Mandolins. Worth buying one?

guitarjack66

Is it worth buying a cheap Mandolin and learning a few chords as I love the sound? Are they easy to learn and do guitar chord shapes lend themselves to a Mandolin?

Mellish

It depends how the open strings are tuned, and I've no idea.

The chord shapes could be quite different. Try to find one locally to send what you think. 

 

drofluf

Mandolins are tuned GDAE like a violin. So whilst mandolin purists will hate me the chords are the same but upside down. But that won’t always put the root note on the lowest string.

Even more than a guitar a mandolin needs a good setup to make it playable. As a rule of thumb you need to spend twice as much as you would on a guitar to get something of the same quality; so a £100 mandolin will be as “good” as a £50 guitar. 

Caffeine_Vampire

I've had low end mandolins before and they're great fun and very easy to get around on.

mgaw

Cheap mandolins are generally shite IME @drofluf Is right , great instrument to play, and not that hard to get going on if you are decent on guitar

Tannin

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny little fretboards. Eeeech!

I like the sound too but the easiest and best way to get a mandolin sound is to hire a mandolin player.

drofluf

If you’ve got a Hobgoblin nearby they usually have some in stock. Have a look at Ashbury their house brand, I’ve always been impressed by their mandolin family that I’ve tried. 

I should confess that I gave up on the mandolin a couple of years ago. I didn’t have time for both that and a guitar and was making more progress on guitar. 

Kilgore

Experimenting with stringed instruments can be a slippery slope. Getting a mandolin is a fairly benign activity but it can easily lead to browsing for a banjo.

Stuckfast

It's pretty easy to get to the stage where you can add a few nice plinky chords as overdubs to fill out a track. Full-on bluegrass soloing might take longer.

bertie

you'll have masses more street creed than if you bough a fucking uke...................which you'd have less than someone wearing croc's

BigPaulie

Kilgore said:

Experimenting with stringed instruments can be a slippery slope. Getting a mandolin is a fairly benign activity but it can easily lead to browsing for a banjo.

I've browsed a few banjos in my time. Let me tell you!

ICBM

The problem with cheap mandolins is that there’s far more difference in tone between a cheap one and an expensive one than with guitars, even acoustics. If you buy anything under a couple of grand and expect it to sound like Battle Of Evermore or Losing My Religion you will be disappointed…

Which isn’t to say they aren’t fun to play.

Mellish

Yep, as @ICBM said, there's likely to be a big tonal differnce between inexpensive and even intermediate, let alone high end. 

There is banjo-wise. Try a Deering Goodtime entry level. It's perfectly playable but tone-wise, against an Ome North Star, you'll soon see what I mean. 

Saying that, you can have a lot of fun with entry level. We've all been there. 

 

Kittyfrisk

Comments here are interesting, but so far are missing the elements of non mass construction variability & random chance or luck.
Took a punt on my first mandolin a Samick SM-30, 15 years ago. It was about £50 on eBay & was a very reasonable sounding instrument.
I later gave it to my Dad (he still has it) after I bought the mandolin that I currently have, about 12 years ago.
Photos below.
It looks like it was designed as a comedy stage prop by a drag queen for maximum tacky effect, but sounds sweet & lovely. It cost me £105 inc. a hard case.




As tone is my main priority in an instrument, I can overlook the visuals.
 * Still haven't managed this with a flame top PRS with bird inlays yet though...  
It was apparently handmade in Singapore, according to the previous owner who worked a musician on cruise ships & seems to be solid woods, underneath the masses of inlaid shell & abalone.
It is a very nice mandolin. I had no real means of comparison until a few years ago when I found out there was a mandolin player in the university music department where I used to work. So I took mine in for an evaluation & opinion.
He had a gorgeous 1940's Gibson F-type & when he saw mine he laughed & was rather flippant, rude & disdainful.
 I knew he was an arrogant twat already, but he did know his stuff so I didn't immediately deck him...
 Taking it out he played it for a while, fiddling with the tuning, adjusting the bridge & frowning a lot. 
Eventually I was handed it back with a very grudging comment that it was ' quite good, a lot better than I had expected".
When he asked how much I'd paid for it, his face became a lovely contorted picture of avarice & disbelief
Anyway, my convoluted point, is that it is possible to find great sounding instruments for well below the sums that have been mentioned here. £'s do not always make the difference, although if you want quality & consistency, it is definitely a big factor.
 It easily manages The Battle of Evermore, Losing my Religion & even Copperhead Road  but my increasingly arthritic hands don't anymore 

stickyfiddle

I have an old £100 Vintage one that I'm in the process of fixing up. It doesn't sound bad to me but I haven't played anything better. The biggest action on mine is an action you could drive a bus under. I need to file a big chunk off the bottom of the bridge and that's a pain. It is quite fun in short bursts though.

Open_G

I had a crafter mini guitar shape one. With a bit of eq manipulating the live sound was fantastic. 

Wasn’t the easiest thing to play but it did a pretty convincing layer on top of the guitar. 

I very much saw it as an upside down chord guitar. 

sev112

Unfortunately I put them in with banjos and bagpipes  

Kittyfrisk

sev112 said:

Unfortunately I put them in with banjos and bagpipes  

Bad idea. If they interbred, the potential chimaera could be the end of music as we know it...

shufflebeat

Vintage, Crafter, Ozark (many more).

Get thee to a luthier, get a good setup and a K&K Twin Spot (+ Orchid DI).

Every dog’s a*** plays guitar these days, no glory skulking in the herd.

Losing My Religion will sound fine on the cheapest (well set up) mandolin. If it doesn’t sound like a Gibson - nobody will care. Mine cost £40 in a charity shop. It’s about 50yrs old, looks basic, sounds great.

Creed_Clicks

I've never had a problem switching between guitar and mandolin. I played one for years, gigged it weekly, sold it when the band finished, and will never go back!!
I'd possibly look into an octave mandolin, mandola or a tenor guitar. I just find the mandolin really shrill sounding.

bluecat

I had a mandolin hanging on the wall gathering dust for years, mainly because the neck was too narrow for my fingers.