Mandolins. Worth buying one?

guitarjack66

bluecat said:

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

Is the narrow neck a constant with mandolins? I expect it is?

Tannin

Brother you ain't seen narrow till you try a mandolin!

malcolmkindness

guitarjack66 said:

bluecat said:

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

Is the narrow neck a constant with mandolins? I expect it is?

Pretty much standard yes, unless you go custom. I have a custom mandolin with a 35mm nut and I find it a great improvement.
Also, as others have said, a cheap mandolin will not be as good as a cheap guitar.

Devil#20

If it's tuned GDAE why can't you just string it upside down and use guitar chords on it?

Tannin

^ Cause then it wouldn't sound like a mandolin. 

Seriously. This sort of short cut doesn't work. This is why those guitar-banjo hybrid things suck. There are tones and note combinations which fall to hand as the "natural sound" of any instrument and if you go screwing around setting up a piano to be played like a saxophone or a saxophone to be played like a piano you mostly end up with something that sounds dreadful.

Creed_Clicks

I had a Fender one, discontinued now I think. I have played cheap ones off the shelves and the nut width varied. A wider nut is more comfy. Tanglewood did one a few years ago with a nice wide nut (for a mandolin).

guitarjack66

A Mandolin sound is a thing of beauty but in this day and age of technological advancement I would imagine some gadget,gizmo or pedal/amp setting could satisfactorily replicate the sound? Does a bazouki sound similar,even?

Tannin

Does a fish taste like turnip?

guitarjack66

Tannin said:

Does a fish taste like turnip?

If you are drunk enough,I suppose.

guitarjack66

Tannin said:

Does a fish taste like turnip?

Anybody else want to get up and dance while shattering crockery?

Kittyfrisk

guitarjack66 said:

Tannin said:

Does a fish taste like turnip?

Anybody else want to get up and dance while shattering crockery?

I don't even need to dance to enjoy that 

Kittyfrisk

Tannin said:

Does a fish taste like turnip?

Apparently Carp do, but not as nice  

Stratavarious

Yep.. spend to get a solid musical instrument.. £600-900 will get something good.   On my second now,

I put a K&K transducer pair in mine.  Perfect reproduction through a Radial DI.  Gets used most gigs.  You will pick up the chords and scales fast.. and the guitar chords but upside down trick is a lifesaver if lost.

Try a few to get a feel for the necks which are narrow. My number one mando has a slightly wider nut which is nice.  I use mine with stainless steel flatwounds which give a nice, solid, woody tone.

camf

FYI, I’m going to put a very nice little Fylde mandolin up for sale under acoustics as soon as I can. It’s cedar and mahogany and a very sweet sounding wee thing. I bought it before lockdown but aside from working out some basic cowboy chords I never really got into it. I’ve got a crazy week ahead but I’ll get an ad and some pics up soon. It’s a lovely wee thing with really good hardware (schaller mini tuners etc.). So if you’re looking for a great entry/mid level mandolin it’ll be worth a look.  

Cheers,

cam f

malcolmkindness

camf said:

FYI, I’m going to put a very nice little Fylde mandolin up for sale under acoustics as soon as I can. It’s cedar and mahogany and a very sweet sounding wee thing. I bought it before lockdown but aside from working out some basic cowboy chords I never really got into it. I’ve got a crazy week ahead but I’ll get an ad and some pics up soon. It’s a lovely wee thing with really good hardware (schaller mini tuners etc.). So if you’re looking for a great entry/mid level mandolin it’ll be worth a look.  

Cheers,

cam f

I'll second this, Fylde mandolins are excellent. 

camf

Cheers Malcolm, as a beginner with little fat fingers, I found it very easy to play. The problem was that, at my age, it feels like I should focus as much as I can on singing and playing my guitar. I also admit I struggled getting my head round the different tuning and chord shapes. I had lots of fun for a while and even worked out a couple of songs. I wish I’d tried it years ago and things might have been very different. 

springhead

malcolmkindness said:

guitarjack66 said:

bluecat said:

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

Is the narrow neck a constant with mandolins? I expect it is?

Pretty much standard yes, unless you go custom. I have a custom mandolin with a 35mm nut and I find it a great improvement.
Also, as others have said, a cheap mandolin will not be as good as a cheap guitar.

I've had a basic Tanglewood mandolin for years and hardly played it.  However I was recently asked to join a band on guitar, slide and occasionally mandolin.  I've fitted a cheap pickup in mine and have done the first gig with it but would like something better.  Anyway, I went to Hobgoblin in London a couple of weeks ago and their summary of nut widths was that the narrower ones are preferred by bluegrass players and the wider ones for folk people.  They reckon the bluegrass involves more chords, barre chords up the neck and hence close string spacing is good.  Some mandolin chords you're holding two pairs of strings with one fingertip.  The folk stuff is more single string melody picking and wider spacing helps.  They had some lovely Hathaway mandolins, made here in London which sounded wonderful but they were the wider spacing and I think I need something narrower.

Creed_Clicks

@springhead Good info about the narrower ones for Bluegrass and the wider ones for folk. Gets me thinking again. A nice round hole folk mandolin would be nice. Might be more comfy. When I say nice, I mean nice and cheap !  

ToneControl

Tried a cheap one, did the same again a few years later, both awful to play

Much more fun:
Blueridge Tenor guitar
Fender Mandostrat

Open_G

guitarjack66 said:

A Mandolin sound is a thing of beauty but in this day and age of technological advancement I would imagine some gadget,gizmo or pedal/amp setting could satisfactorily replicate the sound? Does a bazouki sound similar,even?

Bouzouki sounds nothing like a mandolin. Even though a common tuning is an octave below they have a zing that is just not there for a mandolin and while playing tunes is perfectly doable they are quite a stretch given the scale. They seem to be used for chordal work a lot more. Probably closest thing I can think of is sound to a bouzouki is a cittern.