I walked away from the conversation in possession of a brand new Elliott Elite Capo for my guitar.

I owned one of the original Elliott push buttons for years, until it disappeared at a gig several months ago. I’d been laboring along with a standard, spring-loaded, clamp style capo until now. What a joy it is to once again have an Elliott capo on my Collings!

And this new Elliott Elite is even better than the original. The Elite design is so slender it doesn’t get in the way at all. This capo really is smaller than the previous model I had, which was smaller than the standard variety spring-clamp capo. This sleek design really serves to keep the capo out of the way of your left hand as you play.

The Elite also features a longer saddle (leather padded), which makes it easier to keep the capo centered on the instrument neck. And of course, the patented Elliot push button design.

Speaking of design, these capos are finely crafted and even though it’s a small piece of hardware, you can sure feel the quality of the craftsmanship when you hold it in your hand. The screw mechanism is smooth, nothing seems loose, but neither is it overly tight. The push button is perfect, easy to use, yet secure enough that you have no fear of it coming unlatched during use.

The real advantage of this sort of capo lies in the thumb screw. As opposed to a spring-clamp sort of capo, the thumb screw allows the player to adjust the capo to have exactly the correct amount of tension on the strings. Not over clamping, allows for a very transparent sound which doesn’t adversely affect tuning the way a spring operated capo does.

If you are looking for the best capo, look no further. The price tag is serious at $160, but if you’re serious about your music, you can’t afford to use anything less.

The guitar version comes in the following standard neck widths: 1 11/16″, 1 3/4″, 1 13/16″, and 1 7/8″. If you need something special for a different neck width, give Phil a call and he’ll take care of you.

For the banjo, you have the options of a B capo or a C capo.

I took a few photos of the capo to share with you. I hope these give you a sense of the capo’s size and craftsmanship.

Rick Hayes Instruments, makers of dreadnaught guitars and F-5 mandolins, is proud to announce today that Clay will be endorsing their mahogany guitar. It is a solid wood guitar, made with Honduran mahogany back, sides and neck, and high grade spruce for the top. The fingerboard and bridge are of West African ebony, and the guitar sells for $2999.

As you might expect, Clay speaks very highly of the guitar.

“The Rick Hayes guitar I have been playing for the past year is one of the top five guitars I’ve ever played. I recorded most of my new recording with a 1938 D18, which is my favorite guitar. I recorded the rest with the Hayes guitar. I’ll let y’all try to tell which is which because I can’t.”

More details can be found on Rick’s web site.

During the month of October only, you can order any Colorado Case Company branded soft case, case cover or rigid case in pink.

We will then donate 25% of the base case price to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. This money will be used to help find a cure for breast cancer through increased research and awareness.

In addition to this gorgeous pink color, we will be embroidering a pink ribbon on each case at no extra charge.

This offer is only valid through the end of October 2009. Full details online.

I never tried it myself, but know many pickers who swear by the practice, insisting that it helps new instruments open up faster, and offering a more balanced tone and response more quickly.

This is the concept behind ToneRite, a product developed by a trio of stringed instrument-playing engineers to provide a more direct, efficient method for accelerating this process.

The company was founded by Augi Lye, Ryan Frankel, and Hans Yeakel after Lye became frustrated that he didn’t have the time to play his new cello enough to break it in adequately. Augi had a background in acoustical physics, and enlisted Frankel (with his military signal processing expertise) and Yeakel (an industrial engineer) to assist in developing a product that could be demonstrated to deliver the goods.

Their first production model was debuted in 2007, and the new Luthier Model design was introduced at the IBMA convention last week.

The ToneRite sits atop, or rests against, the bridge of your instrument where it delivers a specific set of frequencies to the vibrating surfaces. The company’s testing indicates that a minimum of 72 hours of use on a new instrument generates dramatic results, and recommends 2 or 3 similar 72-hour treatments in the first few weeks.

Regular use for an hour prior to playing a few times each week is also recommended for maintaining the tone and responsiveness of an older instrument.

Grasstowne mandolinist Alan Bibey is a fan…

“The ToneRite supercharged my instruments to their max in volume and tone! One of the most useful new products I’ve seen in a really long time!”

ToneRite models are available for guitar, mandolin, violin, viola, cello and bass. Prices range from $150-$250.

Full details can be found on their web site.

The Goodtimes family of banjos are a budget-minded bunch, built by Deering in their shop near San Diego, CA. 12 different models are available, starting at just under $500.

We’re not sure which model(s) will be available at the Steve Martin concerts, or whether they are likely to hold collectible, limited-edition value over time.

