Looking for an electric mandolin

Jeremy Steele · From: Princeton, NJ USA

Anyone have a recommendation or two? I'm not looking to spend a lot or money, just want decent intonation and action, basically.

Randy Pettit · From: North Texas USA

I'm not a mando player, but two that I've heard played are the Godin A8 and the Ovation, both with excellent on-board electronics. However, count on spending at least $500-$600 new. Also, they're not traditional looking mandolins, but they do sound great plugged in.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey Jeremy,
I play mandolin quite a bit and have tried a lot of different ones live at gigs. If you want something reasonable I'd get one of the Fender A-style electrics. They've got a magnetic style pickup like a guitar and a volume and tone control on top. This mandolin doesn't require a pre-amp which is also a plus and doesn't sound too bad unplugged either. They go for around $250 more or less from Musician's Friend or any music store which handles Fender instruments. Wow, I just looked at the MF catalog just now and they're $189.99 w/o case but you can order the case for $59.99. If you have a Fender dealer near you, the model number is: FM-52E. I have a Fender FM-62SE which is a sort of F-style electric with a piezo bridge pickup factory installed. They go for around $450. Musician's Friend also handles a Rogue electric mandolin which is similar in appearance to the A style Fender electric and it goes for $129.99 but I think I'd be a little suspect of the quality here maybe. I have played the Fender and I'd recommend that if you want one. I've even seen some of the acts on CMT & the Opry who have musicians who double on mandolin playing these low priced Fenders....Have a good 'un.

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

[This message was edited by Jerry Hayes on 18 February 2003 at 10:39 AM.]

Kevin Hatton · From: Buffalo, N.Y.

Jerry, you hit the nail on the head. I am also a mandolin player and I'll tell you an interesting story about the Fender 53S mandolin (same as the 52E except without the pickup). They are GREAT mandolins for $250.00! I played an Ovation electric for a few months but could never get it to intonate up the neck so I checked it at the twelth fret with a meter and sure enough two of the strings were 15-20 cents off at the twelth. Its had a plastic bridge so I couldn't modify it. I also found it tinny sounding and could not equalize it out to get a realistic mandolin tone. I called up Ovation and asked them about it and was told " oh yeah, the first production run of those went out with mis-manufactured bridges and they are out of intonation". So instead of sending it back and waiting at least a month I went down to Guitar Center and saw the Fender 53S on the wall. When I took it down and played it I couldn't believe the sound. It sounded better than $1000.00 Kentuckys. I thought there was something wrong with my hearing. It had a floating bridge on it and I moved the bridge around at the store and intonated it with a meter. It played perfectly in tune up the neck. I wound up putting a Fishman bridge pickup on it and running it through a Peavey Ecoustic 112 and it sounded killer.
Fast forward a few months. My band gets a call from the local radio station to open for Shannon Lawson. Well Shannon's got a Kentucky smokin bluegrass player with him who plays both banjo and mandolin. What does he pull out when he comes on stage? A Fender $250.00 53S with a Fishman bridge pickup!!!
We talked after the performance and we both were laughing because we both agreed that the Fender A's sound better than some $2000.00 mandolins that we tried. By the way the Fenders are made in Korea by Samick. They are great sounding mandolins. Jeremy, hope this helps.

[This message was edited by Kevin Hatton on 18 February 2003 at 04:51 PM.]

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I also play mandolin. I have an electric Gibson hollow body, but it tends to feed back sometimes when I play it with distortion at high volume in my rock band. I'm going to eventually get a Godin solid body in order to eliminate that problem.

Meanwhile, here is a link to the Electric mandolin rescources page on gthe web. http://www.emando.com/

Jeremy Steele · From: Princeton, NJ USA

Thanks, guys for the info. I think I'll brave the slush and head to 48th Street today and check out the Fender mando.

scott murray · From: Asheville, NC

Are you looking for a bluegrass or western swing mandolin?
By bluegrass I mean a hollow-body, 8-string... the kind everybody plays. By western swing, I mean a solid-body 4 or 5-string mandolin, like Tiny Moore and others play.

I've always wanted Fender to make a mandolin that's built and shaped like a mini Telecaster.

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey Scott,
Fender does make a solid body 5 string mandolin but it's shaped more like those old Fender 4 stringers from many years ago. I never liked those or and other electric without the unison strings as on some things they just sound like a guitar. As far as swing or jazzy stuff goes you can't get any better than what Jethro Burns did or David Grisham and they both play(ed) 8 string instruments.....JH

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Livin' in the Past and the Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Jeremy Steele · From: Princeton, NJ USA

Definitely looking for a standard mandolin with 8 strings and a pickup. A friend loaned me one of the old Fender solid-bodies with 4 strings, and it sounded like a guitar to me (albeit capoed very high up the neck).

Harry Dietrich · From: Robesonia, Pennsylvania, USA, R.I.P.

Hi Jeremy

I have an Ibanez hollow body,and I put a Kent WC18 pickup on it. It's a pickup made expressly for mandolins. It has tone and volume controls. BTW, Ibanez mandolins have the height adjustment knobs on the bridge, so you can raise and lower your strings. I forget what I paid for it many years ago, but I know it wasn't that expensive. I played it through 2 Peavey amps in stereo chorus, and it sounded great. It was one of 4 instruments I used to play when I was in bands, and when I broke that baby out, everybody would get off their a$$es and dance. LOL!!

Good luck......Harry

Deana Clark · From: Beverly, Ohio., USA

Marietta Music Company, Marietta, Ohio, has had one on the wall that they have been trying to get rid of for several months. I bet you could get it at a pretty good price. Their number is 740-376-9490. Talk to Jeff George. (owner)

Lincoln Goertzen · From: Taylor, British Columbia, Canada

Here's another vote for the Fender. The FM-52E is probably the best-sounding mandolin I've ever played. (I have played two of them, and they both sound this good. Action was superb, too.) I like them better than a couple of $3000+ Gibsons I played in a store. The Gibsons were all right, but overpriced in my opinion. Anjo makes one that's not too bad, and it stays in tune.

There's my two cents.

Lincoln

Roger Rettig · From: Naples, FL

Based on this 'thread' alone, I've ordered the Fender from MF - $189.99 + $12.50 shipping. That's a great price if it's half as good as you guys say it is!

I don't play mandolin - yet - but I'm about to play 'Chicago', and the banjo parts call for some mandolin, too; I've long wanted to try one - this was all the push I needed!

The charts also specify ukelele for some tunes - does anyone have any recommendations for a good, but inexpensive, uke? I played uke (the only time I ever did) with Herb Remington at Gerry Hogan's Festival of Steel Guitar back in England a few years back - that was fun!

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Roger Rettig

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