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The first time I saw someone play a Dale Ludewig mandolin, it was blue. Not blue in a Del McCoury Bluest Man In Town sense, but a striking Mediterranean azure. It looked to be inspired from the famous series of Blue Guitars that the late instrument collector Scott Chinery commissioned from more than a dozen of the top guitar luthiers in the world. That collection, which now resides in the Smithsonian, represents one of the pinnacles of archtop guitar evolution.

In fact, Ludewig says that instrument was inspired by the Chinery series guitars. Only time will tell whether Dale Ludewig's mandolins achieve a similar stature.

But one thing that's certain is that this is a new builder willing to bend the rules and risk clashing with traditional sensibilities in his quest to build the best mandolins he can.

"I thought a blue mandolin was cool," he explains. But he also saw the unusual coloration as a way to help his fledgling line of mandolins break out of the burgeoning pack of talented builders competing for today's mandolin-buying public.

"I make them (blue mandolins) for jazz players, and I think it goes very well with that style," he says. Of course, Ludewig also produces instruments in traditional sunbursts aimed at a more bluegrass-oriented buyer.

Born on a farm in rural Illinois before the start of the Korean War, Dale Ludewig grew up in a bluegrass household. His father played guitar, and Dale learned his first tune, Ghost Riders in the Sky, on an inexpensive Sears archtop guitar his father had.

He got his first mandolin in high school and immediately learned Redwing, a tune his grandmother played on piano. While in college he played both fingerstyle guitar and bluegrass.

Following college, he moved to Colorado briefly before returning to DeKalb, Illinois, where he started doing woodworking for a living, explaining that, "When you grow up on a farm, you learn to do all kinds of things."

Around that time he also got the bug to begin making musical instruments, building a few guitars, mandolins, banjos, dulcimers and other instruments. He attended a Guild of American Luthiers (GAL) convention in Kansas and toured Stuart Mossman's pioneering guitar plant in Winfield.

Poring over every book and GAL paper he could find on instrument construction fueled his passion to build great instruments himself. But instrument building was always just a hobby as he earned a living doing fine cabinetry and general woodworking.

After, as he puts it, he "drifted away" from building instruments, Ludewig pursued his talents as a musician in several groups in addition to his woodworking profession.

That might have been the end of his mandolin-building career. But at a picking party three years ago, he went without taking his guitar, expecting to have one to play there. Instead, he wound up playing mandolin the entire night, an experience that rekindled not only his interest in playing that instrument, but also his ancient passion for building mandolins.

"I was so into it I decided to learn to play (mandolin) really well. So that's what I did. I wound up playing mandolin for ... like ... three hours a day. A couple of months later I said to myself that I was playing a mandolin I had made 20 years ago, and I knew I was a better builder because I had 20 more years of woodworking experience. So I built a new mandolin and the response to it was so positive that I decided to pursue it again," he told Mandolin Magazine.

When asked which modern mandolin builders have most inspired him, Ludewig replies, "Dearstone, Gilchrist, all of them really. That's the market I hope to be in. What I aim for is the very top end, and I'm confident that's what I am doing now."

A Ludewig mandolin, however, differs significantly from many other leading builders because, as Dale puts it, "I'm not trying to make a pure bluegrass mandolin. I want real clear highs with a good chop. I do not want an instrument that dies out on the high end."

To achieve that sound, he says he graduates his tops a little thinner than some builders and compensates with slightly heavier tone bars to support the soundboard.

He also takes the scroll a little higher into the body of the mandolin than a standard F5, which he says contributes additional treble response. "Plus, it's pretty. It's more sculptural," he explains.

Ludewig mandolins typically come with block fingerboard inlay and a unique bound ebony pickguard that does not obscure the f-holes, similar to a modern jazz guitar. A radiused fingerboard is standard, as is a scooped fingerboard extension to avoid pick noise.

All Ludewig mandolins come with cast tailpieces, which Dale feels are more functional and increase sustain. He uses alcohol-based stains except for the blue mandolins, which use a metal acid dye. Until recently, all of his mandolins had a lacquer finish, but he's started to offer varnish finishes as an option.

Sitka tops have been his standard, but his last several mandolin tops have been red spruce with great success. The wood comes from Ted Davis' stash of Adirondack spruce harvested from trees taken legally from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

"I've found a significant difference with the red spruce; it has a deeper tone," Ludewig explains. His last three mandolins have had one-piece backs of quilted big leaf maple from Bruce Harvie.

Prices for an F-style mandolin from Dale Ludewig start at $3,500 with block fingerboard inlays and a fern headstock inlay and go up based on other options for inlay, finish and hardware. His A-style instruments begin at $2,300. A 25 percent deposit is required, with delivery time currently at about one year.

While not at his goal yet of building mandolins fulltime, he says that day is coming soon. "I am still trying to balance building cabinets to pay the bills and making mandolins," he says.

His instruments have sold to several musicians and collectors recently, and at a trip to the 2002 IBMA World of Bluegrass convention in Louisville, Kentucky, he received strong encouragement and words of praise when he showed his personal mandolin to many of the top professional mandolinists there.

So why consider buying a Ludewig mandolin with so many other builders clamoring for your business? "My instruments have a unique sound," the builder replies. "They're almost more of a jazz instrument, but they still make a great bluegrass mandolin."

If you're in the mood for an instrument that's a bit different from the run-of-the-mill, a Ludewig mandolin could be just what you're seeking.

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