I had the good fortune this past week of picking up a mid-20s Larson Bros (Maurer) mandolin on eBay. It arrived yesterday and I thought I'd post some pictures for the mando folks around here. The instrument is crack free and is in excellent condition overall.

I don't "play mandolin", but I have a $750-ish Michael Kelly that I picked up a few years ago to mess around with from time to time. It sounds decent enough to me and sounds rather good when my 15 year-old (who is far more naturally gifted a stringed instrument player than I am) is wielding it. Well, after I wiped the Larson down last night and put new strings on it, I played both of them side-by-side. The difference, tone-wise, between the two instruments is absolutely astounding. The Larson is probably three times as loud, is much meatier sounding, and has sustain that is virtually endless. I was expecting it to be better, mind you ... but the other instrument sounds like a toy by comparison. And a bad toy at that.

I had my son play it and he could do nothing but shake his head.

Very, very cool ... and might be enough to get me to actually learn how to play the instrument a bit. I'd love to be able to compare it a newer "premium" mandolin, so if any of you have plans to be in College Station anytime soon, let me know and bring one along.

Enjoy the pics,
Mike

I just love it. Is that stained birch? I think any Larson Bros instrument in good shape is a wise buy. (Did you see that under-the-bed-for-70-years pearly OM that someone on the UMGF discovered?) I think you got a fabulous deal on this one, and to hear that it sounds great means even more. Congrats!

I initially assumed it was maple but then started thinking about it and realized that an awful lot of early mandos were made with birch. I've seen pictures of both and they can look very much alike, so I've got an email in to Bob Hartman (THE Larson expert) to get his take on it. This is one that he has some info on and that is included in his book, so hopefully he'll be able to tell me for sure.

I just threw this together last night. The first instrument is the Kelly and the second is the Larson.

http://homepage.mac.com/mw0705/.Public/mandomp3.mp3

Again, I don't actually PLAY mando (not yet, anyway) so it's nothing great. Just wanted to showcase the differences.

Oh ... and I had to bump the gain up about 8db on the Kelly to get them to record at the same volume level. Amazing. Without that adjustment, the Kelly absolutely sounds like a toy compared to this one.

And yeah, I saw the closet classic at UMGF. Ridiculous.

Nice. BIG difference on the way those two sound. I had a similar experience recording with a borrowed Ibanez and then with my Gibson (though I'm not a 'mandolin player' either). The Gibson sounded bigger, warmer and about a mile wider.

Let us know what info Bob comes up with.

That is a fantastic looking mando there Mike. Great shape to it - nice deviation from the usual. Best learn how to play that thing. Knowing your adept digits, I doubt that will be an issue.
Nice aquisition Dr.
Tom

quote:

Originally posted by peghead:
Nice. BIG difference on the way those two sound. I had a similar experience recording with a borrowed Ibanez and then with my Gibson (though I'm not a 'mandolin player' either). The Gibson sounded bigger, warmer and about a mile wider.

I really should've left the input gain at the same level for both instruments. That highlights the difference even more. I cannot begin to tell you how much louder and deeper the Larson is. Very interesting.

Peghead, Bob says he has never seen a birch Larson. I was pretty sure it was maple but had enough doubt about it to ask.