Northfield Artist Series
The Artist Series began in 2014 with a conversation between friends at the Swananoa Gathering in North Carolina. Mike Marshall and Northfield shared a common belief: that the mandolin still had room to grow into—that there were sounds, responses, and possibilities waiting beyond the edges of what had already become familiar. Drawing from Mike’s decades of experience, his genre-crossing musical curiosity, and our own desire to push beyond familiar boundaries, we set out on an adventure together.
Cut from the same cloth, we were naturally drawn to the process. Conjuring recipes, conducting tastings, comparing notes, and searching for new ways to describe the flavors we were hearing was already something we both enjoyed. One experiment led to another. New ideas produced new questions. New sounds demanded new adjectives. We weren’t interested in preserving ideas simply because they were old, nor changing them simply because they were new. We wanted to explore, ask questions, and follow the instrument wherever it might lead us.
This latest update is a continuation of that original pursuit—another seed planted in the ongoing search for growth, refinement, and a deeper understanding of craft, voice, and sound character.
The Artist Series taught us something over the last ten years. Not all at once, and not in a way that could have been predicted from the beginning.
When we started this project, we were trying to answer questions. What makes certain mandolins so compelling? Why do some seem to reveal more of themselves over time while others remain exactly what they were on day one? How much of what we admire is design, how much is materials, and how much is simply age?
Like most builders, we started by looking backward. We studied old instruments, collected examples, took measurements, compared notes, listened carefully, and did our best to understand the things that can’t easily be written down.
But over time, something changed…. The Artist Series itself became part of the study.
The earliest instruments had lived enough life to be evaluated alongside the very mandolins that inspired them. Players had taken them on stage, into studios, across thousands of hours of practice and performance. Wood settled. Finishes aged. Certain characteristics became more pronounced. Others became less important than we once thought.
The instruments started answering some of the questions we had asked years earlier. What we learned wasn’t revolutionary. It was more subtle than that.
We learned which details continued to matter after ten years and which only seemed important when an instrument was brand new. We learned which design choices consistently led players toward the sound and response they were looking for. We learned that some of our assumptions were correct, while others needed adjustment. Most importantly, we learned that experience is cumulative. Every instrument contributes something to the next one.
The updates to the Artist Series come from that process.
Not from a desire to reinvent it. Not from a need to make it different for the sake of being different. Simply from having another decade of experience than we had when we began.
Today, we’ve reached a milestone that few builders get to experience. Some of our own finest Northfields have now been around long enough to be evaluated alongside the very instruments that inspired them. They’ve matured. They’ve developed personalities of their own. In some cases, they’ve become part of the collection we once used only as a reference.
That perspective has been invaluable.
By revisiting these instruments, listening to years of recordings, studying how finishes aged, evaluating wood we’d carefully held onto, and gathering feedback from players around the world, we found ourselves with a clearer understanding of what these instruments wanted to be.
So rather than starting over, we simply continued the work.
The Artist Series has been updated to reflect everything we’ve learned since the project began. Not because anything was wrong, but because experience has a way of sharpening your understanding. The details that seemed important ten years ago aren’t always the same details that stand out today.
The result is a refined Artist Series built around the two tonal approaches that have defined the line from the beginning: Northfield’s original 5-Bar design and our Parallel Tone Bar model. Each has been developed according to the characteristics we value most in its intended voice.
Our new finish shading has been carefully patterned after several of the instruments that have remained meaningful references throughout this journey, resulting in what we refer to internally as the “Feb ‘24” color scheme. The finish is further enhanced through a hand-burnished patina process inspired by the work we’ve done on our popular Big Mon Limited editions.
We’ve also updated the series throughout with EVO fretwire, our finest tuners and tailpiece hardware, premium Airloom Tura protection, and our River’s Edge inlay.
These instruments represent the very best of what we currently know how to do. More importantly, they represent what twenty years of building, listening, studying, and paying attention has taught us.
Artist Series
Variation: 1 (5-Bar) or 2 (2-Bar)
Top: Premium Adirondack Red, Engelmann, or Italian Alpine Spruce
Back / Neck / Sides: “Stash” Level Figured Maple
Bridge / Fingerboard: Ebony
Tuners: Gotoh Deluxe
Inlay: Rivers Edge
Tailpiece: Nickel-plated Engraved Gilchrist/Northfield
Binding: Top and Side Triple-Bound
Pick Guard: Bound Tortoise
Nut Width: 1-1/8" or 1-3/16”
Fingerboard Radius: 5.7" at nut, 7.7" at 20th fret
Fret Wire: Titanium Enhanced Bronze Alloy
Finish: “Hand Burnished” Vintage Lacquer
Color: Antique “Feb 24” Sunburst, Amber, or Light Leatherburst
Strings: Northfield Medium Phosphor Bronze
Maple and Spruce from North America and Europe, seasoned and matched in our Marshall, MI shop. Assembled and varnished in our Qingdao shop. Set up and final inspection in our Marshall, MI shop.
Price: From $7,495
Videos
Mike Marshall Plays the 2-bar Adirondack Red Spruce Artist Series
Mike Marshall Playing the 5-Bar Engelmann Spruce Artist Series
