#16
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As someone who considers themselves more of a mandolinist than a guitarist, I thought I would chime in.
1) I agree that a good instrument is important, and a playable mandolin costs more than a playable guitar (there is no mandolin analog to a Yamaha), but your price point is way off. For $300-400 you can get a new Kentucky KM 150 from The Mandolin Store or Folk Musician. These stores will give you a well set up instrument that is perfectly adequate to learn on. If you don't play bluegrass, you can go with a flattop mandolin like a Mid Missouri/Big Muddy. These are great, all solid wood mandolins made in America for under $1k new or about $500 used. For about $1k you can get a Kentucky KM 900 which, if set up well, is a perfectly gig-worthy mandolin. 2) A mandolin pick is important. You probably need a thicker pick than you think to get the top vibrating. 3) The mandolin is not a small guitar. It requires different techniques (see below). 4) You will spend your entire life chasing good mandolin tone. It is almost like a violin in that even after you learn to play, you will forever be learning to coax a pleasing tone out of the instrument. 5) Tuning in fifths is a not only more intuitive, it is mechanically easier, so finding single note melodies is indeed much easier. The problem goes back to the tone issue. You can learn tunes quickly on the mandolin, but you will spend a lifetime refining them, getting better single note tone, adding double stops and ornamentation, etc. 6) I think the more you play mandolin, the less transference from guitar you find. In the beginning, it feels like a little guitar. it isn't. Things you don't think that much about on guitar like pick angle, and the angle of your fretting hand/fingers to the fretboard make a huge difference in how you play and how you sound. You sort of cover this in your point two, but I wanted to put a finer point on it. It is hard to play expressively on the mandolin. You can't really bend notes; you can't really use vibrato, so pick attack and lefthand legato become your primary modes of lyrical and expressive playing.
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Bourgeois Aged Tone Vintage D Gibson CS 1958 Les Paul Std. Reissue Mason-Dixon FE 44 Combo Amp |
#17
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So my guitar is a dog but a mandolin is a cat. :-)
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- henry Alvarez Yairi 5065 Fender 50th Anniv MIJ Telecaster |
#18
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Maybe this goes with saying but the tremolo technique is how you achieve sustain on a mandolin, very unlike with a guitar. Naturally this means your right hand is the one that will take more developing, compared to the famiiar notion of fretting. Of course because of the very tight string spacing, it won't particularly resemble flatpicking, either.
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#19
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I got the Eastman MD-505 for Xmas and I could not be happier with it. I put Thomastik Infeld strings on it and it rarely goes out of tune. HHP's and Posternutbag's tips and observations are accurate to my learning experience. I am working with Sharon Gilchrist's beginner course on Peghead Nation.
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Doerr Trinity 12 Fret 00 (Lutz/Maple) Edwinson Zephyr 13 Fret 00 (Adi/Coco) Froggy Bottom H-12 (Adi/EIR) Kostal 12 Fret OMC (German Spruce/Koa) Rainsong APSE 12 Fret (Carbon Fiber) Taylor 812ce-N 12 fret (Sitka/EIR Nylon) |
#20
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"I go for a lotta things that's a little too strong" J.L. Hooker |
#21
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There are basically three ways to go if you are trying to get an inexpensive mandolin. 1) Buy something in the $100 price range (A Rogue) and then email Rob Meldrum on mandolin cafe for his free ebook on mandolin setup. I don't like this method. It relies on a beginner being able to set up their own mandolin, which may be fine in theory, but seems unrealistic to me. But I am not very handy, so most all setup work is unrealistic for me. I mention this option mostly for the sake of completion. But some people on MC have reported success. 2) Go to a reputable mandolin store like Folk Musician or The Mandolin Store (NFI) and order a Kentucky KM 150. There was a time when Pac Rim mandolins were terrible. Kentucky mandolins were terrible until the line was re-launched in 2012 or so (note, I am NOT speaking of the "Made in Japan" Kentucky mandolins from the 1980s, those were solid to very good instruments, although I tend to think they are a tad over-rated). Eastman was really the first Pac Rim builder to get low to mid priced mandolins right, starting around 2005. If you look at threads on Mandolin Cafe, you will notice a slow but burgeoning respect for Chinese-made mandolins. IMO, Eastman has been surpassed by Kentucky over the last five years or so as the goto mandolin for beginners, and Northfield is putting out Chinese-made mandolins that will go toe to toe with Gibsons (IMO). But a Kentucky KM 150 is a fine beginner mandolin, if it is set up properly. 3) Before Pac Rim mandolins became viable options in the low to mid-tier mandolin market, the standard advice on Mandolin Cafe was to buy a Mid Missouri/Big Muddy mandolin. They are the same mandolin, the same luthier; he just changed the name of the company some years ago, but you can find really nice, American made, all solid wood, flattop mandolins under both names. These are very good mandolins that start under $1k new. You can find them used for $400-$500. The thing is, they are good mandolins (I have owned 2), but they are not bluegrass mandolins. They have more sustain than is optimal for bluegrass, and they don't have a woody, percussive chop due to their construction (flattops and oval soundholes, like a flattop guitar). But if you don't play bluegrass, they can be lifetime mandolins. Those are, IMO your best options for a quality beginner mandolin, and for me, the second and third options will be the most satisfying.
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Bourgeois Aged Tone Vintage D Gibson CS 1958 Les Paul Std. Reissue Mason-Dixon FE 44 Combo Amp |
#22
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Over by the University of Richmond - just west of the Huguenot Bridge.
f-d
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'30 L-1, '73 FG-180, '98 914-C, '06 000-15S, '08 000-28NB, '11 GA3-12, '14 OM28A |
#23
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The girl that stole my purity lived near there.
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#24
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I could no more contemplate owning an A mandolin than I could owning a zero fret guitar. |
#25
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Anyone have any thoughts about the difficulties one might face being a guitarist who wanted to go to a lower register mando instead of a regular mandolin? Octave mandolin or mandocello? I love, love, love the sound of the lower register and wouldn't mind investigating...
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Martin BC, Canada |
#26
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#27
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A mandolin is a superior instrument for playing melodies (shorter scale length, a better melody register) and a guitar is (usually) a better instrument for vocal accompaniment. I am sure there are scenarios where an OM is perfect (maybe as the sole choral instrument in an Irish session), but, to me, they seem overspecialized.
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Bourgeois Aged Tone Vintage D Gibson CS 1958 Les Paul Std. Reissue Mason-Dixon FE 44 Combo Amp |
#28
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For a lower register, might even think about mandola. Tuned a fifth below mandolin but more comparable in utility to the mandolin. Seen some builders make 10 string mandolas that add a pair of high e strings so you have both registers on one instrument. |
#29
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'course I also own a bouzouki with a zero fret... |
#30
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