Quote:
Originally Posted by svea
Being a guitarist who got into mandolin late in life, I may be able to shed a little light on why mandolin necks are what they are. The common nut width for a Gibson or a Collings mandolin is about 1 1/8". Collings considers 1 3/16" to be a wide nut. I bought the wide nut version thinking that since I was coming from guitar playing, it would be easier. Well, actually that is not exactly true. While I find that the Collings with the wide nut works just fine for most tunes, there are some fingerings and chords that would actually benefit from being able to span two string courses with one finger. So, in hindsight I probably would have just gotten the standard nut version had I known that. It's not really that big of a deal, though.
Also, the way you grasp a mandolin neck is similar to how you would grasp a violin. The pad of the thumb should rest along one edge, and there is a different angle of the fingers than with grasping a guitar neck. Mike Marshall's hands are huge and he does fine. But ultimately what works for others may not work for you, and I don't know of any stock mandolins with really wide necks.
Svea
Svea
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This is absolutely, utterly right. I am a guitarist who came to mandolins much later. Get out of your mind that you will be playing it like a guitar, because you won't. It's different from the word go -- even what goes on in your head is different.
Like the PP, I ordered my first serious mando with a 1-3/16" nut, and now I wish I'd just stuck with the narrower version. About 1-1/8" would be ideal.
One thing that I think you will have fun with is that it doesn't take too long to become somewhat proficient and make it sound really good. All the scales repeat predictably around the fretboard. Still, it will make your jaw hit the ground that that thing in your hand is all David Grisman's using to get allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll that music out of!!!
(Btw, I figure that I will finally get a showy F model if and when I actually get good. Until then, I have an A that sounds amazing and looks a tiny bit poverty-stricken ... which I really like.)