Find a Teacher
Find a Dealer

Adam Steffey - My Approach To Bluegrass Mandolin
by Adam Steffey

---

     Print this Article (PDF)         Email Article to a Friend

Interview: Gail Hester

by Joe Mendel

Gail Hester describes herself as a "craftsperson"; she does pottery & sewing, even sewing all of her kid's clothes when they were young. The skills used in other crafts serve her well in building and repairing mandolins, following patterns, assembling pieces & the feel of the clay all prepared her for sensing the feel, shape & sound of the wood. I haven't seen any examples of her pottery, but if the clothes she made look half as good as her mandolins, her kids must have been the best dressed children in the Pacific Northwest. Her own mandolins and amazing restorations of old Gibsons have kept her busy since she built her first mandolin for her husband in 2004.

Joe Mendel: Hi Gail, you've gained quite reputation for excellent work in a very short time, how did your first mandolin come to be?

Gail Hester: Hi Joe, it's such a pleasure to talk to you. The history is that I've been supporting my husband's semi-professional musical career for many years, becoming involved in any way I can. I have done sound and lights, hauled gear and whatever else was needed. It's something we've always done together and it has been a lot of fun over the years. His primary instruments had been the drums and guitar and I had been building, maintaining and refinishing his drum sets for about ten years. When he added the mandolin to his repertoire, I remember originally having big-time sticker shock at the cost of those things and I became curious at why they were so expensive. I guess I built my first F5 mandolin partly because of a new fascination for hand made mandolins and because I'm cheap.

JM: What made you believe you could tackle an F-5 mandolin right off the bat? Many folks are terrified of going for that style instrument on the first try.

GH: I wish you could meet the rest of my family because that's just the way we do things. I don't think my Dad ever hired anybody to do anything for him and he taught us that if it could be done by someone else then we could do it too. I grew up in a one-hundred year old house on the Puget Sound that had been condemned but he restored elevated and put a basement under it and now it's quite a showplace. He taught me that with confidence anything is possible and that the key to success is preparation and knowledge. That's probably why I started to build the most difficult instrument first and I spent about six months studying, learning and collecting tools and information. I finished it however because my Sister gave me a hard time telling me that I'd never finish it.

JM: Did you have any prior wood working experience?

GH: I had done some relief carving, some work on drum shells and I spent a lot of time with my Dad in his wood shop growing up but not a great deal of hands on.

JM: How did the other crafts you have done in the past play into your ability to make mandolins?

GH: I have thought about that a great deal and I think the biggest help has been my pottery skills. I developed the ability to make very desirable large and symmetrical, thin walled pottery. I can feel very small variations with my fingertips and I think having the feel for symmetry and those shapes has been a big advantage in carving arch top mandolins.

JM: What was it about the instruments your husband had that he felt were lacking? Why did you think you could do better?

GH: Well, he complained about them so much that I didn't think I could do any worse. He is very picky about his instruments and their sound quality but I think mostly he was having the same issues that all mandolin players have with their instruments, set up and playability problems, tone and volume not being robust enough and fit and finish problems.

JM: What would you have done if the first one was a dud?

GH: I would have gouged the name out of the headstock and we would speak of it no more.

JM: I find it interesting when builders are not players, that hasn't stopped you from becoming quite well respected for your work, how do you explain that?

GH: Yeah, I find that interesting too in a funny way. I can read music and played woodwinds in school but these days I tell people who ask that I don't play anything, and that's the truth. I think we're all born with something special that helps us be successful. In my case I have been given very good hearing, the ability to follow directions and lots of patients. I think it's great to be a player who builds but it's also great to be a builder that has a passion for building and a great respect for those with the talent to play. I meticulously build, finish and set up my instruments and then the last important step is to have my husband play and check out the instrument from a player's perspective. He's kind of my quality assurance guy and he's very picky and usually finds something that I can tweak and make better before I send the instrument out.

JM: What did you use for guidance on your first mandolin? Books, videos, other instruments?

GH: All of the above. Actually, the internet has been an amazing resource for me as it is for everyone. I bought several sets of plans, copied and made binders of all the building information I could find, began spending way too much time reading posts and looking at vintage mandolins on the Mandolin Café and in general soaking up any mandolin information I could find like a sponge. If I had to point to one thing that helped get me started the most it would be the mandolin building pictorial that Lynn Dudenbostel posted on the internet years ago. That pictorial laid out the building process in a way that was very logical and it made sense to me. That's the point where all of the information that I had been collecting came together and I started building my first mandolin.

JM: How faithful do you try to be to the old instruments on your own mandolins?

