Canada's smallest music store
Nylon-strung Fretless Banjo. Has a very sweet and clear tone, excellent for Clawhammer style, or a player looking to explore beyond the boundaries of ‘conventional’ banjo playing.
Handmade on Saltspring Island, British Columbia by Grant Wickland
Fine tuning and set-up done in house by Jeremy and Kevin here at Mountain Fruit Folklore Centre
Handmade on Saltspring Island, British Columbia by Grant Wickland
Fine-tuning and set-up work done in house by Jeremy and Kevin
Some might say we are obsessive…
Miscellaneous scraps of wood, containers of dust, and old hardware clutter our shelves…
But when you need a pinch of ebony dust for build up, it sure is nice to have it on hand.
The fingerboard of your instrument takes a lot of abuse, no doubt about it. Like anythingthat gets that kind of mileage a little TLC every once in a while is a good thing… a very good thing!
Of the pictures below which fingerboard would be more inspiring for you to pick up and play?
We see a good number of these Harmony-made arch tops, but rarely do they come to us in such good shape!
This old beauty just came into the shop for a clean up and assessment. Buffing out the
We are updating our website…………..dropping the bulk of online sales and focusing on our brick and mortar, web content and building our own instruments, stay tuned!
Kevin and Jeremy
The top is solid spruce, neck is Spanish cedar with a hard “V”-shape, the back and sides appear to be birch. It recently had a refret, and a neck set done (not by us) as well as a new rosewood bridge made.
We were very lucky to come across this instrument at a decent price and found that just a bit more work could bring it to the next level.
Not all Ukuleles are created equally. Many of us have encountered the all-plastic toys that sit on top of the piano, impossible to tune, sounds like playing a wet noodle attached to a cardboard box.
Price: Contact Us
Here are a few examples of pick up installs that required some problem solving.
In the photo above we see a K&K pure mini installed in a 12 string guitar that has a JLD bridge doctor attached. K&K does make a 12 string p/u but the transducers are so large that it’s not feasible to install correctly in this scenario. Chamfering the edge of the bridge doctor block where it contacts the bridge plate allows the installation of the middle transducer of the pure mini to be fully on the bridge plate. The pure mini is a totally acceptable substitution for pure 12 when this obstacle is present.
Here’s a soundport I added to a clients Yamaha classical. With the door off the player receives a boost in volume and hears or experiences more of the guitars voice that is directed out the main sound hole towards an audience. The door can also be left on to keep the sound projection as it was which can be helpful when playing in a group and listening for everyones levels. Soundports are not a gimmick, they can definitely enhance the players experience, almost like a natural monitor. As with many advancements they were developed by hand builders and are now showing up in a few commercial instruments, along with arm bevels!
We had a lovely surprise visit from a travelling performer, Leila Neverland. Her uniquely powerful and emotive voice and songwriting struck us instantly. It is with great pleasure that we share her performance with you.
For more information please visit leilaneverland.com
Our dear friend Marty Hamilton has passed away. It is with heavy hearts that we say farewell to this fantastic man, community member, and musician.
Rest In Peace, Marty.
The local talent in this area never ceases to amaze us! Noel Fudge and Martine Denbok are beautiful songwriters, composers, and private music teachers based out of New Denver. Take a moment. Set everything else aside. Take a listen to this beautiful track from their new album, which can be purchased here in store at Mountain Fruit Folklore. All proceeds go to the artist.
Learn more about Freya and their music at http://www.fortheloveoffreya.ca
Go to our Youtube channel Mountain Fruit Folklore Centre to hear another song from the new album performed on Octave Violin! Along with a wealth of other incredible performances, Live! From the Pew!
Here at Mountain Fruit we have been counting on Teton for a number of our price-point models. To find solid-top instruments of this quality and in this price range used to be almost unheard of!
Price: Contact Us
As always it is a pleasure to have Cara Luft in the store. She is probably our most featured Live from the Pew artist. We asked her if she would play us a little something for on our own hand built 19th century guitar, and here it is!
Black Water Side is a traditional Irish Tune, of unknown author. Perhaps in this day the most well known version is the instrumental track from Led Zeppelin’s self-titled first album.
For more Live from the Pew videos check out our Youtube Channel “Mountain Fruit Folklore Centre.”
Mountain Fruit Folklore Centre is now open regular shop hours. Tuesday-Saturday 10-5
The first important announcement is that our phone number has changed! You can reach us at 1-250-544-1598, or Toll-Free at 1-877-220-0329. We do apologize for this inconvenience we are hoping to be back to our original local phone number as soon as possible.
