We had the privilege of hooking up near the beautiful Baltimore Harbor with Gordon Roberts, Century Strings co-founder and designer of the new Royale jazz mandolins during lunch meeting on a recent road trip. Discussed were plans and speculation of potential expansion of the line; the question arose, "With the great success of the first one, what should the next ground-breaking Draleon instrument be?"

A vintage sunburst L-5 guitar-body seemed to surface at the top of the priority list. A good example, the Arrow Jazzbo remains a personal fave around the JazzMando Research Lab. The introduction of this would indeed mirror and homage Django's own personal musical journey; the earliest of his music with a Selmer/Maccaferri style is already expressed in the Royale, and subsequent musical journey into amplified guitar with the Gibson style jazzbox archtops later in his legendary career.

The market also seems ripe for a similar guitarbox style octave mandolin. Cutting-edge pioneer builders like Bill Bussmann and Fletcher Brock have already broken new ground with their marvelous octaves. These are magnificent for comping as well as chord/melody and soloing.

Survey:
We would be interested in what the JazzMando readers would like to see in an affordable, mid-priced auxiliary instrument. Give us your thoughts on what the next unique Draleon should be.

An L5? An octave mandolin? A 4- or 5-string? A larger mandola "Royale?" A Jazz-Dola 4-string? An assymetrical two-point?

You have a chance to make a difference. Weigh in with your wish list; what you would you like to see, what would you strongly consider owning? Your thoughts.

Posted by Ted at June 23, 2007 12:24 PM