A Mel Bay Publications, Inc. Webzine
October 2008 · Bimonthly
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In this issue: Building a Traditional Tune Repertoire: Old Dubuque | Mississippi Breakdown | Fresh Comp'n | Beginning Irish Mandolin | Interview: Mario Prouix | World Mandolin: A la Orilla de un Palomar | Crocker Street Reel
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Interview: Mario Proulxby Joe Mendel Mario Proulx has strong opinions on building instruments, as evidenced by his many comments on several of the guitar and mandolin websites. Not everyone will agree with his opinions; however, I think most would agree that he has earned the right to those opinions through the well respected results he has achieved. While I have not had the opportunity to play any of his instruments, I have heard his guitars in the hands of flatpicker Bull Harman. Wonderful sounding indeed and Bull is obviously very well pleased with them. Joe Mendel: When did you build your first instrument? Mario Proulx: I took an interest in making a mandolin around 1993. I was playing guitar at the time, and got bit by the mandolin bug! Started shopping around, and quickly discovered that cheap mandolins weren’t good, and good ones weren’t cheap. I had seen a mandolin blueprint in an Elderly Instruments catalog and from having handled a few mandolins, it struck me that it shouldn’t be that hard to make one, so on my next CD order (I was buying Bluegrass CD’s from Elderly, having no local source for such), I tossed-in the blueprint. My family has a long, and fine, woodworking background, so I asked my banjo playing brother, who happened to be the best woodworker among us, if he’d help me out, and of course, he did! I had a few years of instrument repair and setup experience under my belt, but precious little else. JM: How did the first turn out? Do you still have it? MP: That first one is an A-2 style mandolin, and turned out “ok” at first. I was a bit unsure of the graduations, and I didn’t have an accurate method for measuring the top or back while carving, and therefore left everything a bit heavy and thick. But it was good enough to encourage me to keep trying, and on my next one, I built a caliper that I still use today, using some steel bars and a dial indicator. Armed with this new tool, I tore into that first mandolin after stringing up the second one, and proceeded to do a better job of graduating the top and back. It woke right up! I had, at the same time, added a layer of newspaper between the back and sides, so that I could easily and safely remove the back to go back in if needed. While it really was quite good after that first graduating session, I did return inside roughly a dozen times, trying different tone bar and bracing options. That mandolin, as well as the next few which also sported removable backs, gave me a priceless education! Today, a good friend has that first mandolin on loan, and it’s still being played often. Some day, I’ll ask for it back… JM: How long have you been building full time? MP: I’ve been a full time luthier since 1999. JM: Are you currently working on anything in particular? MP: Guitars are my mainstay, but my heart really is into the mandolin side at this time, and I’ve been working on developing my J-5 mandolin further. It’s a 3 point mandolin, the latest of which has 2 extra frets added, on the low end. In other words, the scale length is 2 frets longer. It is tuned one full step down (D/G/C/F, high to low), which allows the flatted jazz keys (Bb/F/Eb) to be lower, open and natural keys on the mandolin. Also, if you’re jamming with a guitar and/or banjo player on some fiddle tunes, they no longer have to capo their instruments to play in our usual keys of A and D, because those keys naturally become G and C on the new mandolin. Yet once you reach the second fret, it is a normal mandolin, normal scale, normal tuning, and I’ve incorporated a built-in capo at the second fret to allow us to play it as a normal mandolin. There really is no compromise at all! I’ve also incorporated my new bridge design, tailpiece design, as well as a sound port in the side. The one I have on the bench right now will have a sliding, felt-lined pocket door so the player can adjust the opening of the sound port, and thus control the tone a lot. Plenty of new stuff happening! JM: Do you do repairs? MP: I used to, but today, I try to just build. I do take-on big repairs and restorations, especially of fine violins. But the smaller repairs, like setups and such, I’ll refer to my brother if they’re local, or to one of luthier friends that I trust that may be near them. For my own instruments, I will repair them if necessary and/or called for, but since most of them are in the US, and I’m in Canada, I’ve contracted with Bryan Kimsey since 2000 for him to take care of most of my US warranty work. He’s a great repair and setup artist in New Mexico. Highly recommended! JM: What is your favorite part of building? MP: I guess it would be the R&D part. I love coming up with new ideas and solutions from the player’s perspective, like I am doing with the new J-5. It came to light from my now having the Jazz bug, and learning jazz on the mandolin. JM: Have you done much promotion? MP: I guess I never really did, silly as that may sound. The instruments just sold themselves, first