How many of us play the Mandolin?

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 22 Mar 2013 11:10 am

I sold my Rigel with F holes to pay for my 2nd Millennium, but here's a picture of the one I kept.

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 22 Mar 2013 1:57 pm

I had Jon Mann build me an electric octave mandolin with a "tele meets jazz box" vibe and I've been pretty happy with it. Here's one of the videos I did a couple years ago to showcase the instrument for Jon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUfEXGe_N6o

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 23 Mar 2013 9:04 am

Very good, Michael. The tone reminds me a lot of the Bouzuki.

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 25 Mar 2013 7:31 pm

Here's a recent thing with Richard Smith and myself, completely unrehearsed. Me trying to remember how to play the mandolin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp6sExLSzic

Ron Landis · Post by **Ron Landis** » 26 Mar 2013 6:39 am

Mandolin has been my main instrument for the past 20 or so years. The steel guitar is a more recent addiction. I also play guitar, dobro, banjo and all the variations of all of them and can scratch out a waltz on the fiddle if someone holds a gun to my head. I'm getting more work playing dobro and steel than anything else these days.

Ron Landis · Post by **Ron Landis** » 26 Mar 2013 6:45 am

Mandolin has been my main instrument for the past 20 or so years. The steel guitar is a more recent addiction. I also play guitar, dobro, banjo and all the variations of all of them and can scratch out a waltz on the fiddle if someone holds a gun to my head. I'm getting more work playing dobro and steel than anything else these days.

Jan Viljoen · Post by **Jan Viljoen** » 26 Mar 2013 7:00 am

I like this thread so much, I did not know so many steelers play mando as well.

Ron Landis, good luck forwards.

Mike Perlowin, your blue axe rocks, even with a blue belt.

I want to show you one of mine, El Cheapo rebuilt.

I slapped a used humbucker pickup on a used mando.
I had an old hippo tusk that a game farmer gave me 25 years ago and cut it up for points and heelcap, add F tuners and a MOP inlay on the African Blackwood head.

Voila!
Jethro Burns must be smiling.
(What happened to his mandolin)

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 26 Mar 2013 9:26 am

Scott Shipley wrote:Here's a recent thing with Richard Smith and myself, completely unrehearsed. Me trying to remember how to play the mandolin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp6sExLSzic

Excellent. You and Richard have a lot of talent.

It's a shame that whoever was holding the camcorder didn't come inside the building so we could see you both more clearly. Sound is pretty good for no microphone other than that in the camera.

Scott Shipley · Post by **Scott Shipley** » 26 Mar 2013 6:11 pm

Thank you Alan! That was fun, playing with someone like Richard definitely keeps you on your toes.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 27 Mar 2013 2:27 am

U. Srinivas is one of my favorite soloists of late, he builds those solos like a brick house or palace or something. I really admire someone who can construct a five-to-ten-minute solo that makes sense and just keeps getting better. Thematic developments, not just groups of accelerating licks. He plays either an inexpensive (but hot-rodded) Indian mandolin that comes out under several names, "Shamax" is one. Or, he plays this puppy by French luthier Mike Sabre:

They tune them C-G-C-G, and... something on the fifth string.

Here's my lone one, among the family of "tele-shaped" instruments - not a one of 'em is quite "right".

I would love to have a five-string with an 18" to 19" scale. One thing I do is tune low, I can't understand the finger-slicing tension... Sam Bush advances the theory that the bluegrass "chop" originated when Bill Monroe got too tired to play chords cleanly....

Beside Srinivas, Chris Thile is "the dude."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZ40V0teGM

He put out two CD's with Mike Marshall, "Into the Cauldron" and "Live Duets." Both great music, not just fast. But fast too.

This is just, like, mental:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYfL2l_trV8

And here, around 14:40, Srinivas begins one of the best solos I've ever heard. -
http://tela.sugarmegs.org/_asxtela/Reme ... stonMA.asx
Once again. proof that it ain't the instrument.... though Mr. McLaughlin & Co., whoever it is, do tend to take the foot off the brakes when playing at Berklee. I mean, what the hell - "hey, kid...."

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 27 Mar 2013 12:33 pm

What creates the sounds of a mandolin is the double courses. Single-course electric mandolins are more like electric ukeleles than mandolins. You must have double courses for it to be a mandolin, otherwise it's just a small guitar.

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 27 Mar 2013 1:45 pm

Alan Brookes wrote:What creates the sounds of a mandolin is the double courses. Single-course electric mandolins are more like electric ukeleles than mandolins. You must have double courses for it to be a mandolin, otherwise it's just a small guitar.

My sentiments exactly.

Stephen Gregory · Post by **Stephen Gregory** » 27 Mar 2013 3:21 pm

I don't play "the" mandolin, that one must be very exclusive, but I do play a mandolin.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 28 Mar 2013 9:57 am

Stephen Gregory wrote:I don't play "the" mandolin, that one must be very exclusive, but I do play a mandolin.

