MI Pro

It might sound a bit tautological, but the folk market appears to be maturing. I say that with my tongue somewhat in my cheek, of course, considering the vibrant nature of the folk scene at the moment, with no end of youngsters appearing on stages at a growing number of folk festivals through the year. What I mean is that the toe-dipping epitomised by surges in the entry-level market is now growing into enquiries after higher-priced, better quality instruments.

This is good news for the retailer. Entry-level instruments sell well, but margin tends to be squeezed, whereas the £250 to £400 price point often achieves the optimum ratio of unit sales to acceptable margin.

While it might be difficult for some dealers to find the relevance of traditional instrument sales, one thing seems to be certain: if you do, you’re going to find an exciting and various market with almost unlimited stocking options.

As with the overview MI Pro ran a year ago or so, the boom element is very much the ukulele – given yet another shot in the arm this year by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain playing the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall and having some 2,000 uke players in the audience, instruments in hand, playing along with a rendition of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

But whether it is mandolins, ukuleles, banjos, or even low whistles, fiddles and bodhrans, there are a lot of people out there not only wiling to give playing a shot, but also to take it a step further to get their hands on some quality kit. And that’s where you come in…

GREMLIN
Say ‘folk’, think ‘Gremlin’ – certainly in the UK. Even the company’s guitars have a distinct ‘duelling banjos’ aura about them. The Sussex-based company has really carved out an impressive chunk of the folk market on these islands and can be used as a good gauge as to trends and swings in the folk industry. With many of its staff and management playing the folk circuit, there really isn’t much that Gremlin misses.

A nice side effect of this is that the company supplies a good deal of very unusual instruments that many of us don’t even know about, let alone sell. New in the warehouse this year this year is the Portuguese Fado guitar and a pear-shaped Uke with F-holes. Other oddities that are proving to be favourites include the Gu Zheng, Er Hu, Xaphoon, the Cuatro de Puerto Rico and Bombarde.

Gremlin is working on a new professorial range of ukes made in its factory in the Far East and a mid-priced range of mandolins, octave mandolas and bouzoukis. The ukes should be in stock by Christmas and the mandolin instruments at the start of 2010.
The company says it always tries to buy within the UK wherever possible and this year it has brought in the excellent hand-made mandolins, octave mandolas, bouzoukis and citterns from Tom Buchannan.

Due to the success of the Ashbury Tenor guitar at £199, Gremlin’s own general manager, Chris Rudd, has designed a vintage-style all-solid rosecherry (similar to mahogany) bodied tenor guitar at £349 – these should also be in before Christmas.
Gremlin reports that the new Scarlatti melodeons and concertinas are selling very well. It has four models: the Nero (D/G), Rosso (B/C), Wooden (D/G) and a three-row (A/D/G). They are all Chinese made, but with Italian reeds, so players get competitively priced melodeons that are, Gremlin assures us: ‘far better than anything else on the market with a higher price tag’.

The whistle market is still as strong as ever for Gremlin, with the top selling brands Chieftain, Kerry, Dixon, Susato, Clarke, Waltons and Howard making it real one-stop-shop for the instruments. Dixon has just brought out a new inter-changeable Irish flute/whistle combo, which is perfect for the smaller handed players.

OZARK
Stentor’s Ozark brand has plenty to offer more trad players with its quality range of fretted traditional instruments, including (launched at LIMS this year) a new tenor guitar. This small-bodied cutaway 3372C electro-acoustic (£365) is proving popular with many players for its bigger, richer sound, thanks to a solid spruce top with an oval sound hole. This is an impressive instrument for the price, with the attention to design one has come to expect from this range. It has a rosewood fingerboard and is fitted with an Artec transducer, four-band eq unit and endpin jack preamp. The scale length is a comfortable 580mm. With its attractive sunburst finish, this guitar looks as good as it sounds

An impressive list of players has picked up – and stuck with – Ozark. XTC’s Andy Partridge recently bought a Deluxe 3135 parlour guitar: “It felt really good in my hands, with an easy friendly feel to the fretboard and, best of all, kept a sweet tuning right up to the octave, a basic essential that is sadly missing in a lot of acoustic guitars ten times the cost.” The Ozark 3135 retails at £300.

