tops. To match the unique quality of the woods, the fingerboard has 2mm snail dots on the side and face, the hardware is black and gold, and the stain is a dark chocolate brown (like the Deluxe) with an extra coat of hybrid varnish. The voices of these mandolins are remarkable consistent and would be spectacular in a mandolin orchestra or group, but they went to separate homes where their enthusiastic owners love how they play classical, Celtic, jazz, and folk--styles that don’t require heavy strings. The tone of these mandolins was so special that I am continually searching for more of the same woods. I finally found some in 2006, and the Europa II is now being built, a limited series of 12 Europas with the addition of a bass sound port.
Pink Lady
The "Pink Lady," a special Neoclassical mandolin, came about when Rolfe discovered some pieces of pink ivory wood on Brad Goodman's table at the A.S.I.A. Symposium in 2005. The wood is from Africa and is very dense, and it seemed like it could be an interesting substitute for ebony on a special mandolin. Before leaving Symposium, Rolfe asked famous guitar maker Linda Manzer what color would go with pink, and Linda said, "Green." Rolfe had a particularly fine European spruce top and discovered a one-in-a-thousand red maple back to go with it. The rarity of that back is due to its extreme low mass; it weighs 25% less than a regular red maple back even while it is finished 10% heavier. With light strings and Neoclassical tone bar bracing, the selected top and back could really sing. When the mandolin was finished, I could see Linda was right; green shaded out to black was perfect with the pink ivory wood. The unique appearance and promise of the great tone caught the attention of professional musician Marian Heyman of the Heyman-Matos Duo, and the "Pink Lady" mandolin found a most-appreciative home.
Photos shared by Marian Heyman.
Daisies
The "Daisies" mandolin began with prime Neoclassical woods and construction and then concentrated on the inlaying. The idea of making the entire mandolin the "canvass" with inlays of daisies on just the ebony parts took six months from imagination to paper. The actual work of cutting out the designs and inlaying them into the ebony took probably seventy hours, one solid week for nothing but the fingerboard. When it was all done, the green stain shaded into black seemed the way to go with gold and black hardware on the tuners. The tailpiece turned out to be a problem when the lines of the stalks inlaid there did not exactly follow the lines of the stalks on the finger rest, so the tailpiece was redone. Also the original lady bug inlay was done in red (really pinkish) abalone, and it didn't look right. The redone lady bug was cut out of a deep red reconstituted stone for a more natural lady bug color. To really appreciate this mandolin and the complexity of the inlay, you have to see it in person. We are planning to show it at the Newport Guitar Festival in August of 2006 and then turn it over to its owner, Steve Trott of "The Highwaymen." Thanks for photographic help from the elite Procopio studio and the camera skills of Dave Ridley. Learn more about Dave at www.maineimagephotography.com.
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