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OT, sorta. Anybody have a mandolin?


FretFiend.

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I bought a $50 Rogue mandolin from MF a few years ago, because I love the sound of a mandolin and I wanted to try one. I quickly gave up on it after it shredded my fingers though. I gave it to my bro in law. He recently gave it back to me. I tuned it up and played it a bit, and again wound up with very sore fingers. I've learned a few things in the years about setups, and after some study, I saw that the setup on this thing is really bad.

 

I leveled the frets a bit, filed the nut slots down, lowered the bridge, and set the intonation, and suddenly this thing is surprisingly easy to play, and, for a cheapo laminate, it sounds decent. It's the first instrument other than a guitar that I could actually make some passable sounding noise on. I believe I'm hooked.

 

I'm a noob at the mandolin cafe, and they don't wanna talk about Rogues anyway. The only noise on the folk instrument forum here is crickets chirping, so I thought I'd see if anyone here plays a mandolin.

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I built an F5 a few years ago but never really learned to play it. Know a few chords and a few simple songs. One thing I like it for is travel - it fits the overhead bin, is pretty quiet to play in a hotel room and forces me to take it out and practice. Will never be my main instrument for sure

 

I do know that we have some real players here however

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I play mostly guitar, but I picked up the mandolin 30 years ago.

 

I wish I could say I was a kick ass Bluegrass player, but I am not. I make do pretty well.

 

I have only owned 2 mandolins in my life. A Flatiron A model performer that I bought in 1989 when I wanted to learn how to play the mandolin. A few years ago I bought a Gibson F5G.

 

 

Both are very nice, and sound very different.

 

The A model has more of a mid-bark, and the F is more balanced, mellower, but just as loud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I have a Johnson mandolin, similar to your Rogue. Also bought from MF---buy a cheap acoustic guitar, get a cheap mandolin free deal. UPS punched a hi-lo fork clean through the shipping box, totally destroying the guitar---and delivered it anyway! MF replaced it.

 

Mine also needed set-up work. It plays decently. Sounds all right. I have to admit I haven't played it in a long time.

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Several years ago Mrs. DeepEnd expressed an interest in learning mandolin and I bought her a Rover, which is similar in quality to Rogue. She took a few lessons but because she ended up in an intermediate class she became frustrated and gave up. I noodle around on it occasionally but never when she's around.

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Years ago I bought one for my son, who plays violin, but he never really took it up. Ended up with me. I can't play it. My hands are too big. One fingertip covers more real estate at the nut than a mando has to offer. I can't play a guitar cleanly with less than a 1-3/4 nut. A mando's 1-1/8th is a laugh. So, it sits in the case with the strings slackened waiting for my son to rekindle his curiosity.

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Years ago I bought one for my son' date=' who plays violin, but he never really took it up. Ended up with me. I can't play it. My hands are too big. One fingertip covers more real estate at the nut than a mando has to offer. I can't play a guitar cleanly with less than a 1-3/4 nut. A mando's 1-1/8th is a laugh. So, it sits in the case with the strings slackened waiting for my son to rekindle his curiosity.[/quote']

I find it cool to be able to fret two pairs of strings with one finger but yeah, there's not much fretboard real estate is there? I respect anyone who can play one well.

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You can never appreciate the mandolin without playing a good one, for those that are very guitar-centric. A Rogue or old Stella won’t do, really. Once you lay hands on a well setup ‘20s Gibson A (1-¼”) or one of the newer crop you can read all about at manolincafe.com, but have to actually purchase, you may find a greater appreciation. An old (teens-‘20s) Gibson A is and always will be the benchmark. The F5 of that era is another topic entirely, one that most of us wouldn’t understand, least I don’t...

 

There are those special multi instrumentalists that simply loooved it at first strum on those 100$ Rogues and eBay Stella’s, and moved up to nicer ones, or not, but it’s definitely a niche instrument, not for all souls.

 

Verne! Reso!? Gawd the noise! ;). But I feel ya. Addictive. I’m over mine, but still kinda wish I hadn’t sold off 2 Gibson A models.

 

 

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Dennis Vance at the Mandolin Store is a wealth of knowledge.

