Interview: Gail Hester
Interview: Gail Hester
Interview: Gail Hester
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GH: There was an article published in our home town paper about my mandolin building and that<br />
generated a lot of local repair business. I was replacing backs on vintage Martins, doing fret jobs, setups<br />
and stuff like that. Everyone just assumed that I knew what I was doing and I gained a lot of confidence.<br />
We purchased a 1924 Gibson snakehead mandolin that was painted orange and missing half of the back<br />
and part of the side. I had that mandolin completely in pieces and restored it as closely as I could to its<br />
original condition. It turned out real well and that experience was like mandolin restoration 101. That's<br />
how I got started working on the old ones. Lots of people have causes, save this and preserve that but I<br />
guess my cause has become saving great old<br />
mandolins.<br />
JM: How much have you learned from working on<br />
those old Gibsons?<br />
GH: I have learned so much from studying these old<br />
mandolins and I have the opportunity of examining<br />
the good ones along with the ones that have failed<br />
tops and other problems. I've been able to map the<br />
graduations on the ones that sound great as well as<br />
the ones that are thin sounding or have overwhelming<br />
bass response. It's a lot of learning what to do and<br />
what not to do in building a mandolin and I think this<br />
helps with building new mandolins as well as working<br />
on the old ones.<br />
JM: Do you find restoration as satisfying as building<br />
new instruments? Which is a bigger challenge?<br />
GH: I find both to be very rewarding but it's like<br />
comparing building a house with remodeling an old<br />
house and I think most would agree that building new<br />
is easier and more fun. I think restoration work is<br />
more challenging and there is a lot of stress<br />
associated with taking someone's eight or ninety year<br />
old prized possession and ripping it apart. As the<br />
saying goes, "failure is not an option."<br />
JM: What type of restorations are your most<br />
common? Why do some of these old instruments hold<br />
up like steel under bad conditions and others seem so<br />
fragile under the best conditions?<br />
GH: The most common problem is top failure or<br />
sinking and it's the most involved to deal with. The<br />
other common problems are seam failures, glue failures, cracks and so on. There is a root cause of every<br />
failure and it can range from how they have been stored and treated for the last eighty years to the<br />
mandolin top originally being carved too thin to hold up. I also do a lot of finish and touch up work as well<br />
as neck planning and fret jobs.<br />
JM: Pretty much everyone respects the Gibson designs, but nothing is perfect, are there ways to improve<br />
on the traditional designs with out changing the character of the instruments?<br />
GH: My F-style mandolins have a bit more flare in the shape that I like but it is a subtle difference. I think<br />
in general people today expect mandolins that are much cleaner or more perfect than the old ones were.<br />
It would be hard to get away with for example, some of that inlay work that's on the old F5s. In today's<br />
mandolin market your work would be criticized as being sloppy. Other than that I have tried to keep track<br />
of what works in terms of construction, graduations and materials and go with those things.<br />
JM: Everything that goes into an instrument affects the way it sounds, what are the most important things<br />
that keep instruments from a particular builder consistent?<br />
GH: That's another great question and since I have not been building long enough to be a big expert in<br />
this area I'll just say that I have tremendous respect for certain builders that have been building great