"Most 25-year-old musicians, they come from a family of musicians, and they don't want the same things their parents did," Johnston said.Īdvances in instrument building are both exciting and a little disturbing at the same time, Johnson said. But some is also the old-as-time desire of young people to carve new paths.
Some changes in instrument tastes involve good quality that's affordable for younger players. Younger players don't want the standard vintage banjo." "They're likely to focus more on the music and less on the instrument. "The younger players are not as enamored of old instruments as we were at their age," Johnston said. Instruments with parts cut with laser precision, or parts for repairs or building kits, can be ordered and delivered with high quality and in quantity.
The old standbys are still good, but in the store they share shelf space with custom-built instruments or high-quality factory instruments, such as Collings or Eastman mandolins. "I think the biggest change in the last decade or so is the old Gibsons and other older mandolins don't have the same clout they once did," Johnston said. That includes the mandolin planetary circuit. Gryphon folks have seen decades of changes in the music, instruments, and the business that supports both. But our music culture must, and does, always have one foot in the old and another in the new to remain dynamic. Vintage instrument writer/editor Michael Simmons works there.Ī general public made musically numb by modern radio or digital devices might view acoustic music as old because pop culture obscures the dynamism within the roots scene. They might kill time on a slow day up by the cash register by working on a mandolin setup. The staff is stocked with outstanding musicians, teachers and repair folk.
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Their store is a hotbed for good instruments and people who know how to fix problems or make good better. They morphed their business into repairs and sales. Johnston and Ford are musicians who built guitars and mandolins in their partnership's embryonic days. "Yes, I would like to try those Collings mandolins, but first I've just got to have a go at the 1943 Martin 000-18." Nothing is as telling as seeing what an instrument sounds like when your own familiar notes and chords are applied to the strings. Instead, you want to hold it in your hands, turn it over, look at the wood grain and tap the top. Yet for the picker, sooner or later it's not enough to see a photo of a cool instrument.
Expertise and high quality instruments show up loud and clear even in the incredibly crowded cyber world. But in this new century, Gryphon and staff's influence is also strong due to the Internet. First that was due to Ford and Johnson's articles or interviews for numerous music publications over the decades. The store is a magical crossroads place that musicians know about. Gryphon and the people within are major contributors to America's acoustic music scene. The knowledge amassed on the Mandolin Cafe alone from its start to now is rather staggering. That field is still growing and expanding. Then as we tried to make the same music, our focus also turned to their instruments, which led us into a wide world who made what instruments when and how did/do they make them sound good? When we did find such musicians, first our attention was to their music. Norman Blake was a mystery name guitar player in the liner notes of Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline album. When Richard Johnston and Frank Ford started Gryphon in 1969, few of us had ever heard of David Grisman or Tony Rice. "Yes, I would like to play the 1914 Gibson F4 mandolin in red sunburst, thank you," I said, thinking that perhaps the 1921 H2 mandola would be next. And rows of various other instruments, repair bench rooms, and upstairs fiddles are tucked hither and yon. Further ahead, vintage Martin and Gibson guitars that pickers drool over hang on the port side wall, while new guitars made in cutting-edge styles are starboard. Step inside though, and you're in what lusty acoustic musicians consider a major port of call. Words on the blue canvas awning over the front door calmly say "Guitars Banjos Mandolins." A Gryphon Stringed Instruments sign on the outside wall is modest. as a routine business serving local folks in Palo Alto, Calif. Author Bill Graham is a freelance outdoor writer, photographer, bluegrass musician and singer-songwriter who has authored more than 50 feature articles for the Mandolin Cafe, most of which are stored in our archived News section.Ī non-musician might view the pale-blue building at 211 Lambert Ave.
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