A couple of years ago on one of my visits to Martin Simpson I spotted what I thought was an unusual instrument. I could see it wasn’t a standard mandolin, but what was it? I then discovered it was a mandola built by master builder Stefan Sobell. I already have two amazing Sobell guitars, the last one being an African Blackwood New World guitar. After strumming Martin’s mandola for a few moments I was amazed that such a big sound could come from such a small bodied instrument. It also has a unique sound that is unlike anything else I had heard to date and I decided to commission Stefan to build one. I later discover that with this specific design, Martin and I are the two only people to own these extraordinary instruments. Its a very different instrument to anything else I have played to date. I have always wanted to love a mandolin, BUT for some reason never warmed to any that I have played. The Stefan Sobell mandola however is something else altogether!
Today I collected the Stefan Sobell mandola and I am bowled over by how great it looks, sounds and plays! I am already starting to think about how this will be used on the next Small Change Diaries album.
Stefan is an extraordinary builder and you can find out more about him here – http://www.sobellguitars.com/instruments/