$:\$ $:\$ $:\$ $:\$ $:\$

Pete Finney · Post by **Pete Finney** » 28 Mar 2013 10:17 am

Alan Brookes wrote: You must have double courses for it to be a mandolin, otherwise it's just a small guitar.

Tiny Moore, Bob Wills and Merle Haggard all called Tiny's five string a mandolin; that's good enough for me.

Mike Perlowin · Post by **Mike Perlowin** » 28 Mar 2013 10:26 am

They may call it a mandolin, but I think it's a different instrument and should have a different name.

Gene Jones · Post by **Gene Jones** » 28 Mar 2013 11:52 am

I was priviledged to personally hear those three Bob Wills fiddle players at the Criterion Theater in Oklahoma City in about 1948, lay down their fiddles and pick up their 4-string mandolines and play the most awesome harmony riffs ever heard.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 28 Mar 2013 1:55 pm

I have an old Neapolitan Mandoline with four triple courses (i.e twelve strings). A lot of them were made like that in the 19th century.

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 29 Mar 2013 7:12 pm

I wanted to get close to a mando sound, but without the learning curve, so I am having one of these made for me as we speak..
http://www.teoguitars.com/index.html

It gets a guitarist into the "sonic territory" without any muss or fuss as you can hear..

Buddy Miller playing one with Emmy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFEWudrdOtA

Nice mix with her acoustic.. Not overly "electric sounding"- I had one years ago, a Canadian made octave 12 called a Hammertone.. it was magnificent little instrument, and I sold it like a blockhead.
It will be here in a month... bob

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 29 Mar 2013 8:40 pm

Bob Carlucci wrote:I wanted to get close to a mando sound, but without the learning curve, so I am having one of these made for me as we speak..
http://www.teoguitars.com/index.html

An interesting-looking instrument, Bob. How are you going to tune it? Like a 12-string guitar only an octave higher?
During the folk boom of the 60s a common trick was to put a capo high up on a 12-string guitar to get a mandolin sound, which is probably similar to the sound you will get out of this.

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 30 Mar 2013 4:14 am

Alan, correct.. Its called a TEO Octave 12.. Tuned one octave above a standard guitar..
The G string however is not an octave as it would be on "normal 12 string.. It is tuned in unison..

The problem with putting a capo on a 12 string guitar is that the octave G would be unusably high pitched, and it would be near impossible to play except for a few simple chords.. These instruments have incredible action, and play very easily.. The one I had and sold played like butter.. bob

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 30 Mar 2013 8:32 am

Bob Carlucci wrote:...The one I had and sold played like butter...

Did it sound like a mandolin ?

Michael Johnstone · Post by **Michael Johnstone** » 30 Mar 2013 2:33 pm

Tedesco,Lindley and others have done the "mando tuned like a guitar" shortcut and it's ok when buried in a track but to me it falls into the catagory of horn section samples played on a keyboard or faking E9 licks with a B-Bender Tele. Anyhow what makes a mandolin work for me and more important than the double courses is the symmetrical 5ths tuning. You just can't get the reach,range or voicings without it. People don't realize how easy it is to play and understand till they spend a few weeks with it. My 2 cents.

Alan Brookes · Post by **Alan Brookes** » 30 Mar 2013 3:29 pm

Michael Johnstone wrote:...what makes a mandolin work for me and more important than the double courses is the symmetrical 5ths tuning. You just can't get the reach,range or voicings without it. People don't realize how easy it is to play and understand till they spend a few weeks with it. My 2 cents.

I agree. That's why I asked if it sounded like a mandolin. If I had one of those octave 12-strings that Bob has on order I would tune it in fifths right across the fingerboard, which would give me a bigger range, but still allow the traditional mandolin riffs. That's what I've done with my 5-course (10-string) electric mandola.

Bob Carlucci · Post by **Bob Carlucci** » 30 Mar 2013 3:55 pm

Michael Johnstone wrote:Tedesco,Lindley and others have done the "mando tuned like a guitar" shortcut and it's ok when buried in a track but to me it falls into the catagory of horn section samples played on a keyboard or faking E9 licks with a B-Bender Tele. Anyhow what makes a mandolin work for me and more important than the double courses is the symmetrical 5ths tuning. You just can't get the reach,range or voicings without it. People don't realize how easy it is to play and understand till they spend a few weeks with it. My 2 cents.

Not really looking to play mandolin licks, or even get a 100% authentic mandolin sound.. Just looking to get into the "sonic territory" of a mandolin.
These are great at what they do, but they are not going to replace a Lloyd Loar F5..
Buddy Miller uses his to great advantage with several artists.. Its all I will ever need to get into mando territory.. Just adding some depth to the ""sonic pallette" on live gigs, not looking to copy Bill Monroe... bob