Welcome to Bigfork Montana, the home of Bruce Weber, founder of Weber Mandolins, Montana Latherers. It was such an honer to meet Bruce Weber. I’ve owned a Weber Mandolin since 2001 and followed the progress of Weber ever since. I happened to be a few hours from his new location and on a whim called to ask questions about a Mandolin he had for sale and he called me back within minutes.
Bruce bought a cherry farm on Flathead Lake and turned a 1907 barn into his modern wood shop. What fun it was. Not that I know anything about making musical instruments, I too operate a shop the mostly works with wood and it was such fun to see the selection of equipment, setup and management of the space, all so professionally done.
Unlike a production shop, this shop is designed for one person. He does make entire instruments on occasion but spends most of this time in repairs, getting these amazing older instruments back into playing condition.
Why did I visit Bruce Weber?
I have a Weber Aspen #1 A-Style mandolin, and it is amazing. The sounds in my kitchen since 2001 have been wonderful. That said, I always wanted an F-Style Mandolin. Ideally it would have been one from Bruce’s hands, but these instruments start at about $5K, a good deal more than I wanted to spend. This new company from Boulder Colorado, Tailwater Instruments, sent him this mandolin to provide feedback. Bruce was very impressed. He liked the tapered carved top, the materials, the tuners, and the attention to details. He thinks that it very well be a copy of one of this instruments. He decided to keep the mandolin and sell it on consignment. I happed to call at the right time.
It has nice sustain. Pluck a string and it rings for quite some time. You can play up through three octaves and it stays in tune nicely. The inlays look beautiful. It is difficult to know if they are authentic mother of perl but they sure look like. Check out the pictures!
