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The S-5 is currently being built by David Houchens who worked for me for almost nine years. He lives about ten miles from me and comes to my shop quite often. He now does full time repair work on all stringed instruments in addition to building. David delivers the mandolins to us
strung up but unfinished. We stain and finish them and reassemble and set them up in our shop. The top wood is now red spruce and is hand carved to exact dimensions as are the curly maple back and neck. We generally string them up with D'Addario J75's. The cases are made in Oilville VA by TKL. The tuners are Schaller and the tail piece is Allen. Another ad will be in BU that explains the 34 Czech mandolins and the 120 plus Stelling made S models since 1979. Kim Breedlove made the first 79 Stelling mandolins up to Nov. 1982, his last 20 being S-5's. His design was basically a copy of the Loar. John Hamlett, another long time Stelling employee, made from serial #80 in 1990 to #86 in Feb. 1994.
 The Banjo Store JDMC Janet Davis Music Company 13026 Highway 71 North Bentonville, AR 72712 |
