We are very excited to offer an assortment of different octave mandolins for sale, more than we’ve ever had at one time. Octave Mandolins are fast becoming a staple in a variety of musical styles including Celtic and Americana. They are tuned to the same intervals as a standard mandolin, only an octave down, which maintains the chime and natural chorusing effect of the mandolin’s double strings, but it brings the down into the vocal range for most singers. (Just check out the music of Sarah Jarosz to see how effective an octave mandolin can be with a singer.) 

Taylor’s 200 series is a fine choice for beginning or intermediate players looking for a great sounding, easy playing guitar that will help take them to the next musical level. We have been particularly impressed with the new 200 Series of 12-string guitars.

Taylor has earned a reputation for building some of the easiest playing 12-strings out there, and happily the tone of these three models match their playability. Crafted with solid tops for projection, clarity and balance, these 200 Series 12-strings come in a variety of tonewoods, appointments and body shapes.

When we signed on as Fender dealers, we were perhaps most excited to stock the American Vintage II series. While all the new Fenders we have been getting have been fine guitars, there’s just something about the designs from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s that gets our hearts racing. The American Vintage II guitars and basses are accurate versions of the classic designs. They have period-correct bodies, necks and hardware, premium finishes and meticulously voiced, year-specific pickups. We invite you to come in and try them out. We think you’ll love them as much as we do.

The Taylor Academy Series of guitars show what an asset Taylor’s Tecate factory is for guitarists, especially those on a budget. The excellent sound and playability is achieved by combining highly efficient production with a clean, functional aesthetic that looks simple rather than stripped down. The solid, torrefied spruce tops are lightly braced and deliver a clean, clear tone with plenty of warmth and harmonic complexity. In impromptu blindfold tests here at Gryphon, these guitars consistently fool players expecting far less impressive sound for $799. These guitars get the same finely-dressed frets as higher Taylor models, so the playability is equally impressive.

There are currently a number of Taylor Academy Series models in the catalog. The two steel strings models, the Dreadnought 10e and the Grand Concert 12e, have a shorter 24 7/8” scale, a narrower 1 11/16″ nut and they’re voiced to sound great with light-gauge strings, all of which make these guitar easy on your fretting fingers.  The Grand Concert 12e-N is set up for nylon strings, which are even easier on your fretting fingers. 

All the Academy models have a built-in armrest that softens the edge of the body’s bass-side lower bout to enhance the playing comfort. All versions have genuine ebony fretboards, which come from Crelicam, an ebony mill outside of Yaoundé, Cameroon that Taylor purchased to sustainably harvest the increasingly scarce wood. The electric versions feature Taylor’s ES-B pickup, which includes a built-in tuner as well as tone and volume controls. (Changing the battery takes just a few seconds and no tools are needed.) The Taylor Academy Series is an excellent choice for a beginning guitarist or a more advanced player looking to step up from that old guitar they found in a closet.

We were very excited to see the return of the mahogany-topped  Martin 15 Series in 1997. The first model, D-15M, was an immediate hit with players and Martin soon began introducing new models including 000, 12-fret 000 and 00 variations. Like the guitars of the 1940s and 1950s, the Martin 15 Series guitars are cosmetically very plain but they pack a sonic wallop. Our favorites are the StreetMaster models, which have a very thin finish that is lightly distressed by buffing through some of the dark stain on the mahogany top. 

The Martin 15 Series originally took some time to get up and running. The first mention of the style was in 1935, when Martin made prototypes of two R-18 archtops and two 0-15 flattops, which, according to the log books, were either birch or maple. In 1940, the style formally entered the catalog with the introduction of the 0-15. Martin made 578 that first year, making it their most popular model by a long shot.

The 0-15 was the plainest guitar Martin ever made and it had no binding, the simplest soundhole rosette, and a thin, satin finish. But the all-mahogany construction sounded very good. It didn’t have the roar and rumble of a rosewood and spruce dreadnought like the D-28, but the 0-15 was balanced sonically and responded well to both fingerpicking and flatpicking.

Martin’s catalog, which was almost as plain and unassuming as its least expensive model, had a line of small print at the bottom of the page which read “Many styles but one quality,” and that certainly applied to the humble 0-15. A careful examination of the interior bracing of a 1940 0-15 compared to a pearl-bordered D-45 from the same year would reveal that the workmanship was the same, despite the fact that the D-45 cost ten times more.

The 0-15’s reputation got a boost when it was adopted by Woody Guthrie, the singer and songwriter who wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in 1940 as well. Guthrie was photographed playing the model, cementing the idea of the small mahogany instrument as a guitar of choice for the Common Man. The 0-15 stayed in the catalog until 1961, when Martin discontinued its all-mahogany guitar models until they were reintroduced in 1997. Oddly, Martin has yet to reintroduce the 0 size, but the selection they now offer more than makes up for the lack.

The Fender Stratocaster is so ubiquitous these days it’s difficult to imagine how modern it must have looked to players back in 1954 when it was first introduced. It had an asymmetrical body shape with a contoured back for playing comfort; three pickups for tonal versatility; and a simple but responsive vibrato system. Guitarists immediately took to the new instrument and within a few years they were using it to create a whole new vocabulary for guitar playing.

The Fender Stratocaster proved to be so popular that it has been copied by companies all over the world, but the original is still the best. We are proud to carry new Fender instruments and we are particularly pleased with the lineup of Strats from Fender and Squier. The Stratocaster comes in many variations, so there is sure to be one that will be perfect for your music. 

