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Mandolin Info Thread

C

chuck norriss

Inactive
Jan 20, 2011
8,710
924
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#1
I'm looking at mandolins. I've wanted one since Waterboys - Fisherman's Blues (that's a long time). Anyone have opinions/advice please. I prefer not to spend a lot but I can finance it if I have to. Thanks
 
#2
I paid about a hundred quid for a mandolin last year.

Haven't put it down since.

Beautiful instrument, bit it took a while to get my head around the string/fret spacing and of course completely different tuning.

Nevertheless, I could not recommend it highly enough.

There's been about four or five 'new mandolin' threads in the last 6 months. I'm on my phone and can't post a link at the moment, but if you do a search in Misc, I'm sure they will pop up.

I found a ton of great info and some top advice from experienced players.

Good luck, and enjoy. You won't regret it.
 
#3
I inherited an old, cheap no-name mandolin about 20 years ago.
Couple of months ago I decided to get some new strings and check it out.
One of the old, cheap, no-name tuners bound up and I twisted the knob off.
Besides the differences between 'A-Style' and 'F-Style' tuners, there are two major center-to-center tuner post spacings.
I discovered there was no one 'standard' after buying a set that didn't fit.
Thus wiser to the issue of tuner spacing, I went looking more carefully.
And discovered that in addition to the two mostly standard spacings, my instrument was made (somewhere...) with 1" spacing which is virtually unsupported.
Found a set on Ebay sourced directly from China. The 1" part was right but the mounting holes were wrong.
The only other source I found was in Nottinghamshire - those actually took a lot longer to arrive than the Chinese ones!
Long enough that I'd got distracted by other things and I haven't got back to checking the mounting holes.
If they're no match either, I'll plug the holes and redrill for whichever set of cheap tuners seems to work better.
It's always an adventure...

There are lots of good ones out there. I'd probably have been time, money, and aggravation ahead if I'd just bought a good one ;-)
 
#4
Mandolin is my "other" instrument - at a typical gig for my regular bands, I'll do two or three tunes on mando instead of bass, and sometimes I'm asked to sit in just on mando. It's a great instrument and I recommend the website MandolinCafe to you:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/

Lots of great people and players there, and all the info you can want.

As you no doubt know, mandolins are tuned in fifths not fourths - however, once you get used to it, musically it makes a lot of sense, esp. as the mando is a smaller instrument. The fingering is quite different than bass, though.

One caveat - a cheap mando may discourage you a little, and a good one costs more than getting a decent bass guitar. At least that's been my experience.

Here's me at a gig, you can see the mando standing by on the left ...

chowder2014_zpsbb7e7eb7.jpg
 
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#5
These mandolins are marvelous, and widely respected as well. I have one made under their previous company name (Mid-Missouri Mandolin) - the equivalent of the lowest-end model on their current site - and it's fantastic. This may be a little more than you want to pay, but keep an eye on the used market. http://bigmuddymandolin.com/

I hear you on the Waterboys - loved that album, and they played a big part in my original interest, too.
 
#6
Thanks for the links guys !

That's not far from what I was expecting - I've kinda been looking at the Ovations.
Yeah - I get the 'not traditional' askance glances in my future.
But I like my Ovation guitar and like the idea of a matched set.
Besides - I'm one of those guys who brings a fretless 6-string "coffee table bass" to blues jams - because I like it and it sounds good... ;-)
 
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#7
Mandolin is my other instrument as well. Do keep an eye on the Mandolin Cafe classifieds (as well as for other great info/news/lessons) as recommended by Chuck3. He's right, too, about going too cheap, it won't be any fun. If you can get your hands on a used Tacoma mandolin, it's a great starter mando. I use a Weber (custom) at this point, but the Tacoma was great, I'm sorry I sold it.
 
#9
besides the MandolinCafe classifieds as mandohack suggests, you might speak to the folks at the Mandolin Store:

Invalid Link Removed

They are good to deal with and have a very wide range as to prices and models. I am not familiar with the Tacomas - but take a look at the Eastmans. I find that Eastman makes some good quality low-priced mandos. They are made in China but with good quality control.
 
#10
Wow, didn't realize there were so many mandolin-as-second-instrument bassists here. I'll add my name to the list. My dad got me playing, I started on a cheapie Rogue mandolin: not the sweetest sounding thing, but not bad to learn on at all and pretty well-made for a $50 instrument. After my graduation, my dad got me a beautiful old Gibson mandolin, I love it and it's got a great sound.
 