to friends, then, as more people saw them, my client base expanded. Each instrument I send out seems to sell more for me, so I guess they sell themselves. JM: Are mandolins your passion? MP: Music as a whole is my passion, and also, the entire lutherie profession/art/craft. JM: Please describe your approach in building mandolins. MP: Different, yet traditional. Different in that I’m not afraid of new and/or unique designs, and I will use woods other than maple, sound holes other than F holes, and even my scale length is a bit shorter than traditional. Yet, I use fresh, hot hide glue, and mostly hand tools. JM: Who and what are your influences? MP: Bluegrass music as a whole influenced my musical direction. As far as other luthiers, the first handmade mandolin I ever played was an early Oliver Apitius F-style, and that instrument made me re-think how a great mandolin can sound and play, and what level or workmanship I had to reach for. It was a revelation! Shortly after that, I met Michael Lewis, and I got to see one of his incredible arch top guitars. I shook!!! My hands started to tremble lightly, for I’d never seen such workmanship. We’ve since become good friends, and he’s helped me along my journey a good bit, including insisting I convert to hot hide glue. JM: What are the advantages of using hot hide glue? MP: It’s the ideal glue for our use. It’s reversible, as everyone knows, but at the same time, it’s one of the few types of glue that will not “creep”, and is high temperature resistant. “Creep” is the term we use for when a glue allows a joint to move’ cold creep’ is when a joint moves/slides without help from heat, which many white glues can do under tension, but most often creep is seen as joints sliding when exposed to warm temperatures. All PVA glues, and even most epoxies, are plastic, and will allow the two joined parts to slide if heated, and then reset themselves. The parts have then ‘crept’ apart. The movement is rarely large enough to see or measure, but as a whole, we see that the entire instrument has changed. Often it is quite visible, as in the raised or sunken line that we can see/feel in the joint between the top or back halves. Hide glue also cures hard, like glass, all others dry somewhat plastic and flexible. This is always debated, but really, it can’t be argued that hard, immovable glue joints can only help tone ad power, right? Hide is also a protein, as is wood, and is the only adhesive that becomes one with the wood. JM: Is it difficult to work with? MP: It needs to be mixed fresh, kept hot, yet never past 145°F, and once applied to wood; it has to be clamped within 45 seconds or so, before it reaches roughly 95°f and begins to gel. Last, but perhaps most important, hide glue is finicky in application, and is not at all happy with sloppy, ill-fitting joinery, and it has an incredibly short open time, so it forces the user to up his/her game and become better and more prepared. This fact, I believe, is what forces hot hide glue users to higher levels. The other glues allow us to get too lazy. JM: Hot hide glue is very traditional, as you mentioned, yet, on the different end of the spectrum, you also use carbon fiber sandwich braces in your guitars. Do you use CF in your mandolins also? What are the advantages of CF? Are there any drawbacks to using it? MP: I do use CF in most of my guitar’s braces, and I’ve tried CF in mandolins, but it doesn’t seem to lend itself to the mandolins as well as it does to guitars. A guitar’s top relies heavily on its bracing for structure, and CF’s incredible structural memory is a big bonus here. But a mandolin’s braces are actually better called tone bars, and they aren’t actually all that necessary for structure, since the arching provides immense strength on its own. What the tone bars do is provide –some- structure, but mostly, they allow us to control tone by stiffening certain areas of the top without adding a lot of mass, and also by radiating the string’s energy in a controlled manner. Here, the CF isn’t doing anything special for us, and its extra mass (carbon fiber, while very light weight for its strength, is still heavier than any known wood!) works against us. All my experiments with it in mandolins didn’t bring anything that I liked, and simply made for a slightly quieter, yet brighter sounding mandolin. JM: Do you use a lot of jigs and tooling? MP: For some things, yes, I’ll jig up, but for the most part, I free lance it. JM: How many instruments do you build at a time? MP: I usually try to stay at 2 or 3 guitars, and one mandolin. JM: What sound are you trying to achieve in your instruments? MP: I’m shooting for a responsive instrument, above all else. I love low action. Very, very low action. But to be able to use that, I need an instrument that doesn’t need to be pushed hard to produce great tone and power. As for tone, I love the tone of the old oval hole Gibson A mandolins, that fat, chunky sound. What I ended up with is a cross between the modern and old tone, leaning more towards modern, yet with more than a hint of the old, oval hole tone. JM: Do you make all the parts for your instruments? MP: Everything except for the tuning machines. JM: Have your building methods changed over time? MP: Hooboy! All the time! I’m forever trying new methods. JM: Do you like teaching? MP: Yes! It