Ozark mandolins, banjos and bouzoukis also lay claim to excellent quality and value. The instruments range from models such as the 2250 Army/Navy Special with a solid mahogany top (£162) up to the 2255 F model (played by Chris Leslie of Fairport Convention, no less) with solid spruce top and solid maple back and
sides (£405).

Mahalo ukuleles are, Stentor tells us, greatly in demand and the UK supplier stocks every type from soprano and concert to tenor and baritone, with prices from just £37.50. Mahalos even come in LP and TC shapes in different colours and in electric and acoustic versions, starting at £32.50.

KALA
Sutherland carries a wide range of traditional stringed instruments. It has its own Countryman range of bluegrass acoustic guitars, resonator guitars, mandolins, bouzoukis, mandolas, banjos and banjo ukes. And even the Crafter guitar brand has a bowl-back mandolin with an active preamp.

The instrument that’s made a huge difference to Sutherland’s turnover this year, however, is the ukulele. It realised the potential of the instrument three years ago and now has a thriving division of uke brands, namely Kala, Makala, Lanikai, Eleuke solid body electrics and (on the accessory side) the string brand Aquila Nylgut. Sutherland wants to be recognised as the complete ukulele company, even down to accessories.

The company tells us that at least one container of Kala instruments is brought into the UK every month. The bulk of these are low cost Makalas, which are popular with schools, but the emphasis is shifting monthly towards the more expensive Kala models. It has recently released a range of slim-bodied Travel instruments, the Joe Brown signature series in either koa or mahogany and the U-bass bass ukulele – a baritone uke sized instrument with polyurethane strings tuned to bass guitar tuning.

The Joe Brown ukes are of particular interest, having been brought about as the result of talks between Sutherland’s Alan Townsend and Joe Brown, co-ordinating with Kala to produce a wide-ranging series of the diminutive instrument. All of the features – woods, fingerboard and side position marks, purfling, action, choice of tuners – were decided by Brown, with him preferring the uke to be simple rather than fancy and he felt very strongly that the product must be ‘quality’. Kala analysed a vintage ukulele, identical to the one that Joe has used throughout the years, to reproduce the lightly braced, ultra thin top.

There are two ranges: one all solid mahogany and the other with solid spruce top and solid koa back and sides. Each range consists of a full set of soprano, concert, tenor and baritone sizes and each instrument has a unique serial number.

SAVANNAH
This comprehensive line of mandolins, available in the UK through Westside, spreads itself nicely across the entry-level mid-priced markets. The range opens with the Lynchburg ‘A’ style mando. This sub-£80 model is a good starting point for those wishing to have a go without having to fork out more than a good night out. Next is the Oval Hole model with an extended, 24-fret fingerboard (£90) and the Madison, much similar to the Lynchburg, but with a pickup and preamp.

Things start to get serious for Savannah with the £149.99 Lousville model (in a range of finishes), which has a solid spruce top, solid maple back and sides and Gotoh machines. Topping off the range is the F model. It’s a similar spec to the Louisville, but with an extended fingerboard and a lightweight hardcase.

Westside also has the intriguing resonator Nickel Silver Bell mando from Recording King, with a brass body and a flame maple neck and the Loar 1920s-style Homage mando, with premium spruce top, highly flamed maple back and sides, ebony fingerboard and bridge, Grover machines and lots of mother of pearl and abalone. This one tops the scale with a penny change from 600 quid.

PARIS SWING
This is a really attractive collection of half a dozen mandolins, all clocking in at the mid-£400 price range. They each have a ‘Gypsy Jazz’ flavour, solid sitka spruce tops and triple A grade flamed maple back, sides and neck.

There are three models: the Parisian, the Nuage (inspired by Django Reinhardt) and the Samois. All of them come in either a vintage sunburst or natural blonde finish.

