Stage 1- the Elkhorn mandolin:
I went to South Plains College with Robb L. Brophy in 1980-82 and we've crossed paths a few times over the years. I'd heard that he was building mandolins and heard they were getting a good reputation but had yet to see one. At my son David's funeral, my friends John, Coy, and Dave, from OKC, showed up and I asked them to play music at the gravesite. John pulled out an Elkhorn mandolin- the first one I'd seen- but I didn't get to check it out, being somewhat preoccupied that day.
Stage 2- the 1967 D-28:
Customer sent the guitar in May. He has several other vintage Martins, including a '44 D-28 and he wanted me to scallop the '67 to a "deep scallop". Said the '67 was "sleepy" and didn't sound very good. I scalloped, did the popsicle brace, and Waverly tuners, all per his request. Videoed it for his approval. He said "it's wide awake now!" so I sent it back. I told him it would take 6-8 months for the scalloping to fully kick in, be patient. He got it, said he loved it. Case closed. I packed for Kaufman Kamp.
Stage 3- The Elkhorn crosses my path:
A year after David's funeral, I'm at Kaufman Kamp 2013. I was walking back to my dorm at night when I saw a friend of mine- Rick- alone in his room. Now, understand... it's dark, Rick has the light on and the light is illuminating the sidewalk. So, I turned and went in to visit with him. Hanging on the rack is a familiar looking mandolin. "What's that?", I asked. He said "That's an Elkhorn mandolin I just got from John." It was the mandolin John had played at David's funeral. So I played it and liked it a lot. I asked Rick to let me know if he ever wanted to sell it, knowing full well I probably couldn't afford it.
Stage 4- The D-28 comes back, damaged:
A month later, customer doesn't like the D-28 as much as he thought. He'd looked inside and said I didn't "deep scallop" it. I reminded him that it's gonna take 6-8 months to open up and I scalloped it as much as I'll ever scallop a guitar. Another couple of months goes by and he wants to send the guitar back for more scalloping. I said "fine, go ahead"- I'm going to hang it on the wall for 3 months before I even touch it, ya know? He wants me to send him a "Return" label from my UPS account. I do.
Guitar arrives and it has a 6" crack in the treble side of the upper bout in probably the best possible place for a top crack. We communicate and I comment that the guitar was poorly packed- no padding under the headstock, nowhere near close to enough padding in the too-small box, etc. Basically, NONE of my shipping instructions followed. He replied and said "it's the same box we used the first time!" and I said "Yeah, well, just because we survived it once doesn't mean we do it again". He blames me for his packing job!
So, I ask him "What do you want to do?" He says "I want full replacement value of the guitar" For a crack?!? I check with my insurance company and they will NOT cover it because he owns it and I don't. And unfortunately there's only $500 insurance on that Return because I thought the insurance company covered "Returns". Well, a "return" is when I own the guitar, ship it out, buyer doesn't want it, and sends it back; I've owned the guitar the whole time. Not the case here- he owns the guitar, he should've insured it. So, I explain all this to him and he keeps insisting on full replacement value because now the guitar has a crack and NONE of his guitars have a crack and the guitar is now worthless and then he says "and I want to replace it with something else" (which is what's _really_ going on here, I think).
So, I say "Well, insurance doesn't cover it so I will have to pay for this out of my own pocket". Having consulted with 2 former customers and 2 other luthiers in the meantime (3 of whom ask "how do you know it wasn't cracked _before_ he shipped it?", there being no damage to the case or the box), I offer some options and he continues on with "full replacement value" and then says "please don't make this into a legal dispute." At that point, I say "Enough of this" and write him a check for $4600 which _drains_ my account but I'm confident that I can fix the crack, sell the guitar, and recoup my $$$.
I fix the crack (no missing wood, it just snaps back together), spending 2 months on the finish repair to make it look as good as possible. I play the guitar and think "this thing's pretty nice!!!" and determine not to sell it for anything less than my personal cost in the guitar. I take it to Winfield and it's the hit of our Camp (in which there are 5 prewar Martins, and a stack of top-drawer small luthier guitars). Dick loves it, Tommy plays it A/B with his '53 D-18 and says "THIS is a NICE guitar!!!" and then plays it for another hour or so. And so on- in the end, 3 people came up to me and said "If Dick doesn't want it, let me know". I come really, really close to saying "The D-28's going home with me!" but Dick comes thru and a _promised_ check later, I've got my money back (well.. check's in the mail!).
Stage 5- Everything comes together:
So, I get back from Winfield and guess what? There's an e-mail from Rick and he wants to sell the Elkhorn in order to buy ..... drum roll, please..... a late 1960's Martin D-28. Dick was kind of debating whether to keep the D-28 from me or keep his tried/true '62 D-21, so I suggested that Rick talk to Dick about my D-28 (they know each other). The D-28 ended up going to Rick, the Elkhorn to me, and everyone was happy. In fact, because Rick was asking less $$$ for the Elkhorn than i was for the D-28, I actually got some $$$ back.
I'd have had trouble coming up with the money for the mandolin, but having _had_ to come up with it for the D-28, swapping was less painful than an outright purchase. And so here I am with a friend's mandolin that was played by a friend at my son's (another friend!) funeral swapped for with another friend, with yet another friend involved. In the meantime, the '67 made it to Kaufman Kamp 2014 where it was played by several people. I asked them how it was and was told "Excellent", "Sounds GREAT, plays like butter". I knew it was a good guitar.
Life is very interesting sometimes.
The 1967 D-28 the first time it was at my house:
Here it is again after it was mine:
The Elkhorn mandolin:
A second look at it:
How it compares to other mandolins:
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