Weber lead luthier Ryan Fish is always thinking about the mandolin
Apr 27, 2020, Weber News
It’s front of mind, whether playing, designing, building … or just petting the dog
A dog barks, looking out on a field of Shetland sheep grazing their way through a misty Oregon morning. It’s a kind alarm, with no menace, just greeting the day.
What’s telling is the pooch’s name. Mando.
“I love mandolin,” Ryan Fish says matter of factly. “I think about it a lot.”
As lead luthier at Weber Fine Acoustic Instruments, Fish is immersed in mandolins all day, but it’s front of mind off hours as well, as you can tell by the dog.
“My wife, Michelle,” he laughs, “hears me talking about Bill Monroe and Ronnie McCoury all the time.”
Fish inspects and signs finished instruments, making sure every last detail is perfect before it lands in the case and heads out the door. That’s his cursive you see when you musingly look in the f-hole of your Diamondback.
But before a Weber even gets to that point, Fish has had his hands all over it; and his brain, too.
He’s studied the work of past masters like Lloyd Loar and Charlie Derrington as well as current maestros Don MacRostie and Steve Gilchrist. He is, of course, well versed in the concepts of founder, Bruce Weber.
“The key thing I learned from Bruce,” Fish says, “is creating your own sound. I like that.”
Working with a small, elite group, Fish oversees each step, from deflection testing, to ensure maximum tone and projection, to final string up, which involves much more than its name implies, including fretwork, intonation and installation of tuners, tailpiece and bridge.
Fish, who thinks players would be surprised by just how much handcrafting goes into each Weber, sees to the all important dovetail work on Yellowstone and Heritage models; he shapes necks; glues fretboards; and places inlay … all while “seeing” every build in process, knowing what needs to be done at what point in the finely detailed operation.
When an instrument comes out of the finish booth, the penultimate stop on its way to string up, Fish becomes a conductor, orchestrating a mandolin’s first notes as he adjusts and refines the bridge footing and lovingly crowns each fret.
He then actually picks those initial notes himself. He hears each Weber mandolin make its debut.
Fish plays a mean slide guitar. He’s listened to the legends and he understands the blues. But these days, inspired by artists like David Grisman and Andrew Marlin, he’s playing more and more mandolin.
Like he said, he loves it.
“I’ve been diving in deep,” he affirms. “I still play guitar, but mandolin is the thing these days.”
Fish, who began his mandolin making career at Breedlove, has been with Weber since Tom Bedell took ownership in 2012, and, in fact, met Michelle, a pianist, when she was also with the team, working with artist relations.
“She knows a lot about instruments and she likes to talk about different tonewoods and stuff, so it works out well.”
In addition to tending to the sheep and chickens on the family’s hobby farm, Fish has been woodshedding during these past few weeks of COVID19-related shutdown.
Chances are, he’s been dreaming up new models, too.
In January, at the annual NAMM showcase in Anaheim, Calif., Weber introduced a series of Special Edition instruments, all of which Fish had a key hand in developing. Along with fellow Weber luthiers, Fish submitted ideas that involved alternative wood combinations—like the all-koa Exotic Kona A20-F octave mandolin and the stunning walnut-bound natural-finished Pronghorn 2 PT. 14-F—as well as new ways of thinking about the traditional mandolin.
The Road Dog and Red Rocks, for example, both feature deeper body chambers and shellac finishes.
The latter, Fish, who helmed the stem-to-stern design of the popular Crooked River F 14-F, points out, are durable and beautiful and protect the instrument. He’s glad they also protect luthiers, being kinder to the shop environment. And the thin application lets these mandolins soar sonically.
Under the hood, though, even these are singular instruments, informed by Fish’s relentless research and invention.
“The Road Dog is something I've been thinking of for a while,” he says, “powerful and traditional.”
“The deeper body is also something I’ve been wanting to do, for a deeper, richer tone. I was going for a specific sound I’ve been wanting to hear, that I think players will really enjoy.”
The Road Dog is tone bar-braced, so it offers familiarity with a new twist, and, Fish adds, “it has a speed neck, which a lot of bluegrass players love.”
The Red Rocks, named for its translucent shellac finish, created by Dalton Bell, is X-braced, so, while its shares the Road Dog’s body depth, it has a more open sound profile.
“That’s something that’s fascinated me for a long time,” Fish says. “A lot of my favorite players, like Sharon Gilchrist, Ronny McCoury and Jacob Joliff, are using X-braced mandolins, so I was really pleased with what we were able to achieve. It has the coolest sound. It's kind of a throaty, warmer timbre with lots of overtones. It ends up being almost like a cross between the rounder oval hole sound and the typical bark and projection of an f-hole instrument.”
“So, two new mandolins, two totally different sounds, which is great.”
“That was the biggest overall takeaway I had from NAMM this year—learning more about the diversity people connect with. Different things resonate with different players of all styles.”
“It seems to me the mandolin is very hot right now. There's a ton of great younger players, and all sorts of genres. I just love it.”