The builders we represent work in small numbers, maybe a dozen per year in a lot of cases, so wait lists can run long and shops rarely have more than one on hand. As a result, many players buy a boutique mandolin without ever having played one. You end up choosing from recordings, reputation, and whatever a friend told you at a festival.
We would rather you hear them next to each other. Our mandolin lineup runs deep: Collings, Girouard, Kimble, Ellis, Clark, Campanella, Mowry, Lawrence Smart, Bayard, and Fletcher Brock, among others. F-style and A-style, carved tops across the range, and enough of them at once that the differences stop being theoretical. We will ask early whether you want an F or an A, and whether that is about sound or about looks. Both are fine answers, and an A from the same builder often gets very close on tone for less money.
The better question is what the instrument needs to do for your specific situation. A dry, barky chop for a bluegrass band is a different design goal than the open sustain a Celtic or jazz player wants, and builders lean one way on purpose. Tell us what you play and what you wish your current mandolin did differently, and we will pull the two or three worth your time. Some people sort it out over email or a phone call and have the mandolin shipped. Others drive in from across New England to spend an afternoon with them at our showroom, about 20 minutes from downtown Boston.