You can find all the tour info online.

Sim hasn’t decided yet whether it will officially be dubbed the Adam Steffey Model, but that is what it will be no matter what its called. It’s the instrument Adam is playing now with The Dan Tyminski Band and you can have one just like it.

• Solid spruce top
• Premium curly maple back sides and neck
• Side and top fully bound with Ivoroid
• Flat fingerboard with small gauge fret-wire.
• 1” neck width (at the nut) with speed neck
• No fingerboard dots or headstock inlay (except “Daley” logo sat straight in headstock)
• Fingerboard abbreviated to the 18th fret
• Solid black face color with Crimean sunburst back, sides, neck and headstock
• Satin lacquer finish
• Waverly tuners and James tailpiece with nickel hardware

The new Steffey will sell for $8500 and orders placed now can be expected for delivery in 10-12 months.

Sim sent along a number of photos of the mandolin, and of Adam when he first came to pick it up.

He is really excited about the banjo, a soon-to-be-released Chris Pandolfi signature model Huber. It will differ from the rest of the Huber line in that it employs a mahogany rather than a maple rim. The fingerboard is also fairly stark by modern standards, using dot inlays with a winged emblem at the 5th fret and Chris’ signature at the 21st fret.

Chris worked with Steve Huber to design the banjo, and is delighted with the result.

“I’ve been playing it around the clock for the past couple weeks and it’s really sounding great. It’s been a long process, and Steve has been really gracious with his time to make sure we get this right.

It has a very big dynamic range, which I think comes from the mahogany rim, allowing for a wider range of tone and dynamics – especially away from the bridge.

My goal all along with this banjo was to find something that suits my playing – a more modern as opposed to traditional approach. I still love to play grass, and I prefer a typical bluegrass set up, which I find more responsive.

You can set this banjo up with lighter strings and lower action, and the rim (to my ear) serves to mellow out the tone with a normal bluegrassy set up. But it doesn’t sacrifice anything when it comes to bluegrass playing.

Noam Pikelny (of Punch Brothers) came by the other day with his old pre war, and we got all the banjos out for some side-by-sides. He had his flathead and I had my two Hubers – the new one and my Lancaster – plus my Robin Smith banjo. Especially comparing the two Hubers, you could hear the difference that comes from the mahogany rim.

Noam really dug the new Huber too.”

Chris and the rest of the ‘Dusters will be packing it up and heading to Charlottesville, VA next week to record their next album for Sugar Hill Records. They will be recording at Haunted Hollow, the private studio of the Dave Matthews Band.

“Our manager works with their management on some things, and he hooked us up with this place. The Dave Matthews Band built it with the label advance for one of their projects a few years ago, and it is awesome.

We’ll all be living in a big house for nine days out in the woods, adjacent to the studio. Their gear list is amazing, and the rooms are beautiful. We decided to do it there to get out of Nashville to record, do something different, and explore the various sorts of music the Stringdusters can do.”

Gary Pacsoza will be engineering, along with Brandon Bell. Chris said that Pacsoza will be producing, along with the band.

“We have already done pre-production ourselves, and will share the producer credit with Gary. Most of the material was written by band members, a lot of it in group writing sessions. We’ve been leaving Nashville for 3-4 days at a time to write and work on new material as a band, and it has really paid off.

With six guys – all serious writers and players – the arranging is as important as the writing. Just trying to find an effective way to use six instrumental voices is a challenge in itself. It can be tricky with so many writers and musicians working together that we have a clear understanding and mutual respect for each other. It makes it easier to loosen your own artistic grasp and work as a group without so much ego involvement. I try to never take for granted what a great situation we have with the Stringdusters.”

The guys will finish recording at the end of the month and plan to make it to IBMA by Wednesday (9/30). We’ll try to get some feedback on how the recording went when we see them in Nashville.

I tried to get Chris to categorize the new material and the sound they are going for on this new project, but he deferred.

“I hesitate to try and describe the musical direction of this new record. For us, we don’t try to have many discussions about what we do, or what we should do – we just try to approach the songs and the arrangements as musically as we can as a group. It reflects what we’ve learned as a band over the years, and how we each now write material tailored to the band sound.

I guess I can say that it will be the most in depth exploration yet of what we do as a band, without setting stylistic expectations. It will be our most current musical statement.”

You can take that to the bank!

