# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  My new Airline Electric Mandola

## Big Rig

Broke down and ordered one of those Eastwood Airline Electric Mandolas last week.  For such an inexpensive instrument I'm quite impressed with it.  If you're curious here's what mine sounds like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPybke0h1NY

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Elliot Luber

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## Richard Singleton

Great video! Nicely played. Did you get the black finish or the seafoam green?  I have been lusting after the Airline mandola since Eastwood brought them out. Recent ebay acquisition of a black finish Mandobird iv, has only whetted my interest in getting an electric mandola as well. I suppose I had better concentrate on getting an amp first before I get a second electric instrument!  link below to gearwire review/demo of the Airline mandola - I like this video even better than the myrareguitar demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncz7...eature=related

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## djweiss

Sounds great!

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## TonyEarth

woah, that is a cool video.  :Smile:

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## Big Rig

I went with the seafoam green one.  I made the mistake of getting an amp earlier this year, thus becoming powerless to EMAS.

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## mrmando

What string gauges are you using?

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## Jim MacDaniel

> I went with the seafoam green one.  I made the mistake of getting an amp earlier this year, thus becoming powerless to EMAS.


lol - so what's next on the shopping list, the Eastwood eTenor, or an emando of some sort?

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## Big Rig

The strings that came on it had to be replaced.  I had a set of JazzMando flatwound strings, so I tried them.  That really helped, as the C and G strings originally were bronze wound.  Next down the line I think I'll look into either a 5-string mando or a lap steel.

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## mando.player

With an 18" scale, has anyone tried tuning it as an octave mandolin?

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## downtowndalebrown

> With an 18" scale, has anyone tried tuning it as an octave mandolin?


That's my plan. Not sure when I'll get it, but with a change of strings, it should be possible; Jon Mann uses an 18" scale on his 5-string octave mandos tuned GDAEB.

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## Jim MacDaniel

Any idea on the gauges Mann uses for that tuning at 18"?

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## Daniel Nestlerode

Jon and I had a brief email discussion about it.  I don't recall the results (it was more than a year ago).  But if you email Jon, he'll cheerfully tell you.  http://www.manndolins.com/contact.htm

Daniel

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## MANNDOLINS

I use .010p, .014p, .026w, .038w and .052w   with my 18" and 19" scale lengths (GDAEB) which are actually about 18.25" and 19.25"

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## Mandobart

Sounds great!  I've been considering an Airline Electric Mandola as a father's day gift/reward for working 70 hrs per week for the past 2 months....I recently got a Mandobird VIII which I love, and the Eastwood sounds like a neat electric expnasion.  The 'bird has some known issues which I corrected right away; weak e on the pickup, non-intonable bridge.  Are there any issues with the Eastwood a guy should know up front and plan on changing, such as pickup, nut, etc.?  Thanks

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## NMOY

Mine needs some serious nut work on the C courses -- the intonation is super duper sharp on the first four frets and then in fine the rest of the way up the neck, so my tech guy is going to work on that, otherwise it's great for the money.

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## rico mando

mine needed help all so  , i put some work in on the nut to lower the strings and stuck some paper under the neck to give it some back angle . fairly standard stuff when purchasing low end instruments . mind you i routed the neck cavity on my ryder to get more back angle on it too (among other mods)and its not a low end instrument .back to the mandola -i love the shape colour and look of it  but going to sell mine someday, i never use it really , going to ask for what i paid for it and see if any one local bites . i did get free shipping on it and there was no duty. sure is pretty on the wall though and did not cost much .i have paid more for just pick ups .

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## downtowndalebrown

Well, work needed or not, I'm in the A.E.M. club now.  Just scored a B-stock on Ebay for $225.  Nice discount for a dent.  Review to follow once it arrives and I've had a chance to beat it up a little bit.

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## Big Rig

Welcome to the club, still digging mine.

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## Richard Singleton

Congrats on the Airline! I bid on that towards the middle of the auction, though I really want a black one rather than the seafoam, and will probably succumb and buy one sooner rather than later. Please let us know what you think of it!

