# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  Hang on to your Mandobirds

## Bob Borzelleri

While checking out the jazzguitar.be site this morning, I noticed a post about Epiphone dropping several guitar models including the ES-175.  When I followed the link, I discovered that, included in the discontinued list were the Mandobird IV and VIII.

Also three acoustic mandos have bit the dust.

http://www.epiphone.com/Products/Out...on.aspx?Page=1

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## Soundfarmer Pete

Charming.......looks like sales of my most popular pickup are going to dry up then  :Crying:  ........perhaps Tony Tsai knew something (fancy making a Mandobird copy)!!!!!!

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## Barry Wilson

I was deciding whether to buy a mandobird IV or not. guess if I want one I better jump on it now.

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## Alex Orr

> I was deciding whether to buy a mandobird IV or not. guess if I want one I better jump on it now.


My guess is that they'll keep showing up for fairly cheap on the classifieds.  Many is a mandolin player who has bought an electric mandolin only to realize that a year or so later that he never plays the thing  :Wink:

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## Barry Wilson

For $200 I'll just go get one from my music store locally. for such a low costing instrument, by the time I pay shipping from the states, I am paying what I would locally anyway. I see there are 2 locally in the music chain stores inventory. I was about to order a new guitar..

and don't screw up my justification story. I have to change jobs month's end as my contract is ending. I have to utilize the sympathy card to order more stuff lol

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## Mandobart

Don't need to convince me.  The Bird is here to stay.

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## Clement Barrera-Ng

That's quite a few instruments slated for discontinuance.  I didn't know the 'Flatiron' brand is listed under the Epiphone banner. A few of the acoustic guitars (AJ500 and DR-500) are actually really decent players and had gotten good reviews.  I will miss the Mandobird for sure, though I doubt we'll stop seeing them altogether.  I don't think I'd mind saying goodbye to the MM50 though...

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## Ben Milne

Maybe I should  take mine back to stock for collectors value...

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## Alex Orr

> I didn't know the 'Flatiron' brand is listed under the Epiphone banner.


It's had a rather confusing run as a brand-name  :Frown:

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## journeybear

Hmmm. I already have two. Should I start stockpiling more? Will they accrue collector's value?  :Confused: 

Guess I can forget about the development of a MandolaBird.  :Frown: 

Wonder what it means when that many (64) models are being discontinued? It seems like a lot.

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## Barry Wilson

Well I just got home from my main music shop. I ordered mine up. It was the last one in stock. got the VIII. Should be here in a couple weeks or less. Coming from Ontario. I checked their website and not one single store had an 8 in stock. There is one of the 4's in Vancouver. We are jamming tonight and the drummer needed some sticks. L and M recently bought out a music store a few blocks from me so we stopped there. Gotta love having your fav music chain so close. I can't really afford to buy anything right now but I didn't want to miss out getting one...

and I hate the little epi a sound amped so much...

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## John L

There was a used mandobird IV in a store called The Hobo in Port Dover, Ontario. They wanted more than new price for it, but who knows, maybe they will now get it. Neat store owned by Fred Eaglemith.

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## Barry Wilson

My mandobird finally arrived today and I have been tinkering for hours. I used a digital tuner and set the intonation and action. truss rod was fine. I angled the pickup on the e string up closer to the string and I think it sounds great. I've just used the little yamaha amp so far, 25 watt solid state... flat response. liking it. even added some distortion to see...

you can bend these strings!! plays surprisingly easy really. can practice at night without an amp and not worry. I'm a night owl. and everyone at the store wanted to see it. the last one is mine, well in long and mcquade's inventory anyway

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## Ben Milne

Barry, mandobirds as far as I know have never featured a truss rod. If I am wrong on this as you imply then I would love to see pics and get more info regarding yours.

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## Barry Wilson

No I looked closer and it doesn't have a truss rod. The package came with a how to adjust the truss rod paper in the box on top. then again the manual showed how to restring a guitar so...

I love this little thing. it gets a lot of late night playing. and with some fx it does the pink floyd and such really well. very cool toy. the strap I am using came from rock band and is a perfect size.

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## bildio

> I've just used the little yamaha amp so far, 25 watt solid state... flat response. liking it. even added some distortion to see...


Do have a preamp between the Mandobird & Yamaha amp, or a direct connection between the Mandobird and Yamaha amp?

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## Barry Wilson

I went direct in. I'll be jamming sunday running it through my mustang III. it's no different than an electric guitar. For what they cost, it plays nice. I took a file to the edges of the nut because they are kinda sharp. string height at the nut is fine. tuners are smooth. pickup is adequate for now... I'll change it eventually. Can't afford anything, going kinda crazy on my car right now. I can't wait to finally get it back.

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## leahcim

Hi, I bought a Mandobird in London yesterday. I can't understand why they are discontinuing the line. It seems to be very good value to me. I'm new to the forum and to electric mando playing. Can anyone suggest the best pick-up upgrades for this 
instrument? I want to play jazz , blues etc. Also, can anyone suggest good strings and picks for jazz mando? I think there's something here that's worth pursuing if I can get the set-up right. Also, who are the great jazz/blues mando players. I'm quite ignorant. I recently discovered Jethro Burns on Youtube. He has such a great fluidity to his playing. The other person I discovered  a while ago is Jacob De Bandolim (excuse the spelling) who played choro in Brazil and is amazing.