GH: Oh, you're good…great question. The short answer is that I don't get carried away trying to copy for the sake of copying but I do try to reproduce those features that I believe are important to the look and sound of those great mandolins. I make graduation maps of all the best sounding old mandolins that I work on or otherwise have an opportunity to examine and use these as a guide in repairing/refurbishing old mandolins as well as a bench mark for building new instruments. I generally build to the original dimensions and I use hot hide glue for construction and use oil varnish and shellac French polish finish on all the mandolins I build. I have been told that my mandolins look like new old stock and while I think that's going too far I do appreciate those compliments.

JM: How did you get into the restoration of old Gibsons?

GH: There was an article published in our home town paper about my mandolin building and that generated a lot of local repair business. I was replacing backs on vintage Martins, doing fret jobs, setups and stuff like that. Everyone just assumed that I knew what I was doing and I gained a lot of confidence. We purchased a 1924 Gibson snakehead mandolin that was painted orange and missing half of the back and part of the side. I had that mandolin completely in pieces and restored it as closely as I could to its original condition. It turned out real well and that experience was like mandolin restoration 101. That's how I got started working on the old ones. Lots of people have causes, save this and preserve that but I guess my cause has become saving great old mandolins.

JM: How much have you learned from working on those old Gibsons?

GH: I have learned so much from studying these old mandolins and I have the opportunity of examining the good ones along with the ones that have failed tops and other problems. I've been able to map the graduations on the ones that sound great as well as the ones that are thin sounding or have overwhelming bass response. It's a lot of learning what to do and what not to do in building a mandolin and I think this helps with building new mandolins as well as working on the old ones.

JM: Do you find restoration as satisfying as building new instruments? Which is a bigger challenge?

GH: I find both to be very rewarding but it's like comparing building a house with remodeling an old house and I think most would agree that building new is easier and more fun. I think restoration work is more challenging and there is a lot of stress associated with taking someone's eight or ninety year old prized possession and ripping it apart. As the saying goes, "failure is not an option."

JM: What type of restorations are your most common? Why do some of these old instruments hold up like steel under bad conditions and others seem so fragile under the best conditions?

GH: The most common problem is top failure or sinking and it's the most involved to deal with. The other common problems are seam failures, glue failures, cracks and so on. There is a root cause of every failure and it can range from how they have been stored and treated for the last eighty years to the mandolin top originally being carved too thin to hold up. I also do a lot of finish and touch up work as well as neck planning and fret jobs.

JM: Pretty much everyone respects the Gibson designs, but nothing is perfect, are there ways to improve on the traditional designs with out changing the character of the instruments?

GH: My F-style mandolins have a bit more flare in the shape that I like but it is a subtle difference. I think in general people today expect mandolins that are much cleaner or more perfect than the old ones were. It would be hard to get away with for example, some of that inlay work that's on the old F5s. In today's mandolin market your work would be criticized as being sloppy. Other than that I have tried to keep track of what works in terms of construction, graduations and materials and go with those things.

JM: Everything that goes into an instrument affects the way it sounds, what are the most important things that keep instruments from a particular builder consistent?

GH: That's another great question and since I have not been building long enough to be a big expert in this area I'll just say that I have tremendous respect for certain builders that have been building great instruments for many years. I think building great instruments consistently has to do with applying a particular skill level, rules or philosophy and the processes and approach a builder follows in building. I think all builders learn, grow and refine what they do but I don't think you can be trying something new or experimenting all the time and build consistently. I think every builder has to find what works for them and then stick with it and perfect it. My mandolins so far have a characteristic voice but then I don't know any better than to approach each mandolin the same way.

JM: Why did you decide to keep building more mandolins after the first one?

GH: Like I said earlier, if the first one had been a dud we would speak of it no more. Seriously, my first mandolin although not perfect in form is a really good sounding mandolin and my husband still plays it on stage. I got a lot of positive feedback from that mandolin and well, give a girl a little attention...

JM: Why are these tiny beasts so addicting to you?

GH: I'm small (4'10") and the mandolin is the perfect instrument for me because it fits in my lap and is easy for me to work on. I work on banjos, guitars, drums and others but the mandolin has me in its spell, I just love the form and sound of a mandolin.

JM: Gail, I had such a great time talking with you I feel like I should put "for a good mandolin time call..." for your contact information. I really enjoyed your sense of humor & frankness. I hope to actually hold & play one of your mandolins soon, if you put only a tiny bit of your personality into each one they just have to be a blast to play. Thank you very much.

Gail can be reached by phone at: 360-697-4181

---

[ top ]