Take a close look at my 1982 Monteleone Grand Artist #76, one of the most distinctive carved mandolins of its era.
In this Mandolin Show & Tell, I talk about how I came to own this instrument, why John Monteleone’s Grand Artist design fascinated me long before I ever had one in my hands, and some of the construction ideas that made the model different from a traditional Gibson-style F-5.
John Monteleone described the Grand Artist as an attempt to create an alternative mandolin with broader balance, faster response, easy action, and a clear, responsive sound without an overly metallic top end. The design developed over more than two years and included changes to the soundholes, shortened floating pickguard, internal tone-bar layout, overall shape, and playability.
I also look at the radiused fingerboard, which Monteleone began using after David Grisman complained about hand discomfort on a conventional flat fretboard. Monteleone identified instrument #25 as his first with an arched fingerboard, and by the upper 20s most of his mandolins incorporated the feature.
I bought #76 from T.R. Crandall in New York almost three years ago. Before that, it had essentially been a one-owner instrument from 1982 until around 2016.
My interest in Monteleone mandolins goes back much farther. When I saw a Grand Artist prominently featured on the cover of David Grisman’s Quintet ’80, I was hooked. To me, it was both art and instrument.
Before buying the Monteleone, I had played Will Kimble mandolins for nearly 25 years, and I still hear a strong relationship between Kimble and Monteleone instruments in both tone and playability. Will once heard me play this Grand Artist and told me, “It sounds like you.”
That probably sums up why this instrument has become so important to me.
Since acquiring it, I’ve used it for camps, gigs, teaching, and recording, and it has increasingly felt less like a collectible instrument and more like an extension of my own musical voice.
Monteleone himself said that he wanted the Grand Artist to be a mandolin that was not locked into one characteristic sound—an instrument that could cover bluegrass but also move comfortably into other kinds of music.
That versatility is exactly what I ask of it: blues, rock, traditional music, jazzier material, and everything in between.
