Phoenix

This exceptional and effortlessly easy-to-play mandolin, made by Rolfe Gerhardt South Thomaston, ME, is similar in appearance to his Phoenix NeoClassical in that it has neither top nor back binding and utilizes (to extremely good effect) Thomastic Enfield flatwound strings which are made in Vienna, Austria.  It has the two-part adjustable bridge in which the bridge base is made from “Timeless Timbre” or “Old Wood” or maybe “Sinker Maple” – wood that was submerged in an extremely deep river under tremendous pressure for over a hundred years, or so says the legend.

Features include: quilted maple back and sides, Engelmann spruce top, moose bone nut and saddle, 18 moose hoof print markers, custom inlays of 3 meese, and a leafless tree some of whose branches are covered with snow, surrounded by a dark, glowing sunburst finish.  Inside it harbors, for sheer versatility, a McIntyre Feather pickup. 

A two-point, hand-made, exquisite-sounding acoustic eight-string suitable for bluegrass or any other type of music, this is as fine a modern mandolin in an intermediate price range as can be imagined. About his mandolins, the builder of the mighty Phoenix says – these are instruments for connoisseurs of handcrafted instruments, and for musicians who want outstanding volume, tone, and playability.

Rolf Gerhardt of cosmopolitan South Thomaston, Maine, has been building mandolins professionally since the mid-‘70s when he made the brand called Unicorn. He seems to get along well with mythical creatures (play nice, boys). This Phoenix double cutaway carved top and back instrument makes an exceedingly impressive sounding mandolin – as are all Phoenixes.