Yesterday I joined the swelling ranks of excited MT owners. I went over to Danny Bishop's shop in the pastoral hills outside of Asheville and played a couple of new MT's that had been made for and displayed at his booth at IBMA.

Both instruments sounded quite wonderful to me, with eyebrow raising volume and sustain, great playability, and a stong, sweet tones up and down the neck. Both had an upgrade of ivoroid binding on the face, one had a gloss top and headstock, and one had (as noted in another thread) D'AD J74 strings while the gloss-topped one had FT-74's.

I chose (and paid $100 more for) the gloss-topped one partly because I preferred the tone just slightly (Danny thought it might be simply a matter of strings), but also because I liked the look of the gloss top with the ivoroid, and because the sunburst had a touch more contrast with a brighter, yellower (but still pale) center. Two beautiful, great sounding mandolins! I couldn't have gone wrong with either. Now I just have to learn to play the damn thing.

It was good seeing Danny again. He's a gentleman, fun to talk to, and a great mandolin player in his own right. If you ever get a chance to visit his shop, do it (call for appt). He's always got several awesome Collings guitars and mandolins around, seems to get some of the best new ones and find some special used ones, too. And he told me that Kenny Smith is probably going to do another workshop there early next year. I'll post a notice when that's coming up. Right now, though, a seductive voice is calling from the little black case in the corner.... Cheers!

B

Glad you made the leap there, and sorry I never got any info for ya about those two.
I know I just love mine and it sounds to me like you are already hooked.

RickS: no worries, mate. I appreciated the thought. I'm completely content with how things worked out. Cheers! B