 

He carries a lot of nice stuff, both new and used, American and Imports.

As far as imports go, Eastman makes a decent mandolin. I met the sale rep at the Fresh Grass Festival here in town back in September. They do all the setups in California.

 

Weber and Collins make a mandolin with a slightly wider fretboard is you have bigger paws. So the normal 1-1/16 fretboard is wider by and 1/8 of an inch. Might be comfier. I think even Gibson does a wider fretboard now too.

 

There's a lot of work that goes into a hand build mandolin. I bet a good builder can carve out a top in 30 minutes and then spend the rest of the day honing it out. Gibson still has what I call that signature bark. I like Webers and Collings stuff too, but they sound slightly different than the Gibson, but not in a bad way.

I played an A model Flatiron for decades and just recently got myself a Gibson F5G.

 

Those 100 year old gibson are really nice, if they have been taken care off. A lot of times it's something folks had sitting up in their attic for 50 years, and they could be a little dried out and need work.

 

I'll never be a traditional blue grasser, I just don't spend that much time in the saddle with it.

 

The Portland Fiddle and Contra songbooks are worth having and feature a tone of old fiddle reels, breakdowns and jigs

 

https://www.theportlandcollection.com/

 

I also recommend New England Fiddler's Repertoire

The Fiddler's Fakebook:

 

I have 3 Waltz books too.

 

Watch out for Amazon, as their prices are not always the best.

 

This is a great site too, free songs

JC's ABC Tune Finder at trillian.mit.edu

 

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind

 

And what mandolin player wouldn't like to learn Jay and Molly Ungers' Ashokan Farewell. I have that one played at my funeral.

 

 

My wife and I got married some 9 years ago, after living together for 14 years. I had all my fiddle, mandolin, acoustic guitar, and flute buddies play at the wedding ceremony. They wanted to do it for free, but I paid em all rather nicely for there work. I love acoustic string instruments as much as I love rock and roll.

 

Music is made for people to get together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When I started playing a guitar many moons ago, I lived with a cheap laminate, and at that time, I couldn't have appreciated a real solid wood guitar anyway. Same with the mando. I can live with the cheap laminate until such time as my ability to play it rates a better instrument.

 

All I'm currently trying to do is get comfortable with a few two and three finger major and minor chords.

 

The nut width on a mandolin is only 1 1/8, but, since there are effectively only four strings to fret, the amount of space between strings (sets of two) is only about ten thou less than that of a six string guitar with a 1 3/4 nut.

 

The small space between frets is what is hard to get used to.

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Here's a nice piece called the Ashokan Farewell played by Dennis Vance of the Mandolin Store.

You may be familiar with the song from the PBS Civil War documentary by Ken Burns.

[video=youtube;Ii8RdceRUJs]

 

 

Another fav of mine is an Irish tune Called Inisheer.

It sounds nice on the mandolin, but even better on the fiddle, flute, or concertina.

 

[video=youtube;Wuqns1ioXKE]

 

See what I mean. I wish more piano types would pick up the concertina, or button box.

[video=youtube;ktzJc1IhS14]

 

 

 

 

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Here's a vid when I owned a mandolin...they're fun, but I could never really get into it. And I messed up at the end! Props to real mando players, it's a tough nut to crack! Edit: '20s Gibson A, no longer with me.

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And that’s the easy stuff! That tremolo on a few of those vids above? Whew...I just didn’t have the “feel” for it.

 

Slide playing, harmonica, and mandolin are instruments and techniques that require a feel for them, aside from the muscle memory and 1000s of hours of practice..;) (imo)

and thanks!

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Here's a vid when I owned a mandolin...they're fun' date=' but I could never really get into it. And I messed up at the end! Props to real mando players, it's a tough nut to crack! Edit: '20s Gibson A, no longer with me.[/quote']

 

Nice classic mandolin tune.

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Here's a vid when I owned a mandolin...they're fun' date=' but I could never really get into it. And I messed up at the end! Props to real mando players, it's a tough nut to crack! Edit: '20s Gibson A, no longer with me.[/quote']

 

Nice Whiskey before Breakfast is a classic mandolin tune.

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