De Faoite Road Trip Mandolin comes to Somerset

Just caught? this before going of to Spain - had I mentioned that before?

Keith your musical expertise in creating such great multitracked tunes never ceases to amaze me. Lovely pics as well

Marvellous, simply marvellous!!

Phil

Hi Keith

Will only be able to check in with my IPod Touch every couple of days or so from a wifi zone at a local bar.

Cheers

Phil

Keith,

That's the beauty of live recordings though. The energy of the playing is much better than a clinically engineered version and the image of the Tone Faeries playing bhodran is just too perfect

Just catching up a bit Keith- Love Tanya's tune, and the tone you get is absolutely fantastic. Sounds like you had a good time with CBT overall

Robbie

Having just had a brief re-acquaintance with CBT has reminded me that you deserve more than the short review above Dave! So, without going OTT into reams of stuff, to that I would add -

Appearance - beautifully chosen and assembled woods - no unnecessary flash, just luscious woodiness. The bubinga back is very 3-D looking in the right light and at the right angles. A very elegant looking instrument I think. All the wood colours complement each other perfectly. The "anterior" strap button isn't where I'd put it from the aesthetic point of view, but works well functionally.

Playing comfort - the brief was to produce a "guitarist friendly" mandolin - result - success! The longer than most scale length helps to some degree, but the wider string spacing based around a 34mm f/b width at nut is the real winner for me. Some mandolins are 28mm which I find very cramped; my Fylde is 30mm which is much better, but the 34mm of CBT gives a much airier feel and allows me to finger very easily and successfully some chord shapes that I find tricky on my Fylde. The spacing didn't seem to hinder my tune playing, though admittedly that isn't as fast as I would like to begin with.

The guitar sized fretwork is very neat, and allows an easy playing feel and a low action with no untoward noises - this could well still be a work in progress as CBT settles down. Dave was kind enough to put a new nut and saddle on CBT after Joe had passed it on. I subsequently shimmed the saddle a tiny bit to elimimate a couple of slight buzzes on the D and A pairs. When I passed it on to Ben I thought I should maybe have gone a little higher at the saddle, but when CBT returned a few weeks later it felt and sounded just fine. As the f/b is curved, maybe it might help to have the A and D pairs set slightly higher at the saddle than the G and E pairs?

The binding around the top is a little sharp, and can cause some forearm discomfort - a minor point and one which could easily be remedied.

The tailpiece is the only problem really, and that was due to suppliers changing their spec. The G and E string pairs are forced to take a fairly sideways angled path over the saddle which looks odd, but also makes it difficult to get a properly notched saddle to reroute the string well, and hold it laterally and give a clean exit from the saddle. I believe Dave is looking to change the tailpiece, having sourced some which will allow a more suitable string spacing.

The wound strings are lightish for a mando, (intentionally so) and I tended to find them feeling slightly loose compared to the unwound strings. Maybe I'd have done a little experimentation (Dave did supply some slightly heavier Gs) given longer. I'd especially like to try a slightly lighter A pair to even out the transition from wound to unwound.

Sound - full of character - loud, sustaining, chiming, rich. Well, you've heard it, at least in the recordings. The deeper than usual body adds richness I'm sure. The resulting sound, especially strummed on not new strings has an almost guitar-like quality to it somehow thanks to the sustain - I liked that. With new strings the sound is very clear and crisp yet still richer than you'd expect. Very much liked the sounds this instrument is capable of producing! The soundport helps the player to appreciate the sound all the more. Very responsive instrument, as you'd expect from Mr White.

Other stuff - CBT comes in a rectangular Hiscox mandolin case - light and strong, with a huge amount of storage space for straps and strings, sandwiches, underwear etc. plus Dave's usual "case candy" - build CD and instrument leaflet.

I really enjoyed my time with CBT - a characterful, easy to play and great sounding instrument. In fact, as I said before, I like it a lot, and it's good as well! Thanks again for the chance of experiencing CBT Dave!

I'm looking forward to seeing/hearing how other Road Trip participants get on with CBT. Also hope that Andrew (jw), who hadn't made it back from his travels in time to get his go, will be able to slot in somewhere else along the line. CBT will shortly be moving on to Paul (scorpiodog)after a short pitstop at Dave's.

So, having finally got this done, I can turn my full attention to CBM!

Keith

Excellent result with the new tailpiece Dave - couldn't get much straighter than that - looks better too. say Hi to Paul for me - have a great day down Wimborne way, a Wimborne way, a Wimborne way, a Wimborne way..... Soory,,,silly!

Keith