I had an awesome weekend visiting Mr. Larry Hopkins owner of the Red Maple Violin Shop in Pekin, Indiana. I got to interview Mr. Hopkins about how he builds violins and mandolins and will be posting a documentary soon of the trip. But in the meantime check out some of the pics of his awesome mandolins that I was able to play on while I was there.
You can also check out more of his mandolins at his website: The Red Maple Shop
Included in these pics is a rare six string mandolin, with added drone strings to the bottom, that Mr. Hopkins designed and built. And also the mandolin I fell in love with, the one made out of sassafras and oak. What an awesome time we had!
These pictures and more will be appearing in my upcoming book series "Mandolin: Dead Man's Tuning."
God bless,
Willy
