I've owned a few mandolas over the years. The best one I ever had was a Kentucky Dawg model mandola, which was designed by John Monteleone. I got it to use onstage after seeing Steve Goodman play a Flatiron mandola on a few songs. The advantage to a mandola to a solo performer is that you can play nice melodies and so forth, but since it's a mid-range instrument you can play it by itself and it isn't as annoying-sounding as a solo mandolin.
Unless you're a genius player, onstage a solo mandolin gets grating pretty fast. Because it's tuned a fifth lower, the mandola doesn't have that same property. It works better by itself than mandolin does.
The other main use for mandola is in a mandolin ensemble. We've got a mandolin orchestra in Anchorage, but there aren't that many of them around.
What you'll find trying to play music with other people with the mandola is that you've got to be more aware of music theory and where you can work the instrument in. It's more of a challenge that way than mandolin is.
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller
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