Mandolins. Worth buying one?

ToneControl

ToneControl said:

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

Much more fun:
Blueridge Tenor guitar
Fender Mandostrat

I'll expand on this:
I think the main joy of playing a mandolin is the tuning being in 5ths, and the higher register - the mandostrat delivers those. It's true that the 12-string effect is missing, but with just 4 strings, much more control is possible when playing with skin and nails rather than a plectrum

The tenor guitar is somewhere in between, I'd recommend everyone try one.

For anyone wanting to compose songs with a different feel, I can't recommend enough the purchase of a 4-string instrument tuned in 5ths

Creed_Clicks

Open_G said:

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. 

An octave mandolin or short scale bouzouki could also be worth considering 

Creed_Clicks

double post

Creed_Clicks

ToneControl said:

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

Much more fun:
Blueridge Tenor guitar
Fender Mandostrat

I had one of those Epiphone thunderbird or mandobird or whatever they were called. Just the 4 strings. Could never find a use for it in a live scenario. I think a tenor electric guitar could be interesting though, but might just sound like a regular electric guitar...

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

ToneControl said:

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

Much more fun:
Blueridge Tenor guitar
Fender Mandostrat

I had one of those Epiphone thunderbird or mandobird or whatever they were called. Just the 4 strings. Could never find a use for it in a live scenario. I think a tenor electric guitar could be interesting though, but might just sound like a regular electric guitar...

seems to be quite a few available nowadays

ToneControl

intro to Tenor guitar from one of my favourite classical players, he used to play Bach on a tenor banjo

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks

@ToneControl that sounds beautiful. If I close my eyes, it does sound like a standard acoustic at times, but with the tunings, the melodies are different. Tenor guitar does sound less harsh than a mandolin for sure...

OilCityPickups

Tannin said:

Does a fish taste like turnip?

Only the 'lesser marbled turnip fish' ... and that's endangered. 

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

@ToneControl that sounds beautiful. If I close my eye, it does sound like a standard acoustic at times, but with the tunings, the melodies are different. Tenor guitar does sound less harsh than a mandolin for sure...

what was interesting was that when my brand new Blueridge Tenor guitar arrived, via my luthier, we had a play with it, and found that:

1. One of the recommended strings would snap whilst tuning up for the first time, with no nut or bridge issues causing it - it was simply very tight
2. It sounded shrill and harsh

My luthier has made some £5k level acoustics from scratch, and knows his stuff, and recommended tuning with the recommended string sets, but 2 semitones down. This way it's got less of that piercing sound you get from strumming a mandolin, and more of a guitar tonality.

Creed_Clicks

@ToneControl my eyes, not my eye! The Blueridge worth a punt?

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

@ToneControl my eyes, not my eye! The Blueridge worth a punt?

All my other acoustics are £3k+, I'm very fussy about acoustics. For this I was not sure how much I wanted one,
I tried out the Martin ones in Denmark St (this was in 2011). There was one over 1k that I liked, and a cheaper one that had laminate sides or something. I bought a Blueridge BR60T, I think about £450 back then, it played and sounded like the £1k+ Martin. 

I found my old emials on this so can tell you my report to my luthier back in 2011:

Tenor now tuned to CGDA, lots of fun. Strangely, at 32(C), 22, 14, 10(A), the A is very very tight.
The one on it snapped, and I put another on, feels odd having the top 2 so much tighter

The standard CGDA set was 50% tighter than usual on the top 2 strings, which would often break during putting a new one on. I replaced both with 0.001 thinner gauges, and it plays much better now 

Creed_Clicks

@ToneControl Did you try different strings to try and tune to GDAE? CGDA sounds like it would be a sweet spot alright.

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

@ToneControl Did you try different strings to try and tune to GDAE? CGDA sounds like it would be a sweet spot alright.

It's 12 years ago, but I think I started with GDAE and didn't like it

Redlester

Interesting comments above on the difference in sound quality between the cheaper ones and more expensive ones being more marked perhaps than for guitars. 

I'd say even a budget one is good if you're looking to a) get the overall experience b) want to try it and c) have fun trying something new. 

I had one and loved it for a while. I didn't stick with it because I realised that to get anywhere near good you had to apply yourself. But it was easy to enough to learn the major and minor chords and take it from there. 

They can be bloody loud. 

BTW, for an idea of how great they can be outside the rather more typical folkie-type contexts, check out some of the stuff Vivaldi wrote for the mandolin. 

Stratavarious

I love flatwound stainless strings on my mando, eliminates the shrill, tinniness,