Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 18:28:15 -0400
Subject: Thanks

I'm doing violin as an adult, and ran across your site. Originally looking for some info on bow hair tension, I found a bunch of things at your site that answered question after question I've had and can't recall at my lessons etc....

I'm writing because I hope that the way you all have generously put information out there will pay off in sales of whatever you are selling. (just went back and took another look at your site). With that said, whenever I'm ready to move up to a better instrument, I will consider you simply because of the generosity you've shown in free information. Thanks again.

al j., charleston wv

Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 07:59:08 -0700
Subject: Re: Fwd: Thank you very much

Hello Mickey, You are more than welcome. I had always wanted a Breedlove
Guitar but trying to convince my wife that i really needed one was not
going to happen so when i took up the mandolin about a year ago and
really got serious about it although i have always been pretty serious
about my guitar playing and she had always encouraged me to perform in
public " You know the type" When I had my first public performance with
the mandolin at the Cascade School of Music in central Oregon which
freaked me out pretty good when I along with the rest of our little group
of 6 mando players and 10 fiddle players were greeted by at least 300
people " not bad for our first performance" that was the moment when
Pam, my wife really knew that I loved doing this So she really supported
me getting the Breedlove. Not being able to really afford a Gibson or
one of the more famous brands out there I decided on the Breedlove, In my
opinion along with others "for the money I don't think there is a better
sounding Mandolin in the world" a few people that I play with are sold on
these instruments. At our last gathering I let all of them play it and
they were hooked, so hopefully you guys will be getting some more
business from Central Oregon, I actually talked one guy out of buying a
Gibson or actually the Breedlove talked him out of it. I have the day of
from my window cleaning business because of the non stop rain we have had
here so you can guess what I'm going to do with my time. Again thank you
all very much for your great customer service and recommendation I
appreciate your honesty in not just wanting to see the most expensive
thing just to make a sale.
Sincerely,

Dennis Fehling

Subject: Fan mail for hounddawgs.com
Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2003 22:48:32 -0400

Hello,

I'm writing a letter that, upon thinking about it, is probably fan
mail. I hope that you don't think it's strange.

I came to your site from the Folk of the Wood site. I wanted to thank
you for the joy it brought me. Everything about the pictures and text
brought me home.

I grew up in rural South Carolina, surronded by dogs, water, pines and
oak. I've moved to Philadelphia in order to make a living. While
there are many good things about this city, it is in many others a
hard place to be for a southern boy. Visiting you site was like a
visit home. You seem to have made a beautiful life for yourself. The
woods, the dogs, and if as I suspect, you're friends with the Folk of
the Wood people, music surround you. While I don't doubt that you
have your own trials and tribulations, it seems you've been able to
build a wonderful life.

Congratulations and thank you for the visit home.

Andrew Westphal

Subject: For Tradd re: a mandolin shipment
Date: Fri, 14 Nov 2003 21:01:52 +0000

Hello, Tradd,
First, I would like to thank you for taking the time to assist me in the selection of a mandolin. It was very helpful to have a musician on the line and not just a salesman. I appreciate the help.
Thanks.
Best regards, Skip

Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 12:15:11 -0500 (EST)

I enjoyed talking with you and look forward to continuing to do business
with your group of nice people! It is comforting to work with people
who are interested in assuring the 'good fit' of their customers to
their important 'hobby' instruments. It is good to know that there
is 'no risk involved' in doing business 'over the net'.

Thanks again for your help.

And best wishes to all at Folk of the Wood!

Subject: Outstanding Service
Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 16:45:27 -0600

I would just like to take a brief moment to brag on Folk of the Wood, maybe it will help in some small way steer potential customers in the right direction. First of all their products and service are not comparable to any other musical instrument business I have ever dealt with, in short, FOTW is head and shoulders above the rest.
I have no reservations about recommending this wonderful place and its professionalism to any one out there trying to find an affordable, quality beginners "folk" instrument. That's what I found, and that's exactly what I got from the folks at Folk. (The damn thing was even in tune when I got it in the mail.)
Now why would I take time out of my day to say nice things about my dealings with FOTW... because as I said earlier: I want to highly recommend them to future satisfied customers. Shout out to TX mandolin/guitar player Willie Dees for being the one to tell me about the folk out in them Ruidoso woods.
Aaron Gregory
DENTON,TX.

