Sounds of Music

Belgrade factory turns out some of the world's finest mandolins

The Sound To Earth mandolin factory in the Gallatin Industrial Park hums along at a measured pace.

The sound of a scroll saw puts out a rapid chug-chug-chug. On the other side of the factory floor, a 20 inch buffing wheel makes swishing noises and elsewhere, people are sanding and filing, chiseling and clamping, bending and cutting pieces and parts for mandolins, octave mandolins and mandolas, three members of the mandolin family that are made in this factory.

Sound To Earth founder Bruce Weber glues fingerboard extension blocks that connect the body of the instrument to the fingerboard and neck.

A story about Sound To Earth, Montana's only mandolin factory, is not just a story about a group of workers who persevered after their former parent company left town. Nor is it an account of how mandolins are made. The true components of Sound To Earth are its luthiers, the people who make stringed instruments.

The Sound To Earth line of instruments is in its third year of production, and at around 450 instruments a year is the nation's largest manufacturer of mandolins. Formed four years ago when Gibson Guitars moved Flatiron, their mandolin division, to Nashville, the company has seen growth of 50 percent in each of its three years.

Weber had worked for many years at Flatiron and by 1996 was managing up to 52 workers at the division. Many of the workers there were offered positions at the new Nashville operation, which was moved in order to be closer to the music industry that actually uses the products, but none were interested in leaving Montana. "We were living and working here because we love the area and what we are doing in the area. So we chose to stay," Weber says. "It opened the doors for a lot of other quality luthiers to get a toehold in the market, including us.

"In hindsight, it was probably the best thing for the mandolin society."

Up to the time of their leaving Montana, Gibson controlled about 80 percent of the domestic mandolin market. In fact, Gibson first began as a mandolin company. In the 1920s their F-5 mandolin was developed by legendary luthier Lloyd Loar, whose distinctive Florentine scroll and sharp points on the instrument body is known today as the classic bluegrass mandolin. Bill Monroe, who with his Bluegrass Boys was said to be the inventor of bluegrass music, played a Gibson F-5 that was built in Bozeman. Monroe named it Old Faithful.

While it started as a mandolin company, over the years Gibson began to put more of its efforts into guitars. The harder-to-construct and less-played mandolins were still built in Montana.

After an emotional farewell and Christmas potluck at Flatiron, Weber and five other luthiers went to Nashville to help Gibson set up their new shop.

"As soon as I got home, I started working on a business plan" for the new company, Weber says. When word got out he was planning to start a new shop, the community and mandolin dealers gave him incredible support. "We had orders for mandolins before I was done with my business plan," he says.

With a bank loan and a Belgrade block development grant, luthiers Weber, Bob McMurray and Joe Schneider built a small shop behind Weber's house. Meanwhile, Paula Lewis, a sales manager from Flatiron, worked on the business side of Sound To Earth.

Sound To Earth is ruled by a solid business principle: know your customers and treat them well. People who buy Weber mandolins, which sell from $580 to $6,300, "are taking a part of us, which is very personal," Weber says. "Mandolins go through changes. They grow. The wood expands. The more it plays, the better it sounds. It matures... people treat them like a part of the family."

There is a bit of the high-tech in this company that makes mandolins, one of the worlds oldest instruments. A computer-controlled carver is used to eliminate much of the initial tedious work. The machine removes about 70 percent of the starting material for the mandolin, then Weber shapes the rest of the inside of the instrument by hand, a process that improves the instrument's tone and volume.

Mandolin purists might cringe at the thought of a computer-controlled machine being involved in the production. But there are many people here whose hands work on the same instrument throughout the building process. Weber says he sees technology as a time-saver that allows more time for hands-on detailing.

Vern Brekke, the company's acoustic design engineer, is learning to play the mandolin, and being a non-musician lets him see things from a different angle and not be bound by tradition. In fact, Brekke won a patent for an innovation called the Brekke bridge, the part of a stringed instrument that support the strings and transfers their vibrations to the soundboard.

"It is the first new bridge design since the 1920s that works," says Weber.

Perhaps it epitomizes what Weber calls Sound To Earth's sound bite: "New tradition for the new millennium."

Between 60 to 80 hours are spent making each mandolin. Helen Beausoleil probably spends the most time on one instrument. She details each one, taking a rough white instrument and bringing all the lines to a fine detail. It can take Beausoleil up to 14 hours before she hands it of to another person for color and finish. Cheryl Libby performs the final assembly. She puts the bridge, tuner, hardware and strings on the instrument and is the one who hears its first tones.

When they're finished, mandolins are shipped to places as far away as New Zealand and Japan. Once finished, the instruments don't stay long at Sound To Earth before they are packaged and sent out the door.

In its first three years getting the business off the ground, it took a commitment from the owners and the employees. All of the founders donated their own resources, whether it was time, tools or money. "Joe (Schneider) and Bob (McMurray) have helped me build the shop on their own time and money because I couldn't afford to pay them, " Weber says. "During that time, we added four more employees.

"It is only my faith in God that has gotten us this far. We are blessed and blessed and blessed.