| | Kim Breedlove started his career crafting high-quality mandolins and they continue to be his primary passion. Simon Mayor takes a look at two new models now available in the UK.
About a year ago my fellow mandolinist in The Mandolinquents, Richard Collins, bought himself a superb mandolin. We’ll save its story for another day, but I mention this because Richard often calls round for a cuppa if he’s anywhere near our house and he dropped by just after these two Breedloves arrived for review. He was keen to play them because he’d been really attracted by their unusual looks in pictures he’d seen but at the time hadn’t been able to locate any to try out. So I was particularly interested in what he thought of the mandolins in real life - and whether Mr Breedlove might have lost a sale!
An impromptu mandolin duetting session ensued, and I can report a thoroughly good time was had by all, to the extent that we pretty much forgot about what mandolins we were playing and just enjoyed a bit of music making. This may not seem too significant, but when an instrument is not doing what you want it to, it nags at you, it’s a constant irritation. If you can forget about the instrument and just play the music, it means you’re playing something pretty decent. So our initial impressions were very good. Now let’s take a closer look...
Breedlove is a medium sized company based in Oregon, USA. They have about 40 staff and produce 10 mandolins a week as well as a range of acoustic guitars. They specialise in the quality end of the market but even so offer quite an extensive range of models.
The two featured here, the Quartz and Black Gold (it’s obvious which is which) represent the ‘affordable’ end of Breedlove’s range. The more expensive Master Class mandolins feature finer timbers and are generally given more attention to detail in their construction, but it was immediately apparent that this does not mean these humbler offerings are in any way poor quality. They are identical in many ways, although not in price or looks. Visually, the Quartz is probably going to appeal to most. Its finish is natural matt, revealing the beauty of the spruce and flame maple used in construction. The body has no edge binding whatsoever, leaving it potentially more vulnerable to knocks if you don’t look after it very carefully, but for the moment it just seems to emphasise the appealing simplicity of the instrument. The tailpiece too is elegant and simple, finished in matt black. But it’s the asymmetry of the body outline that is the most striking feature of these instruments.
Breedlove call it a ‘K’ shape. It is obviously born of a F5, but the scroll on the bass shoulder has been replaced by something more akin to a hammer head and one of the points on the body outline has been lost completely. As words on a page, this sounds pretty grim, but in reality it works well enough. Breedlove have succeeded in creating a shape which is both unique and immediately identifiable, and at the same time have saved a huge number of construction hours by dispensing with the need to carve a scroll.
 The asymmetrical theme is continued through the tapered 23 fret fingerboard to the swooping point of the headstock which sports the Breedlove logo and, curiously, the shape of the truss rod cover. It’s a nice little touch, and an indication that this has all been thought through very carefully.
The Quartz appealed, but I was a little worried by the Black Gold. The matt black finish doesn’t attract me, but that’s irrelevant, many will no doubt like it. The lack of binding poses more problems in the mandolin’s old age as the edges wear and the black finish disappears to reveal the wood underneath. I suspect it will look tatty, wine stains on a nice suit, whereas similar wear on the Quartz would just turn it into nicely faded denims. The gold part of this mandolin is to be seen in the machine heads (they look like pearloid buttoned Schallers and seem better quality than the white plastic ones on the Quartz) and the tailpiece, which is a chunky piece of brass, highly functional but to my mind not as elegant as the Quartz’s.
In all other respects, these mandolins are standard examples of violin-inspired carved construction, with spruce tops, flame maple backs and sides and ebony fingerboards. They have twin, violin style tone bars (although Breedlove also produce X-braced models) and flying fingerboards. This means that the high end of the fingerboard, above the 14th fret, is not glued to the top of the instrument but ‘flies’ above it, so the body is completely unimpeded in its function of sound production. Stradivari did it on his fiddles, and it’s standard practice on carved, F-hole mandolins.
 And so I put plectrum to string, the Quartz first. I was impressed straight away with this mandolin’s response. It was immediate, positive and loud, although with a slight clangy quality in the top end. It actually felt as responsive as a good, old instrument but without the maturity of tone that, in my experience, only age can bring. So that’s an observation not a criticism, and I have little doubt that my reservations about the top end would disappear pretty quickly as this instrument settled down. It was bright and open, and bell-like rather than woody, as you would expect from an F-hole mandolin. The fingerboard, a little wider than I’m used to and cambered rather than flat, still felt perfectly comfortable.
Now the Black Gold. If I closed my eyes, I could have been playing the same mandolin; the neck felt identical, the whole way the instrument was set up was identical, but the sound was subtly different. My reservations about the top end no longer applied; the tone was maybe a little more nasal, yet more focused, more controlled. On the downside, it wasn’t quite as responsive as the Quartz. These differences were all very slight and I had no way of knowing whether they had anything to do with design variations between the two models or what you might naturally expect from two examples of the same model, given that these are solid wood, hand-crafted instruments. Whatever, the message is clear: don’t be tempted to choose the first mandolin you play, however impressed you might be. Play as many as you can, for as long as you can before you part with your cash!
The truth is that both these Breedloves are impressive sounding instruments, comfortable to play and very neatly made. It’s a difficult and ultimately pointless exercise to say that one is better than the other, but if pushed I would choose the Quartz. The immediacy of its response will only get (even) better and I’m confident the treble will sweeten with some sustained playing. And here comes the crunch: it’s a cool £600 cheaper than the Black Gold, and I must confess, this left me scratching my head. Yes, the Black Gold sports better machine heads and maybe the black finish is more difficult to apply, but I still couldn’t understand the huge price difference. At £1295 the Quartz is competitively priced; it’s an excellent mandolin by any standards, handsome and individualistic. The Black Gold is still a great sounding instrument, and will appeal to many, but at £1895 is up against much stiffer competition, including old Gibson ‘A’ models which sound very different but will have the appeal of being collectable.
Both mandolins are supplied in a smart hardshell case. Neither left-hand options nor onboard electronics are available, in case that matters to you. So did Mr Breedlove miss a sale with Richard Collins? The jury’s out. I’ll be seeing him next Thursday. Prices:
Quartz KF: £1295
Black Gold: £1895
Manufacturer: Breedlove
Models: Quartz KF & Black Gold
Body Size: Asymetrical K-Body w/ F Holes
Made In: USA
Top: Solid Sitka Spruce, Carved
Back & Sides: Solid Maple
Neck: 1 Piece Maple
Fingerboard: Ebony, Radiused
Frets: 23
Fret Wire: .078 wide - .04 high
Nut Width: 1 3/16”
Scale Length: 13 15/16”
Tuners:
Quartz KF: Saga Tuners
Black Gold: Gold Schaller Tuners
Electronics: None
Strings Fitted: Medium
Left Handers?: No
Gig Bag/Case: Hardshell Breedlove Case
Breedlove Mandolins
c/o Gremlin Music
www.gremlinmusic.co.uk |