And second, We would like to publicly acknowledge and celebrate apprentice Kevin John, his progress and contributions to the Mountain Fruit vision. Kevin has been with us for 2 years now, working in the shop on customer’s instruments, restorations, and working and maintaining the storefront. He recently finished a period under a grant from the Kyuquot-Checleset First Nations Band (many, many thanks to them!). Kyuquot-Checleset assisted Kevin for six months in funding his training in the art of lutherie under mentor and shop owner Jeremy Behn. We look forward to many more months working together. This New Year will see us taking new steps forward as we are in the midst of building an electric guitar each right from scratch.
Left to Right:
Mountain Fruit Folklore Centre will be closed from now, Christmas Eve till Tuesday Jan 10th, 2017 to allow for inventory. The Mtn Fruit staff wish you ease and peace spent with loved ones every day! And Christmas too!
We’ll see you in the New Year, it’s been a pleasure helping with musical journeys and we really do appreciate the support!
The Small Glories is a prime example of incredible synergy! JD Edwards and Cara Luft contrast and compliment each other beautifully. Their first full length album, Wondrous Traveler, brimming with top-notch musicianship, tight vocal harmonies and tasteful arrangements, is not to be missed. The songwriting stirs something ancient in the soul and echoes of the North American folk tradition. Every song on the album strikes home; bold, gutsy, honest, and unabashedly human. This duo command the ability to whirl you into the throws of wild dervish one moment, and then knock you (gently) to the ground with a tender, heart-rending ballad the next.
Guided by the over-riding spirit of fun and lust for life, here are true masters of the craft!
Visit them at http://www.thesmallglories.com/
You can buy Wondrous Traveler, as well as their self-titled EP, in store at Mountain Fruit Folklore.
It’s just not christmas for most Canadians until it snows and we weren’t sure it was going to happen in Kaslo before St Nick arrived this year. But it did, and the beautiful, peaceful quiet is upon us again. The skates and skis are out and slowly we are adapting to the cold. Which reminds me, high pressure, low temp weather, such as we are experiencing now, is a time to think about protecting your stringed instruments from low humidity damage. Pop into the shop if you need some pointers.
Also, if you have some musicians on your Christmas list take note! From now until December 31st you will save 10% on all orders from our web store. At check out simply enter Merry Xmas in the discount field.
Here’s a really fun and interesting experiment inspired in part by the mandolin’s larger cousin the Octave Mandolin. We took a 16″ Viola and set it up with special strings from Sensicore to be played in GDAE tuning an octave below a standard violin. The result is a very robust and rich cello-like timbre that is nothing short of satisfying. An excellent choice for accompaniment, regular fiddle music and fingerings can be used and will sound an octave down.
You can expect to see some further experimentation in this realm from us in the near future. As a broad spectrum of timbre and responsiveness is available by playing with string guage, string length, body size, rosin and bow selection. Who has time to be bored?
It is now becoming common for guitar builders to be incorporating a bevel on their guitars for the picking arm to comfortably rest on. The idea is gainging ground as more and more people are getting the chance to play guitars with the arm-bevel. But hardly any factory built guitars out there are incorporating this feature. Enter this new model Teton Grand Concert. Here we have a guitar that sounds exceptional for it’s price range, with a Solid Sitka Spruce top and Rosewood back and sides. The fingerboard, bridge and bridge pins are also made of Rosewood and it comes with a factory-installed Fishman Presys+ active pickup system.
Check out the full specs here.
Here’s an excerpt from a beautiful performance done by TJ, a student of Kaslo’s 4th Annual GuitarFest. TJ is playing a 19th Century piece on this 19th Century replica by Instruments of Change, Jeremy Behn. The guitar was also used as part of the GuitarFest’s presentation at the Langham Theatre on the history of the classical guitar. Jeremy presented his hand built 19th Century guitar replica alongside other 19th Century guitars that esteemed players and historians Daniel Bolshoy and Murray Visscher displayed and performed on.
Plans are available to build your own 19th Century Guitar here!
Hi Jeremy! I wanted to write and thank you for making my recent purchase of the Eastman T-386 such a pleasant experience. You were extremely generous with your time on the phone with me as well as very helpful. It’s very obvious to me that you are a person who cares about his customers and it’s your nature to treat people with respect and kindness. I would not hesitate for a second to do business with you again in the future. It was a pleasure! I hope someday to visit your shop and meet you in person.
Glen Taylor,
Victoria, BC