In addition to playing banjo with The Infamous Stringdusters, Pandolfi is also their official videographer. Here is his latest effort, a promo for the band’s upcoming November tour.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Disc 1 contains a good deal of instruction in the areas of technique, practice routines, ear training, transposing tunes to various keys, etc. Examples are given using familiar bluegrass tunes such as 9lb Hammer, Banks of the Ohio, and continues on disc two with Pretty Polly.

Following all that instruction, Jim then teaches several of his most requested tunes, to round out the program.

The video trailer for the project was just finished yesterday and we’ve got an exclusive look at it for our readers here on The Bluegrass Blog. This is just a short showcase of the techniques and tunes you’ll learn on this DVD.

Enjoy…

Click here to view the embedded video.

John adds: Is this April Fools Day and I didn’t notice?

That’s not what it’s about. Voice is the name of this interesting new device from Artioli Designs which allows a guitarist to “hold down” a common first position chord form, leaving the left hand free to either solo over the chord or add alternate voicings. It fits over the first four frets of the fingerboard, and will hold down any chord shape which you make using the Voice Capo’s corresponding buttons.

Here’s a video that demonstrates its operation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Both Huber Banjos and American Made Banjo Co. are now producing parts for sale to banjo builders – both professional and hobbyist – and as replacements in vintage, pre war banjos. In both cases, these are the parts used in the finished banjos these two companies offer, now available for the first time for sale as separate components.

The two catalogs of parts overlap for the most part, though Huber offers a mix of wooden and metal parts, and American Made has a more complete listing of machined components. In addition to tone rings, resonator hardware, arm rests and coordinator rods, Huber has their resonators and rims available for sale. American Made doesn’t have any wooden parts listed on their site, but has all the metal hardware for a flathead, Mastertone-style banjo.

Tom Mirisola of American Made Banjo acquired his own machine shop earlier this year to manufacture banjo parts, and installs them in his Kel Kroydon banjos. You can see the complete list of parts on their web site.

Steve Huber is continuing to work towards the point where all the components in his Huber Banjos are made in house, and has only a few parts left before that goal is reached. He will be announcing two new tone ring models and a new Huber engineered rim within the next few weeks.

See the list of Huber Vintage parts online.

Both companies also offer custom made heads, straps bridges and strings, and Huber makes a deluxe capo as well.

It’s the D-28 Dan Tyminski Custom Edition, made to resemble his classic 1946 herringbone, the one he has used on the road for years with Alison Krauss, and fronting his own band. It is made with an Adirondack spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, and a mahogany neck with ebony fingerboard and bridge

Dan is also featured in the July ‘09 edition of Martin’s Sounding Board Newsletter, which includes a more detailed description of the guitar.

Back and sides of East Indian rosewood combine with a top of Adirondack spruce for warm, ringing tone, impressive projection and extraordinary headroom. A comfortable genuine mahogany 1 11/16″ (at the nut) “modified V” neck with long diamond volute contributes to player comfort, while the black ebony fingerboard and belly bridge add classic beauty and longevity.

Tyminski makes his namesake Custom Edition his own with distinctive details sure to appeal to flatpickers. Scalloped 5/16″ Adirondack spruce top braces cross in the non-forward “rear-shifted” position to provide uncommon balance and clarity. Special 2 1/4″ string spacing at the bridge and hand polished “bull nose” (i.e., rounded) fret ends speed both strums and runs.

The appointments are equally distinctive: bold pattern herringbone around the top, a headstock featuring Martin’s Golden Era¬Æ decal logo on a polished East Indian rosewood headplate, Martin’s historic pressure stamp on the back and nickel Waverly‚Ñ¢ tuners with oval buttons. Long/Wide Pattern “Diamond & Squares” abalone pearl fingerboard position markers run from the 3rd fret to the 17th fret, with a unique, oversized “wide diamond” at the 9th fret.

The Tyminski D-28 carries a retail price of $5149.00, with a Geib-style case. Complete product specs can be found on the Martin site.

The Sierra is Deering’s least expensive tone ring banjo ($2699), making it perhaps the lowest priced professional model banjo made in the US. It is offered as a traditional five string model, as well as an open back, tenor or plectrum. A left handed Sierra is also available.

To demonstrate the newly reconfigured Sierra, here is Deering endorser and banjo marvel Jens Kruger, who walks us through the new features and gives us a tune.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Barry had a lot of news to share, particularly about what will be his newest instrument, a Chadwick Folding Bass. The bass is the brainchild of Charlie Chadwick, a Nashville musician who has suffered the frustrations of traveling with an upright bass for many years.

