Had the privilege of sitting down to lunch with Chris Griffiths, founder of Garrison Guitars at the Austin airport following the recent Summer NAMM convention. We've been following the innovative company the last several NAMM shows as they applied their Patented Bracing Technology to a series of flat top mandolins and recently a well-received line of Octave mandos.

Of course we were curious about the purchase of Garrison Guitars by Gibson earlier this month. The word is Garrison will continue to make the mandolins under the Garrison name. We talked with one of their product specialists on the show floor about the Octaves; evidently a major marketing switch is ahead. Seems they've been struggling to come up with the perfect string gauging on these, and have settled on an "identity" switch.

At the smaller 18" scale, the instruments are at their best tuned CGDA, mandola tuning (octave tuning ineffectively more flabby). Soon all the models will be last as Mandolas, rather than Octaves.

We wish Chris and the gang the best!

View website: Garrison Guitars and mandolins.

Posted by Ted at July 31, 2007 6:11 AM