View Single Post
  #5  
Old 12-12-2009, 04:19 PM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Chugiak, Alaska
Posts: 31,166
Default

Well, I'm not trying to put anyone off of the instrument. I was just stating my own impressions based on the two Gibsons and one Gold Tone I've had a chance to play.

My basic problem with it as a musical instrument is that, even though it's tuned an octave above standard tuning, the two lowest strings just didn't work very well. The tone on the D, G, B and high E strings was fine, but the low E and A strings were kind of muffled and thuddy.

And this was on all the examples I tried, which indicates to me that it's a characteristic of the instrument, not just an instance of running across a bad example or a clunker.

Something that's quite commonly done with standard mandolins, especially among some of the Italian-American guitarists who double on mandolin that I've met, is to tune the four pairs of strings as though they were the first four strings of the guitar: D, G, B, E.

Personally, I'm not wild about this variation, because a great deal of the characteristic sound of a mandolin comes from its traditional fifth interval tuning. But that approach still works better (and sounds better) than these 6 string guitar-mandolins I've had a chance to play. And its immediate hands-on appeal to guitar players who don't know mandolin tuning is obvious.

But I've used my hands and my ears as well as my musical background to judge their effectiveness, and they might well work a lot better for some of you than they do for me. But I'd suggest you make an effort to find one locally to try before buying, or barring that, purchasing one only from a store with a fairly generous return policy.

But it might make more financial sense to pick up an inexpensive mandolin locally first, and tune it like the first four strings of a guitar to see how you like that tuning, before buying a dedicated 6 string guitar-mandolin.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller
Reply With Quote