Dear Mickey:
I just took delivery of my new Gold Tone GM-110 mandolin and I wanted to take a few moments to tell you about this, my initial experience with Folk Of The Wood. I am a guitarist and vintage guitar dealer and I was looking for an inexpensive mandolin to hack around with, I had read good things in Vintage Guitar magazine a while back about Michael Kelly mandolins and in searching eBay for them (I do a tot of business on eBay), I also became interested in Kentucky mandolins. After searching the Internet for used Kentuckys, I came upon your website (very nice, by the way). I called about a used KM-675 and was fortunate enough to speak with Nathan, a very pleasant, knowledgeable and helpful salesman. In the course of our conversation, I happened to ask him if he owned a mandolin (I know enough to trust the opinion of those who know more about something than I do) and what, in his opinion, was the best quality inexpensive mandolin. He advised me that he had just returned from the summer NAMM show where the big hit was the new Gold Tone Rigel model. He told me that he had a Rigel and loved it and that the mandolins, licensed by Rigel to Gold Tone and manufactured overseas, were phenomenal instruments at a great price. After checking out the beautiful Rigel on your website and visiting the Rigel website. I was hooked and knew that this was exactly what I was looking for and so I immediately ordered one.

Since this was a new model just being introduced to America, I had To wait two months for it to come in. Over that time, Nathan and I, as well as Suzie had numerous conversations and everyone was very patient and helpful in smoothing out the wait. It was welt worth it. The look, lone and payability of this instrument are exceptional and very distinctive and, since I am a rock-and-roller and not a bluegrass guy, the unique look is just right for me. I also appreciate the extra care your people took in ensuring that the mandolin was inspected, setup and shipped properly. I have bought new, top name guitars that were poorly setup (or not set up at all) from the dealer and/or factory, one so bad that I had to get a fret job on a brand-new $1500 guitar. Being from New York and being a dealer myself, I admit that I can be somewhat hard to please and impossible to BS. Thanks to Nathan's taKing the time to hear and to respond to my needs, I now own a beautiful mandolin that I love, one that is far nicer than what I would have ended up with on my own (and which plays electric, as well) and that has given me extra colors and textures in my sound palette. Congratulations on having a wonderful operation that offers something extra above and beyond the run-of-the-mill music store and thanks again to Nathan for taking the time to determine my wants and needs and putting me into the perfect Instrument.

R. J. Foley

Dear Mickey and other Folk of the Wood:
I know this is a long letter, so you can edit it for length if you choose to use it on your site. It was just too hard to say very few words about how well your company does business.

At first I was leery of ordering an instrument over the internet. I researched instruments for over a month. I was getting back into music after a multi decade gap. I wanted to learn something new, now that I was starting my fourth decade of life. I compared instrument reviews, prices for instruments, and reviews of dealers in Google and also at the Better Business Bureau site.
By comparing what I found about instruments and dealers, I was ready to make my purchase from the people with the best policies, service and price (you had the best in all three categories). I was glad that I did business with you when my instrument developed problems.

My mandolin developed a crack in the neck a couple of weeks after I received it and the tone started going downhill. I called one of your luthiers and was prepared for battle to get what was an obvious defect fixed. From the start of the call there was no need to get “battle ready.” Suzie and Trad were very understanding and gave me service that is so hard to find nowadays (you know the old “Treat others as you would be treated” philosophy).

Trad helped me with more detailed parts of my problem and acted as if it were his instrument and this was very impressive. He suggested an upgraded mandolin without being pushy to the point of upselling me, and he also asked me how things were going in my lessons. I explained that with the mandolin’s double strings I was having troubles with some of the notes. He explained that I could switch to another instrument and not just the exact same instrument (very impressive of your company). Talking with Trad I settled on a fiddle and searched your site for an alternate instrument. I saw that you had a new model fiddle by Morgan Monroe.
Something that was strange to me was that when I went to do research on the Morgan Monroe fiddle was that I could find nothing on the internet, not even very much at the Morgan Monroe site. I contacted Morgan Monroe for more information and found that they were very impressed with the FOTW people and that you had done very well for them as a dealer. In fact FOTW was THE FIRST to get their new model. THIS FACT ALONE IS VERY IMPRESSIVE TO ME!

Having been involved in retail and business sales in the wireless industry for many years I know that manufacturers are very selective to whom they release their product, and even more so when they have a new product.

If you are in the market for a new or replacement instrument do not worry about dealing with FOTW as they walk their talk, their customer service is superb, and even the instrument manufacturers have faith in them. As a Kentucky native and lifetime Derby fan, I can truly say that people at FOTW would be a Triple Crown Winner.

Thanks to all for your help. S Crump