This month's guest is Dempsey Young of Virginia's "Lost and Found" bluegrass band. I've been a fan of Dempsey's tasty picking since I first heard him in 1979. If you haven't had the chance to hear him, I urge you to check him out. You won't be disappointed.
I caught up with him at the Franklin KY Music Festival and thought he had an interesting perspective on the subject of tone and such. Enjoy.
Mandolin Sessions: What is your main mandolin right now?
Dempsey Young: My favorite two mandolins…I have a Dearstone model and then I have my major mandolin, I guess, and it's my most sentimental also. It's a John Hutto mandolin, and it was my first mandolin and I've done the majority of
my recording with that instrument.
MS: How long have you been playing it?
DY: It has "The Gibson" on the peghead and Mr. Hutto signed it on a label on the inside. A lot of people think it's a '20s or '30s or '40s or something, but I actually bought that mandolin on July 3rd, 1975.
MS: What are the things you like most about that particular mandolin ?
DY: I had a particular sound in mind, I guess kind of a Monroe sound. I played 20 or 30 different mandolins at that time that I could find. There were a lot of 1950s Gibson models available then, and different ones, but none of them that I played really had a real woofy chop and the A strings were not mellow. After I played about 3 notes on the Hutto, I decided I wanted it regardless of price. It was in a class by itself, I thought.
When the other members of the Lost and Found band heard me trying it out, they liked it so much, they told me later if I hadn't had the money, they would've pitched in and bought it for me anyway.
One thing I liked about it from the very start was that the high strings, the open stings, were very mellow. To my ears, the instrument still has a unique tone that I haven't heard quite the same.
MS: Any special setup? Who does it for you?
DY: The person that I have let do the most work is Wayne Henderson, from Mouth-of-Wilson, Virginia. Other than trying different nuts and bridges or having the frets replaced, the only real thing I've done is to lower the action. The intonation is much better and it's much easier to play in the higher octaves… but the main advantage is the difference in tone. The one major compliment I've seemed to get the most over the years is, "How do you get that tone?". I tell people the first step to getting a good tone is: first you have to have a desire to get it. A lot of people
are up there playing and thinking about the notes, or how many more notes they can get in there, but they never stop to think about the tone of each note.
It may strike you as kind of odd but the place I learned about tone was from Earl Scruggs. I learned to play guitar and banjo before I learned mandolin, and I used to slow down those Earl Scruggs records and learn them note for note. I got to where I could play the notes Earl played, but they still didn't sound like he did. Then one day I moved my right hand away from the bridge a little and it started sounding more like
Earl. That's what I do with the mandolin, move my right hand to where the tone is.
MS: What type of case are you carrying it in?
DY: A John Paganoni case. He built it for me in 1978 and I've used it ever since.
MS: What type of pick do you use?
DY: For the last 8 to 10 years, I've used a Fender turquoise, a medium to a heavy.
MS: What advantages does it provide?
DY: I use a lighter pick than what a lot of mandolin players use. I have used an extra heavy on new strings and as they go dead, switch to one of these to bring 'em up.
MS:What strings do you use and why?
DY: I've used the Gibson strings for 30 years. I've used the Bill Monroe set for quite a while now. I've tried some of the other brands…the bright bronze are just a
little too bright for me. I'm kind of anti-bright. Actually, brand new strings on the instrument…I don't really like the way it sounds until about 30 or 40 minutes later.
MS: What kind of strap do you use?
DY: Nothing in particular. The one I've got right now I don't even remember where I got it at.
MS: Any pickups, amps or effects?
DY: No, I try to do that with my hands.
MS: Any microphone preferences for stage or studio?
DY: On our earlier recordings they used a SM57 on me, and on outdoor sound systems that's still the easiest way to reproduce what I sound like. In the studio, when people ask me in advance if I have a preference, I ask them to locate a RE20. Of course when I get there, the engineer always has a microphone he wants to try instead, and he'll have the RE20. And I'll say, "Okay, but let's try the 20 on one cut and see what it sounds like." And after he hears it, he'll usually say, "For some reason the RE20 works on that instrument." It's just kind of a natural thing, I guess.
A condenser microphone, for me, just seems to amplify the pick noise, unless you can get back 3 or 4 feet from it, which you can't always do (because of leakage from the monitors or other instruments).
MS: Any other equipment you can't do without?
DY: No, not really…strings and picks and a rag to wipe off. (laughs)
To find out more about Dempsey, go to:
http://www.lostandfoundbluegrass.com/
