New Infinity Octave Mandolin / Bouzouki … sort of…

Ha! At least that is what the tag shows. For a several years now I have been getting calls and emails concerning the elusive ‘Infinity Instruments’ brand out there. I had personally never seen one nor met anyone else who had come across one.

Oddly enough, I found an ‘Infinity Instruments’ octave mandolin on ebay recently. I went ahead and placed my bid on this one day auction and won. The instrument was auctioned by Howard Yearwood. Howard had used this instrument in some session work.

(Howard has been a Bluegrass, rock and country guitarist. He is now doing session work in Nashville. Sometime this month Howard will begin lessons on the B-bender Tele via Skype.   Check out ‘Whistlestop‘ on Howard’s reverbnation page.)

Anyway, he got the instrument shipped promptly and I received it in this box.

octave mando

Uh Oh!

Once I saw the condition of the box, I was worried that the neck or headstock would be broke but it turned out fine.

octave mandooctave mando

And here it is… the ‘Infinity’ tag.

octave mandolin I thought for sure that the tag might have some information as to who is building them, but no. I have looked for these folks online but found nothing but more questions. My guess is that they are produced in a Pacific rim country and are tagged infinity or some other name depending on where they go.

If you have more info, let me know…

BTW… for a plywood top instrument and after a good setup, it sounds and plays pretty good.

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Kevin’s Eastman Bridge Replacement

Recently Kevin brought his Eastman over for a bridge repair. Here are a few pics of the process.

Kevin's Eastman

Ouch! Cracked bridge.

Kevin's Bridge

Oh yeah... really cracked.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

Fitting the bridge to the manolin top.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

You can see that the feet are fully engaged.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

Looking good.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

Saddle Setup

Kevin’s fretboard is radiused, so the saddle got a radius sanded into it as well. Here the string spacing is cut based on Kevin’s preference. Thanks to Gary for tracing his string spacing.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

String spacing cut in the saddle vise.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

Placing the bridge and setting intonation.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

Checking the string spacing one more time.

Kevin's Bridge Repair

Ready to go pick!

 

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Musicians and Revenue

Have you ever wondered how much an artist is making on the music you purchase?

If you are simply copying it from your buddies… they make $0. Now that we have that out of the way. This chart shows average revenue to the musician for differing types of hard copy and digital download and how much they must sell to make minimum wage.

Note: these figures do not include publishing royalties (paid to composers of songs). The full spreadsheet of data does though. You can see all the numbers and sources here: http://bit.ly/DigitalRoyalty

Here is the website containing the original information: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/how-much-do-music-artists-earn-online/

Please do reply….


 

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Rogue vs. Loar and other Heresies

It is nice to see studies back up a hypothesis…

NPR Article discussing Claudia Fritz’ double blind experiment comparing Stradivarius and Guarneri violins vs. modern violins. She is an acoustics physicist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research.

Backup info for the test.

Here is an even better article, referencing the study, by Discover Magazine writer, Ed Yong.

1703 Stradivari in Berlin

1703 Stradivari in Berlin

This study got the discussion going on the flatpick listserv and Bryan Kimsey reported that he had done a similar comparison for guitars (although not a double-blind) here.

No actual comparisons of Rogue vs. Loar mandolins are necessary.

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A model in the white.

The newest A model is strung up for testing. It is looking and sounding great even before it gets a sunburst.

A model Infinity Mandolin in the white.

A model Infinity Mandolin in the white.


 

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