The Steel Guitar Forum

Mose of us play the guitar. There are at least 3 or 4 of us that also play the mandolin. I'm one of them.

Who else?

I used to live reasonably close to a guy that played one. Does that count?

I'm starting to!

I have one of those cheap Fenders (FM 52) but I'd like an 'F' style Epiphone - nearly as pretty as a Gibson, and infinitely more affordable.

I got a little help from Mark Bazcynski (our fiddle/mandolin player) on my Summer gig, and I'm starting to get to grips with the tuning.

We'll see how it goes...

I have an Ovation mandolin. What with that, my banjo, Dobro, steels, and 6 string guitar, I could end up being master of none. There is no instrument worse than the mandolin for going out of tune, but I love the sound of it.

I am a mandolin OWNER...........


(the playing part, um....well...)

Picked one up just before buying my first psg a couple years ago. learned enough to get by but the steel demanded my full attention and the mando fell by thwe wayside. i can add it to a tune tho just fine if needed.

Im not a bluegrass fan and i really didnt care for the sound of the "chop" on a mandolin even when done by the pros. Only Bill monroes chop seems gentle and glancing enough to my ears...all others being overly sharp and percussive. i guess i dig the more bluesy/country mando stuff. Chris Hillman

Mike, I bet you can really play that thing.
I am stuck in "hack" status.

i heard the song 'mandolin wind' once.

Funny you should ask... I just got a NEW Michael Kelly F style mando.... Love it !!!!

Count me in. I swapped a cheap Romanian mandolin for a nearly as cheap Stagg electric mandolin a few months ago and I play it a lot.
My signature song, "Doormat" (check out Darowyn.co.uk on the web or Darowynmusic on Myspace if you want to hear it) was written on mandolin, so I usually finish a set with it.
I would never attempt to play Bluegrass on it. I have jammed with a top Nashville bluegrass outfit, and I know how hard it is even to play rhythm guitar at that pace. I have some mean folky/celtic licks though, and I'm developing two or three new songs based around those.
Cheers
Dave
(Alias Darowyn on stage)

i played some & enjoyed it
i had a DoBro Mando at the time
it was great fer buskin'

I bought a Rigel A style just before they went out of business. Wish I would have kept my Gibson A5L but we all make mistakes.

Greg

Played Mandolin since the 70's. I have an Ibanez "Lawsuit Era" F body. I gave my daughter the A.

I've played mandolin for years for my own enjoyment,My favorite pickers are David Grisman,Sam Bush and Frank Wakefield.If you like mandolin picking,a great double CD is BLUEGRASS MANDOLIN EXTRAVAGANZA,produced by Ronnie McCoury and David Grisman.This is a good one.DYKBC.

Before I started playing with some hardcore bluegrass folks I liked to think I could play mandolin pretty well. Now I just stick to guitar and singing. A good driving chop is hard stuff! At this point I wouldn't audition for a bluegrass band on a mandolin, but I've recorded some mando tracks for various roots rock bands when the songs were on the moderate to slow side of things and those have turned out pretty well. It's a fun instrument.

If anyone's thinking of buying one, those Mid Missouri mandos are great deals. They're flat top, so they don't look fancy, but they're handmade and all solid wood. In the $300 price range they can't be beat. IMO, a poorly made mandolin makes it just as tough for a beginner as a poorly made pedal steel.

I have an Alvarez A style that I don't play very well,but I use it for certain effects on recording..Kinda like it for rhythm...PJ...

Present. I just put a deposit down on one of Jonathan Mann's two-point flatbacks. It's getting hard to find quality, hand-built instruments at those prices. I play a heavily-modded Eastwood Mandocaster on rock gigs.

Bluegrass music bores me to tears, but I love some jazz mando.

I play mandolin. I'm an old bluegrasser, but my I've pretty much lost interest in it since Bill Monroe died. I think he took a great deal of it with him.

Charles D. - I worked with Monroe in '94. Spent two years with Del McCoury in the 80's. Ronnie and I are close friends. Also Frank Wakefield. Frank baked a mandolin once, and once poured milk in one, hoping to make it sound better. Remind me to tell you some others things about Frank that I can't tell here.

FYI: The proper mandolin chop is on the back beat. It serves the same function in a bluegrass band as drums do in a country band. Bill Monroe could pull you in and out of a break and make a fiddle player sound like a million dollars. I won't hardly play with a bluegrass band if they don't have a mandolin. Without it, the rhythm section sucks.

Yeah, a good chop will drive a bluegrass band. The guy who's playing mandolin in my band right now has one of my favorite chops.

www.myspace.com/cadillacstepbacks

I've 'dabbled' with mandolin for the last four or five years but am more of a banjo player. Mainly Scruggs style, but have recently started clawhammer.

yes, but not near as much as I would like to. Great Instrument. Wish I picked one up 2 or 3 decades ago..

It depends on what the meaning of the word 'plays' is.

I occasionally borrow my daughter's mandolin-- one of those cheap Fenders-- to add some extra color to recording projects.
I had a 1918 Gibson A-model for a few years back in the 70s. Pumpkin colored, well worn; utterly gorgeous tone. I was young and hungry and sold it to buy a cheap PA and some other gear so I could keep gigging as a solo act-- and thus keep eating and paying rent.
I'm mostly over it, but that old Gibson tugs at my heart every now and then. I hope it found a good home.

...

I have a buddy that has two Gibson Lloyd Loar F-5's that are worth $125,000 to $150,000 each.

Greg Cutshaw wrote:I bought a Rigel A style just before they went out of business.

Great news. RIGEL IS BACK IN BUSINESS. Apparently some things have changed (Peter mix is no longer with the company,) but the mandolins are the same.

I love my 2 "blue babies." I don't think there's a better mandolin made today.