He had tried using whatever instruments might be available at his performance destinations, and a number of the travel basses available on the market. He tired of the uncertainty of using unfamiliar basses and the unsatisfactory tone and responsiveness of scaled-down travel instruments, which led him to start experimenting with the concept of a folding bass.

Chadwick’s design involved a hinged neck that folds back and is stored inside the body of the bass – along with the fingerboard, tailpiece, bridge and end pin – and can be broken down and reassembled in a matter of minutes. He took his first prototype on the road with John Jorgenson Quintet in 2004 and while touring with Jorgensen this last few years, he has continued to refine his design.

Once he felt that he had everything working as it should, Charlie converted a Samuel Shen bass in 2007. He had the opportunity to show it to Shen in 2008, who immediately recognized the value of the concept. Soon Shen and Chadwick were discussing how these folding basses could be manufactured at the Shen factory in China for the international market.

They are now available for sale as the Chadwick Folding Bass, offered for $2999 with a hard shell case. This is a plywood bass with an ebony fingerboard and an oil varnish finish.

Check out this video of Charlie breaking the bass down for travel:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Barry said he tried one out for several weeks and found the tone and responsiveness to be quite good, and that he plans totake his Chadwick whenever he has to fly for either Dan Tyminski or Alison Krauss shows.

You can find many more photos and details on the Chadwick site.

The company was determined not to lay off any of its employees, and implemented a few measures to assure it wouldn’t need to.

…given the special woodworking skills involved in guitar making, Martin wanted to avoid layoffs. The company figured it is better to find a way to keep workers occupied than face the challenge of having to train new ones after the economy recovers. The solution: Copy what many big retailers do by offering a lower-priced alternative. The dilemma was how to do that without sacrificing quality or muddying its image.

Accordingly, the company introduced The 1 Series in April of this year. The guitars lack inlay adornment, use “a type of lacquer that doesn’t require time-consuming polishing” and feature solid wood construction (no plywood). The price point is under $1000.

It’s great to see a company concerned about its employees, and turning out a quality product that people can afford and will enjoy.

Way to go Martin!

Note: The link to the online article will only be available for 7 days from today for non-subscribers.

Like the original Paige capo designs, The Clik uses a direct center tension mechanism and the “store behind the nut” design that most acoustic musicians prefer.

Amber Slade, Director of Marketing for Paige, tells us that The Clik starts with the tried and true Paige design, built with a simpler structure, and incorporating some new twists to allow for quicker capo changes.

Our products have maintained a direct center tension design since 1988. This design which we’ve of course maintained in The Clik is now complimented by the following features:

• A finish safe tubing to protect all contact points of the instrument and capo.
• A quicker locking and releasing bar
• An advanced quick release mechanism with precision adjustment.

To extrapolate on this feature, our line of original Paige Capos included a screw feature used for both applying and releasing the capo. The Clik maintains the screw feature but now with an innovative button (release mechanism) that aids in quick release. As illustrated in our packaging instructions: The screw is pushed toward the neck until the last click is heard. The tension is then finely adjusted until the strings voice clearly.

Because of the new mechanism, precision adjustment is maintained with the availability of a quick change action. All the while eliminating any string buzz or muting because it will never pull from the side.

The Clik will be available for all the current Paige capo models. Pricing has not been officially settled, and will be announced at NAMM (July 17-19), but $29.95 seems to be where they expected it will be listed.

The Madison is offered in both a resonator and open back version, both built with a 3-ply maple rim. The necks are made from maple with rosewood fingerboards. Planetary tuner and a geared 5th string peg, plus dual coordinator rods, are also included on both.

The resonator model (RK-R25) features a tube and plate flange which attaches the maple resonator, and a fan inlay pattern adorns the fingerboard and headstock. The open back version (RK-O25) is inlaid with a simple dot pattern.

These new banjos will be available from Recording King dealers worldwide. The resonator model carries a retail price of $659.99 and the open back $499.99.

Rick has teamed up with fellow luthier Dann Ross to augment his F-style mandolins with a handcrafted, steel string guitar. It is made with a AAA red spruce top and Honduran mahogany back and sides. The bridge and fingerboard are ebony without fretboard position markers, and Rick’s signature is inlaid at the 14th fret.

Until last fall, Rick toured as the mandolinist with The Gibson Brothers, a position he relinquished in October ‘08 to concentrate on his instrument building and recording studio businesses. Hayes has also worked as a graphic artist, and feels that his performing/recording experience, together with the eye of an artist, allows him to build instruments that please both the eye and the ear.

The Hayes guitar sells for $2999 with a hard shell case. They are available directly from Rick’s shop, or through MyFavoriteGuitars.com.