We are very excited to announce the arrival of a new batch of Eastman mandolin family instruments. Eastmans all have carved spruce tops and carved maple back and sides, a maple neck and an ebony fingerboard and bridge. Their all-solid wood construction has a natural resonance that’s tough to beat. We have a good selection of oval-hole and f-hole mandolins in both A and F body shapes. We also have mandocellos, mandola and octave mandolins, for those of you looking to explore the lower tone depths of the mando world.

The Eastman story began in 1992, when the accomplished Chinese musician Qian Ni and a small group of violin makers traveled out of China to look at U.S. and European made violins and apply their design and construction techniques to their own instruments. He started Eastman Strings with the goal to handcraft fine violins and offer them at a reasonable price to the consumer. After much success, Eastman, now the Eastman Music Company, expanded into the Mandolin and Archtop guitar world. Gryphon was an early adopter of Eastman products and has been generally impressed with the quality of instruments produced in the Eastman workshops. With Eastman, you can expect excellent playability, top-notch fit-and-finish, and excellent tone, all at prices that won’t break the bank.

Taylor’s GS Mini has been Gryphon’s best-selling guitar for several years running and no other model even comes close. Why? Simply because this little powerhouse does so many different things so well. It’s a travel guitar that doubles as a kids’ guitar which can also serve as a songwriter’s guitar or a couch companion you always want to have handy. Want a modern-day parlor guitar you can plug in to fill a stadium? A GS Mini with its standard pickup can do that.

The GS Mini is available in a number of acoustic or acoustic-electric configurations. The tops are all made of solid tonewoods and include spruce, mahogany or koa. The back and sides are made of layered tonewoods and include sapele, koa and rosewood. They all have different tonal personalities but the finger-friendly 23 1/2 inch scale and easy string action are consistent throughout the line.

I spent more than 20 years working with Frank Ford here in the Gryphon repair department and his passing has created a void that is both personal and professional. He was famous in the luthier community for his repair skills and his willingness to share that knowledge freely. For those of us fortunate enough to have worked beside him, we got the benefit of his decades of experience first hand but more than that we got a great mentor who offered a fresh outlook on what is truly important. 

Frank was very fond of the Gryphon repair crew, and he left us with the confidence and expertise to keep his legacy alive. We will continue to carry on the Gryphon ethos of treating our customers with honesty, and offering our best advice available. Our dedicated repair team will continue to offer the same repair services that we have for decades, supporting our local community of musicians the best we can by making your instruments play the best they can. 

On a more mundane note, we are busier than ever and we will continue to require appointments for repair and set-up consultations. Please call us at +1 (989) 498-9527 during our business hours to schedule an appointment. You don’t need an appointment for restrings, which we can usually do while you wait. Also, we can often complete smaller repairs while you’re here, staff pending. It is best to call before coming in to make sure we have the right repair people available. 

-Brian Michael

We are heartbroken to announce that Frank Ford, the co-founder of Gryphon Stringed Instruments, passed away Sunday, December 17th after a brief illness. Frank co-founded Gryphon in 1969 with Richard Johnston because they wanted to build guitars, mandolins and banjos. In a few short years, building instruments morphed into a retail and repair business but the desire to fix, restore and maintain fretted instruments has always been at the heart of Gryphon and was Frank’s particular passion.

Over the decades Frank developed dozens of techniques to get guitars, banjos, mandolins and ukuleles back on the road. He devoted time and effort beyond his schedule at Gryphon sharing what he learned via his website Frets.com and at repair clinics and lectures at Roberto Venn School of Lutherie in Phoenix and at various luthier conventions. Frank had an insatiable curiosity and at any event you were more likely to find him asking other builders questions rather than pontificating on his achievements.

We were fortunate to work beside Frank here at Gryphon. He was unfailingly kind to both customers and staff and going above and beyond the expected was his standard mode. He was a joy to work with and he loved talking about every aspect of fretted instruments, from their history and maintenance to the music played on them. When first-time visitors to Gryphon asked if he was Frank, his cheeky reply was, “I try to be.” As we move into a future without him, we will try to keep this spirit alive and will try to be a bit Frank, as well.

Gryphon is setting up a scholarship fund at Robert Venn in Frank’s honor that will help students attend the school and learn the craft to which he devoted so many years of his life.  We will let you know when it is ready to go. 

We are proud to carry Carr amplifiers, which are crafted in Pittsboro, North Carolina by Steve Carr and his talented crew. They boast unique circuit designs, meticulous point-to-point construction, premium components and hand-crafted cabinets. The Carr line includes lower watt amps like the Raleigh, the Super Bee and the Skylark, which produce amazing tone and sustain at bedroom volumes as well as louder amps like the Rambler, the Mercury V and the Sportsman that are loud enough to use at gigs. We always have a great selection in various finishes so please stop on by and give them a try. We suspect you’ll be glad you did.
 

The Fender Telecaster is a paradoxical guitar. On the one hand, when it was introduced by Fender in 1950 under the Broadcaster name, it was basically perfect. More than 70 years later, Fender makes guitars that still follow that original template. Players in pretty much every style of music have used Teles to great effect. Want to rock like Bruce Springsteen, play the blues like Muddy Waters, lay down some jazz like Julian Lage and twang like pretty much every country guitarist ever, then reach for a Telecaster.

On the other hand, if you think the original model needs tweaking, the Telecaster takes modifications very well. Do you want to swap out the single coil pickups for humbuckers? Do you want to add a third pickup? Do you feel a semi-hollow body is more your style than a solid one? Do you want to make the body out of swamp ash, alder, rosewood or pine? Do you want to put a B-Bender in it? Go for it! All of these variations sound amazing. 

Now that we are Fender dealers, we can stock a wide variety of new Telecasters to add to our usual selection of used models. So come on in and try a Tele. It may be your next guitar.