#12
Tituscrow said:
I paid about a hundred quid for a mandolin last year.

Haven't put it down since.

Beautiful instrument, bit it took a while to get my head around the string/fret spacing and of course completely different tuning.

Nevertheless, I could not recommend it highly enough.

There's been about four or five 'new mandolin' threads in the last 6 months. I'm on my phone and can't post a link at the moment, but if you do a search in Misc, I'm sure they will pop up.

I found a ton of great info and some top advice from experienced players.

Good luck, and enjoy. You won't regret it.
Click to expand...
thanks I actually chimed in on the thread but completely forgot about it. Cool.
 
#13
ArtechnikA said:
I inherited an old, cheap no-name mandolin about 20 years ago.
Couple of months ago I decided to get some new strings and check it out.
One of the old, cheap, no-name tuners bound up and I twisted the knob off.
Besides the differences between 'A-Style' and 'F-Style' tuners, there are two major center-to-center tuner post spacings.
I discovered there was no one 'standard' after buying a set that didn't fit.
Thus wiser to the issue of tuner spacing, I went looking more carefully.
And discovered that in addition to the two mostly standard spacings, my instrument was made (somewhere...) with 1" spacing which is virtually unsupported.
Found a set on Ebay sourced directly from China. The 1" part was right but the mounting holes were wrong.
The only other source I found was in Nottinghamshire - those actually took a lot longer to arrive than the Chinese ones!
Long enough that I'd got distracted by other things and I haven't got back to checking the mounting holes.
If they're no match either, I'll plug the holes and redrill for whichever set of cheap tuners seems to work better.
It's always an adventure...

There are lots of good ones out there. I'd probably have been time, money, and aggravation ahead if I'd just bought a good one ;-)
Click to expand...
thanks for the advice
 
#14
chuck3 said:
Mandolin is my "other" instrument - at a typical gig for my regular bands, I'll do two or three tunes on mando instead of bass, and sometimes I'm asked to sit in just on mando. It's a great instrument and I recommend the website MandolinCafe to you:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/

Lots of great people and players there, and all the info you can want.

As you no doubt know, mandolins are tuned in fifths not fourths - however, once you get used to it, musically it makes a lot of sense, esp. as the mando is a smaller instrument. The fingering is quite different than bass, though.

One caveat - a cheap mando may discourage you a little, and a good one costs more than getting a decent bass guitar. At least that's been my experience.

Here's me at a gig, you can see the mando standing by on the left ...

View attachment 419661
Click to expand...
seems they have worse gas than bass players do. I will likely finance a decent one. Tahnks
 
#15
chuck3 said:
besides the MandolinCafe classifieds as mandohack suggests, you might speak to the folks at the Mandolin Store:

Invalid Link Removed

They are good to deal with and have a very wide range as to prices and models. I am not familiar with the Tacomas - but take a look at the Eastmans. I find that Eastman makes some good quality low-priced mandos. They are made in China but with good quality control.
Click to expand...
and some are 6mo no interest. thanks for the tip.
 
#16
Against Will said:
Wow, didn't realize there were so many mandolin-as-second-instrument bassists here. I'll add my name to the list. My dad got me playing, I started on a cheapie Rogue mandolin: not the sweetest sounding thing, but not bad to learn on at all and pretty well-made for a $50 instrument. After my graduation, my dad got me a beautiful old Gibson mandolin, I love it and it's got a great sound.
Click to expand...
pics man pics
 
#18
Against Will said:
Wow, didn't realize there were so many mandolin-as-second-instrument bassists here. I'll add my name to the list. My dad got me playing, I started on a cheapie Rogue mandolin: not the sweetest sounding thing, but not bad to learn on at all and pretty well-made for a $50 instrument. After my graduation, my dad got me a beautiful old Gibson mandolin, I love it and it's got a great sound.
Click to expand...

yeah, you know the rule - no pic no mando! Esp. of a beautiful old Gibson. I played an early 1920's mando last night at a bluegrass session (it belongs to the upright bass player, who doubles on mando, so there's another one).

So far as doubling (or if you want to call it tripling) - up here in the Hudson Valley, if you play not only bass guitar but upright bass and mandolin, and can cover the various styles of music, you get a lot of calls to play.
 

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