Jim Triggs has been building instruments for over 40 years. He is widely considered a world authority on Lloyd Loar mandolins and had already built between 130-150 instruments when Gibson sought his talents in 1986. Over the following six years, he was largely responsible for the transformation of the Bozeman Acoustic facility, as well as the Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville with emphasis on archtops. He also built one-of-a-kind “art” instruments and during his tenure personally signed the labels for over 700 others, the majority of which were archtop guitars.
Jim has built well over 1000 hand-made instruments including many archtop and flat top guitars and mandolins for some of the country’s best-known artists such as Alan Jackson, Steve Miller, Marty Stuart, Mundell Lowe, Pat Martino and many others. One of his archtops was featured in the Smithsonian Institute Chinery Blue Guitar Collection. Today, Jim’s son Ryan works along side him in their Kansas City shop as they continue creating incomparable works of art and sound. Their instruments are considered to be immediate investments and he has customers from all over the globe.
CURRENTLY, Jim and Ryan are concentrating all their efforts into building mandolins, returning to Jim’s roots 1000 instruments ago. At Triggs Mandolins, they strive to provide a high-quality hand-built instrument for players of all skill levels. Every mandolin they make can be customized to your specifications and all components are made in our shop. They can make you a mandolin that has the tone you want with the feel you want at the price you want.
They offer two distinct mandolin options. The F-5 model and the A-5 model. Each model comes in either a gloss or satin finish and can be sunburst or blonde. Their F-5 models are based on the Lloyd Loar F-5 mandolins from 1923. The retail price for these mandolins is $7500. That includes a shaped case and overnight shipping. You can get an F-5 with a little less binding, inlay, and detail work starting at $4495. An F-5 model with a varnish finish is available for $9995. The typical A-5 model starts at $2750. You can get a less detailed model beginning at $2500.
Additionally, while a Triggs guitar may not be in your future, a mandocello is definitely in their wheelhouse in satin finish for $12,000 and in gloss for $12,500.
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