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## downtowndalebrown

Just received it today, and am 100% almost satisfied.  To explain, my one "grievance" came when I went to pull the tone knob off (for no good reason) and the shaft came out with the pot.  This is likely a one-in-a-million fluke and I'm not even sure if it has affected it's playability plugged in, as I don't have my amp at home at the moment.  This, however, doesn't really affect me, as I found the position of the volume knob more problematic right from the get-go, and my plan even before this happened was to remove the tone knob altogether and move the volume knob to that position.

Aside from that however, I'm very happy.  Looks-wise, I love it.  Intonation was set well right out of the box, and though mine will need nut work, this is due to the fact that I immediately swapped the strings for 13-30w-42w-52w to accommodate my AEae tuning (low to high) and my favouring high string tension.  The mandola took this like a champ and even without nut work, was playing almost perfectly with no change of saddle position or truss rod.

Day 1 and I'm a very happy customer, and on a side note, Mike from Eastwood could write the book on customer service.  Super quick and easy to deal with.  More info (plus perhaps video, etc) when possible.

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## BoxCarJoe

I hate to revive a zombie thread but there isn't much talk about these mandolas here.

I just purchased an Airline Mandola and I'm having a terrible problem with the sound.
I'm getting a very obvious chorus effect or chiming effect.

I've tried lowering the pickup and it had no effect.

I raised the strings. They were a good height already, but I tried it anyway. No effect.

I adjusted the truss rod. It was flat under tension and now I have a very small bow. No effect.

I'm thinking now the strings are bad and I've ordered a new set. The C and G strings are the worst.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

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## Daniel Nestlerode

Hi Joe,

You've done what I would have done to start: get a new set of strings.  Old strings can be a source of a lot of weirdness.

Have you had the instrument set up?  
Have you determined if the sound you're hearing is a buzz in the instrument or a noise in the electric output?
- Any good electric guitar set-up guy should be able to do a good job for you.  He (or she) should just be aware that the shorter scale length makes the instrument more sensitive to adjustments. 

I love the look of the Eastwood Airline mandolas and have been drooling over the 'map' guitars ever since 1983 when I saw Graham Nash play one in concert in Hershey, PA.

Keep us posted! 
Daniel

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BoxCarJoe

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## BoxCarJoe

Daniel

I setup my own instruments and this is a pretty conservative setup.

In my opinion it's not a fret buzzing thing.

So it's either bad strings or bad pickup I guess.

Strings are in the mail. So I can test that theory.

My past experience with Eastwood is that QC is very lax but instruments are very good.

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## BoxCarJoe

FWIW

I strung it up with GHS Guitar Boomers as an experiment.
Using the E ,D,G,E strings.
Due to the change in scale it tuned to C,G,D,A very easily.

The sound is thick and clear. None of that chiming sound I was getting.
Really a classic E mando sound.

I may keep these on. Not sure if I should go to two courses though.

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## Toni Schula

> I hate to revive a zombie thread but there isn't much talk about these mandolas here.
> 
> I just purchased an Airline Mandola and I'm having a terrible problem with the sound.
> I'm getting a very obvious chorus effect or chiming effect.
> 
> I've tried lowering the pickup and it had no effect.
> 
> I raised the strings. They were a good height already, but I tried it anyway. No effect.
> 
> ...


If the issue persists with new strings, you could check whether the strings in each pair is exactly at the same height at the bridge and nut. I have a slight issue at the lowest course with my Airline mandola. When fretting one string goes a little bit sharp compared to the other. But it is so subtle that I decided to accept it.

I use rather heavy electric guitar strings and tuned it like an octave mandolin. I also upgraded the PU with an Almuse. The original PU produced very annoying clicky noise when I accidentially hit it with the pick.

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BoxCarJoe

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## BoxCarJoe

Toni

Good suggestion. I'll give that a try when the new strings show up.

Right now I'm using a light set of GHS Boomers. 4 strings only. And the sound is deep and warm.

Not familiar with Almuse. I was thinking a P90 type pickup might be nice.

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## kurth83

tuning it as an octave sounds cool.  I just ordered a mandostang 4 string electic, and was thinking about an electric octave at some point too.  The shorter scale of a mandola is appealing.  The price makes it easy to test the waters.

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