goes back to my passion for this art, and I love sharing, including any knowledge that I can pass on. I also firmly believe that we learn by teaching, because it makes us stop and think of why we do something. JM: What are the opportunities for learning from you? Do you do building workshops, or teach classes? MP: I’ve done a few workshops at Kaufman Kamp; it began one year when Steve Kaufman ran up to me and asked if I’d stand-in for Bryan Kimsey’s repair and setup workshop, when Bryan had hurt himself just minutes prior. So I did what I could, and Steve has asked me to do a workshop since then. I attend Kamp each year as a mandolin student, and consider it my vacation, so I don’t work on instruments while there, but I love sharing what I know, and don’t mind spending an hour or two of my free time to do a workshop if it helps others get a start. Other than that, I have had a student here for a week-long “class” once, and enjoyed that a whole lot, but it was also hard on me, so I am not sure I’d do that again. I can be found on various internet luthier forums at any time, and will revise the “construction” section of my website when we re-do the entire site very soon. Speaking of which, there will be a completely new, thorough and separate section for mandolins on the new site! JM: How many mandolin models do you build and what do you get the most orders for? MP: I’ve stopped making F styles. So I guess that leaves me just the A styles, which can be oval hole or not, short neck or long (A-2 or A-5) and then there’s the new J-5, which will also be available in oval hole configuration or not, as well as with the long scale or regular. In fact, I’ll likely do the long scale (jazz mando) on A styles also, if requested. Basically, I’m not locked into any “models”, but instead, I am very open to doing anything but a Loar replica [lol] JM: Are you currently taking orders? (If so) How long is the typical wait? MP: My guitar backlog is incredible, years and years…, which cuts into my mandolin making. What I’m doing with the mandolins is not actually taking orders and deposits, but instead, I take names, and when I build a mandolin, I call up the first name, present what I’ve built, and if he/she wants it, then it’s theirs, but if they pass up, I call the next one, but they will still keep their place in line for the next one. This allows me freedom to try new ideas, directions, and allows me some artistic freedom, which I don’t have much of otherwise. JM: It used to be that builders had their secrets and wouldn't reveal them to anyone. On mandolincafe.com you are very helpful to people with questions regarding building mandolins. What lead to the openness that now exsists among luthiers? Have you benefited from it? MP: It’s a new era. An era of open sharing, and we all benefit from it, especially the players, who are now seeing new advancements and better instruments! JM: Do you accept custom orders? MP: I call ‘em “requests” JM: What other instruments have you built? MP: I’ve built a couple violins, and a mountain dulcimer, and of course, many, many guitars. JM: What is the most satisfying instrument you’ve built? MP: Oh, that’s easy: my blond A-5 mandolin! It was my 40th birthday gift to myself, and it’s become my favorite, go-to instrument, bar none. It’s the only instrument, apart from my first guitar, which I can honestly say I’m attached to and would be shattered if I ever lost it. I’ve refused a lot of offers on it, but will never be able to sell it, because it’s got everything I’ve searched for in a instrument all these years, and then some! JM: What style of music do you play? Do you get to play much any more? MP: I play Bluegrass a lot, and play upright bass in a BG band, even. I now am exploring Jazz, and Gypsy jazz styles on mandolin, as well as some Celtic, and of course, some French Canadian style stuff. I’m a big fan of “La Bottine Souriante” I still play a good amount, and even keep a guitar, mandolin and fiddle handy in the shop for when I get the urge to just sit and play a few minutes, maybe to play along with a tune that’s playing on the radio(Sirius) and whatnot. JM: What do you think makes the Loar era F-5's so special? MP: Time, a good design, and good solid joinery, but mostly, time. JM: Has being able to examine John Reischman's Loar and other Loar era mandolins changed your approach to building mandolins? MP: None have changed my approach, but they made me appreciate how light weight my mandolins are. John’s is like brick! Yet, what wonderful tone. They also reinforced my thoughts on using flat sawn maple for the neck, since theirs have lasted 80+ years now, and are still great. JM: Most builders of bluegrass mandolins are expected to adhere to a fairly strict tradition in their instruments; do you feel like you have more freedom by not being bound to that tradition? MP: Yes, and that is precisely why I no longer make F-5s. JM: Thank you, Mario, for taking time to be interviewed. I hope to see more of your instruments soon. MP: Thanks for asking me to be part of this! Mario may be contacted through his website: http://www.proulxguitars.com/ Or by mail or phone or e-mail at: About the Author You can visit Joe Mendel at the following websites: http://jmendelfrets.com/ http://mandolinsessions.com/ [ top ]
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