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## Darren Bailey

I love my Mandobird, get some greta sounds with the effects boxes. But I have to confess that it rarely pushes my acoustic instrument out of my hands these days.

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## journeybear

Hi Leah (or is it Michael?  :Smile:  ), and welcome to the Cafe!  :Mandosmiley:  (A year late, post more often.  :Wink: ) 

You seem to be finding your way around just fine, picking up on two of the all-time greats there. As to your quest ... It just so happens this morning I was looking at Steve Ryder's site. He offers a pickup upgrade that seems well-thought-out and reasonably priced. I must say I have not done much investigation so others can give you better advice, but this is one to check out. You might want to look through threads in those specific forums for more info. Also, try jazzmando.com, great resource for anyone interested in that aspect of the instrument.

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## Jim Bevan

If you're looking at used ones, be careful about picking up one of the earliest models -- the neck is so narrow that it's pretty much impossible to play.

I bought one when they first came out (and bought another a couple of years later) -- I gave the first one to my 4 (5?)-year old grandson, he just wails away on the open strings and has a great time.
 :Mandosmiley: 
He has a great sense of rhythm, and when I tune it up for him, we play Irish trad tunes now and then (mostly then, 'cuz I'm never home), and with those drone-y notes going, we sound pretty good together!

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## leahcim

It's Michael. Thanks for the tip. I'll follow it up. Another question: do you think it is a good idea to tune the mando down a note to F, C, G, D? It seems that this gives it more looseness and makes it easier to make chords. However, when I tried it earlier my accoustice instrument (a Fylde) just didn't sound like a mandolin, it lost the sharpness. Also, this ceates a kind of transposition comundrum, I suppose. Are other people trying this? 
Another example of great mando: Planxty -      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3A5Tgy47M

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## journeybear

Glad we got _that_ cleared up!  :Smile:  I am not fond of messing around with tuning, though some are. I did get light strings for it, which makes bends of 2-3 frets possible. That is all the loosesness *I* need. I got them from a great resource operated by another member, emando.com.

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## Barry Wilson

I use straight mando tuning. got to use mine all day at rehearsals today. I never even took my guitar out. plugged into the mustang 3 I had to play with the tone knob. e string plays loud and clear for me. the other guys loved it too. lead guitarist broke his thumb on picking hand so I got to do a lot of leads and such today, and all the fill. lots of blues. even kicking on some overdrive amp models was fun. my fingers are getting sanded right now. they took a beating. 

the guys are fine with me just using this now. I am very impressed. glad I got one. I'm not too worried about upgrading the pickup right now. plays just fine as is. I have 2 clean amps setup on my presets and one dirty, I play mostly clean stuff, but a bit of chorus and reverb sure makes a nice sound.

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## Soundfarmer Pete

> Another question: do you think it is a good idea to tune the mando down a note to F, C, G, D? It seems that this gives it more looseness and makes it easier to make chords. Are other people trying this?


Tom uses this tuning - check out the thread 

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ghlight=almuse

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## leahcim

Hi All, Thanks for the tips. My wife has hidden the Bird until 15th as it's a birthday present. Feel like a kid at 45! Hey Pip
eous, sounds like a good jam going on there.

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## Tom Sailor

Hi leahcim, also check www.almuse.co.uk for Mandobird pickup upgrades if you didn't do until now. I played a MB VIII for a few months (Polecat lended me) and it definitely needs an e-string pushup. If it's a new one it may happen to need a nut upgrade. I normally use FCGD tuning on my Mandolin; IMHO it sounds somehow fuller and it makes me able to play Bb-sheets of the Real Book that are normally used by Sopran and Tenor Saxophone, Flugelhorn and Bb-Trumpet players. Most Jazz tunes are composed in flat keys (Bb, Eb, Ab and more) and you will flush two flats with this tuning, makes it easier to play good solos ;-) You may need heavier string gauge though. Might be useful to open a new thread about this tuning sonetimes. Have fun, Tom

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## Barry Wilson

I will say I might need to wire in a better ground because I got some noise when I clicked on a particularly heavy amp setting like a princeton or marshall for example.

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## pjlama

I'm totally stoked, my wife got me a gift certificate to a local store for our anniversary this weekend. So anyway I didn't know what to get and low and behold they had a IV bird on close out for $149 with bag! It sounds awesome and is a hoot to play.

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## journeybear

I got both mine from ebay for about that, maybe a little less. Definitely a decent entry level instrument, easy enough action. I got a good four years out of it. But I am really glad I finally upgraded to a custom made Ryder EM-44 with two humbucking pickups. Much bigger sound and finally no more intonation problems, no more doubt as to whether my playing sounds right. Been putting off getting something real nice for a long time, and finally decided I had denied myself long enough. Now I understand why people shell out for instruments made by small builders. Really big difference. Cost six times as much, but is it six times better? Oh, I daresay so, and then some!  :Mandosmiley:  Now, what to do with the MandoBirds ...  :Whistling:

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## Mandobart

One of the local music shops still has a Mandobird VIII, been there now for a few months.  I'm the only electric mando player I know around here.  If anyone is interested PM & I'll send you the info.  NFI.

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