To keep the price down, Gibson has built these two without neck or headstock binding, a sunburst finish, or a fancy peghead overlay. The body is bound with a simple dark material, and the fingerboards have side markers but no inlays.

Both, however, are made with a carved solid spruce top and figured maple back and sides. The necks are set with Gibson’s radiused dove-tail joint and the mandolins have an adjustable ebony bridge, bone nut and Grover tuners. Each ships is a padded gig bag rather than a hard shell case.

Gibson is also making the Jam Master mandolins with a slightly wider neck (1 3/16” at the nut) and with larger frets, both modifications designed with less experienced pickers in mind.

The A-style Jam Master carries a MSRP of $1199, and the F-style $3110.

They are available now from any authorized Gibson dealer.

JamBuddy will turn your iPhone or iPod Touch into… well, a jam buddy. It will provide either mandolin or guitar accompaniment for 50 familiar jam standards, plus you can program in as many other songs as you like. Playback speed is adjustable and songs can be entered in either 3/4 or 4/4 time.

As the JamBuddy page in iTunes tells it..

JamBuddy will keep playing all night and never complain that you are hogging the spotlight.

The app is compatible with any iPhone or iPod Touch running iPhone 2.2.1 software.

During that time, it has been a strong seller for Gibson, and the impetus for them to create limited edition artist models for a number of other prominent bluegrass mandolinists, Alan Bibey, Wayne Benson, Doyle Lawson and Adam Steffey among them. The Bush, however, has been the only artist model to remain as a stock item in the catalog.

Reflecting on this ten year run, Sam and Gibson have created a new, limited edition model, inspired by a drawing in a 1934 Gibson catalog. It will called the Sam Bush Limited Edition Inspired By ‘34 Fern, with only 25 made before the model is retired.

Sam tells us how it came to be…

“It is a collaboration between David Harvey at Gibson and me, to revive interest in the Bush model after ten years time.

I’ve always been fascinated by that 1934 Gibson catalog, especially the way the Fern F-5 was drawn. This catalog didn’t have photos – it was artist renderings of the instruments – and the headstock on this Fern must have come from the artist’s imagination.

The logo was shown at an odd angle, with large script lettering, and there was no ‘The’ – just ‘Gibson.’

I always thought it was the neatest looking mandolin, and I had never seen one built that way.”

Research by Gibson verifies Sam’s recollection. They have no records of a mandolin built with this headstock design.

Other appointments also mimic the ‘34 catalog drawing. The mandolin has pearl block inlays in the radiused, ebony fingerboard and a lighter finish, which Gibson describes as an Iced Tea burst.

“The block inlay was a tie in with the existing Bush model. We rounded off the fingerboard extension like an L-5, like John Monteleone did on the board for Hoss, my old mandolin.  Can you believe I’m on my 4th fingerboard now!

I had asked for a lighter sunburst – finishes will often darken over the years, so we wanted one that looked different from a regular F-5.”

Like all F-5s, the Bush Fern is made with figured maple back and sides, and a red spruce top. It uses white/black/white binding, and the tuners and tailpiece are gold plated. The neck is slightly wider than a standard F-5, as is Bush’s preference.

Sam has been playing prototypes for about a year and a half, and is satisfied that Gibson has come up with something special.

“We’re paying special attention to the size of the tone bars. It has a good throaty chop without losing anything in the high end. I played a dozen of them last week and they all sounded great.

I’m signing each label and the back of the headstock. The mandolins ship in an oblong case with a Case Notes diary, and I’m writing the initial entry for each one.

I think about my old F5 I got in 1972… If I had made notes each time I changed tuners or fingerboard, it would make for really cool reading 20-30 years later.”

The Sam Bush Limited Edition Inspired By ‘34 Fern can be ordered from any authorized Gibson Original Acoustic Instruments dealer. The retail price is listed as $11,110, which includes a certificate of authenticity.

In the course of our conversation, Bush also mentioned that he is currently at work on a new CD for Sugar Hill. They are still tracking, so he has no idea when it might be released, but he thinks it will be one that his long time bluegrass fans will appreciate.

“We have 13 rhythm tracks cut, and this project is much more acoustic in nature. I’m not playing any electric instruments, and it’s sort of a return to my roots in newgrass and bluegrass music.

The guys in my band – Scott Vestal, Stephen Mougin and Byron House – are all such great bluegrass players, and we all love to play bluegrass! I’m pretty much just playing mandolin.”

Well, that’s one I’ll certainly be eager to hear.