RECORDING KING
Aside form the resonator mando mentioned earlier (and an equally unusual resonator ukulele) Recording King really comes into its own in the world of the banjo. With a nod to the mid-priced market, courtesy of the £350 Songster five-string and a classic, open-backed California model (at £539.99), the rejuvenated US brand then jumps up to £800 and above with the Professional and Soloist models (starting at £799.99). All of these instruments have a three-ply maple rim, Mastertone-style flange and tone ring, dual co-ordinator rods and ebony fingerboard.

STAGG
If it’s MI, then you can bet your last dollar that Stagg does it – it’s no different with the trad and folk markets. The brand is definitely moving a considerable distance upwards in terms of its entry-level reputation and the BJM30G is a good example of this. Clocking in at a retail price of £235, the six-string guitar-banjo has a mahogany resonator, 30 flat-type bracket hooks, an 11-inch Remo head and a nato neck. The Stagg banjo range also includes five-string G, and left-handed G models.

On the mando front (also available in a leftie version) the M20LH is an entry-level Blugrass mandolin with a basswood top, back and sides, nato neck and open gear nickel machines – all for £79.

No one is missing out on the uke market these days, of course and Stagg is no exception. The US40S soprano retails at £48 and has a solid mahogany top, back, sides, and neck, nato headstock and rosewood fingerboard and bridge. The Stagg uke range starts at £20 and rises to £140, including electro-soprano, concert models, a tenor and baritone models.

ASHTON
Ashton’s entry-level ranges include plenty of items to fill this category, flagging up the ‘summer campfire singalong’ for its ukulele – which is a valid selling point. Easy to transport and as easy as a guitar to learn the basics, the uke is perfect impromptu accompaniment. Its Hawaiian-style ukes come in seven different colours (with matching bag) and have sturdy geared machines. A mere 19 quid will buy your punters one.

Ashton has a couple of mandolins, too, namely the MDN100 and the MDE100 (£139 and £149 respectively). These little strummers have a grade A spruce top, sapele back and sides, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard and bridge and chrome geared machines. The MDE model is an electro version. Both ship with case.

ACOUSTICA
Acoustica has been around for more years than many might care to imagine, but it was not until the company acquired the long established UK supplier, JL Music, that it came to the notice of many more high street retail companies.

Acoustica has some pretty prestigious import lines such as Eastman mandolins, a good example of which is the MD504LA A style, oval hole, lacquered antique mandolin that is modelled after the classic instruments of the 1920s. This fully hand-carved solid mandolin is crafted with an aged spruce top and maple back and sides. The maple neck is finished with a solid ebony fingerboard and an ebony fronted headstock. Fittings are nickel-plated.

There are also hand crafted guitars by Czech Republic makers BSG and Tribal Planet gigbags to name but a few in the Acoustica catalogue. Acoustica’s catalogue is further strengthened by the inclusion of own-brand good profit margin lines Tonewood and Heartwood which include five-string and Irish tenor banjos, mandolins, tenor guitars, ukulele banjos and a whole host of hard-to-find quality traditional musical instruments.

We are reliably informed that there is a team of sales agents covering the country, so there is bound to be one near to you.

TANGLEWOOD
Tanglewood has been slowly but surely compiling a full line of folk and traditional instruments, working in conjunction with designer Steve Noon, one of Britain’s banjo and mandolin experts. Two ranges, Union and Cove Creek, have been designed to meet all features and price points, highlighting, the company says: ‘both value for money and professional hardware and cosmetics’. These new lines are now all in stock, ready to grace showrooms nationwide.

Starting off with the entry-level Union series, the raft of ukuleles include the TU6, a soprano instrument with guitar style machineheads in an array of gloss finish colours. The range climbs up to the £99.95 TU1, a cutaway soprano electro. The Cove Creek uke is the TU2 solid spruce topped instrument with figured bubinga back and sides and a hi-gloss finish and a hardshell case, retailing at £119.95.

Tanglewood also has half a dozen mandolins, three in each series, ranging from £159.95 to £339.95, meaning that there is a little something for everyone.