Mass Resonator

The musical community lost one of the good ones today, Gary Palsmeier of Wichita, Kansas.  Gary was a fine mandolinist and guitarist.  He always approached music with enthusiasm, great taste, and a desire to share  the experience with others.  He had  the mark of a fine musician in making his music seem effortless.  His smiling face and kind nature will be missed by all that knew him.  We will post plans for services  as we become aware.  – Jim Baggett

1st Place National Flatpick Champion Jason Shaw with his new Collings CWMHA presented by Jim Baggett on behalf of Collings

Our own Jim Baggett presented the prizes to the top three 2010 National Flatpick Championship winners at last week’s Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield – the first place winner, Jason Shaw, had his pick of three very cool acoustics and took home the Collings CWMHA – a custom made beauty. Check out the wheat headstock inlay on this!  This was the third time Jason won the title, an honor once held only by Steve Kaufman. Continue Reading →

Jim at Mass St. Music, surrounded by some of his vintage favorites

I have had the pleasure to work with the PBS  television show Antiques Roadshow for the last 8 years as a musical instrument appraiser. The  show visits  six cities per summer,  setting up in large convention centers where about 5,000  guests bring in their family heirlooms, collectibles and unknown objects to be looked at and evaluated by ‘experts’ in the particular field.  My specialty is fretted stringed instruments, guitars, mandolins, banjos and some violin family instruments.  Out of the several thousand items that show up on the day of the show, only fifty or so actually have the “right stuff ” to be filmed for a television broadcast.  A good day for me would be to look at 200-300 items and find one or two that make for good TV.

This year’s itinerary took me to San Diego , Calif., Biloxi, Miss., and Des Moines, Iowa.  It was a great year, where I saw many interesting items, met lots of new people and found camera-worthy musical instruments in each city.  The most interesting, but not the most valuable, was found in Biloxi.  The guest brought in a large travel trunk with lift out, stacked trays full of percussion and sound effect instruments that were used by his grandfather behind the screen during the silent movie days.  The instruments ranged from cow bells, train whistles, to coconut shells to make the sound of the clip-clops of horses.  Great stuff and still owned by the original family.

The show affords me the opportunity to look at several hundred items in a fairly short 10-12 hour period.  It’s great fun and a great way to learn.  At Mass Street  Music we find that we are doing more and more with instrument appraisal, restoration and buying and selling of vintage instruments.  I have found the experience from the Roadshow to be very helpful  in determining the direction to take with customers’ instruments.

The  six shows that were filmed this summer will be produced and edited during the fall and will air after the first of the year.  Some of my past appraisals can be viewed by accessing the Antiques Roadshow website and viewing online.  I won’t know which  cities will be selected for next summer, but I always look forward to finding out and having the opportunity to visit new places, have some fun and hopefully see a few great treasures. - Jim Baggett

Jim (left) & buddy Caz (right) with Jim's first guitar creation from 1977

In know I’ve said it before, but it’s true – you just never know what’s going to walk in the door here at Mass St. Music and yesterday was a great example. Caz Loth, former Lawrencian now living in Nashville, came by to say hi to his old buddy Jim Baggett (our esteemed boss) and he happened to bring along a guitar. This guitar was the first one Jim Baggett ever made, back in 1977.  It still sounds really great, has some beautiful finish crazing and a very simple label inside with Jim’s signature. This is one of only 5 that Jim constructed.  Thanks Caz for stopping by with the show and tell!

Caz shows off his "Baggett dread" from '77

Signed label complete with water stains from the sweat of Jim's brow. Kidding.