# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  4-5 string electric

## TonyEarth

I want to know where i can get a good electric mandolin that is affordable, has 4-5 strings, and sounds like an electric guitar. Not going to purchase anything any time soon, but just want to keep an eye on some better mandolins for the future. Any suggestions?

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## John Rosett

Tony-
What's your definition of "affordable"? The 4 string Saga kits can be had on ebay for $120 plus shipping.

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## TonyEarth

Well, i'm not sure of the usual price of good electric mandolins, so any suggestion helps.

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## Jim MacDaniel

The new Gold Tone 4-string looks pretty sharp and has an MSRP of $399, so I suspect it will be selling for somewhere between $299 - $349.

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## TonyEarth

wow, that does look very nice. not a big fan of the color, but thats the least of worries. very cool.

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## Geoff B

electric octave mandolins are right down in the guitar range, and are tons of fun...
 :Smile:

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## Daniel Nestlerode

Are the Gold Tones out yet?

Epiphone's mandobirds are cheap and fun
Check out Blue Star emandos at Elderly.com
And Kentucky is still making their KM-300e

I fell in love with JBovier's 5 string emandos.  I don't think they're on the website yet. But they are available.

D

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## Jim MacDaniel

I haven't see the Gold Tones hits the retailers or etailers yet -- and I don't think I saw any notes on it from NAMM attendees here.  :Frown: 




> wow, that does look very nice. not a big fan of the color, but thats the least of worries. very cool.


I like the color, especially with a maple fretboard, but I don't know why they chose black knobs, truss rod cover, and fret-board inlays (which all look kind of odd on it IMHO) -- but I guess the first two can be easily replaced with white ones.

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## TonyEarth

you're right, the black makes it look a little weird, but especially the fret inlays and the knobs, which kind of stand out.

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## Daniel Nestlerode

I like the yellow with white esthetic, but I agree with Tony and Jim.  Those black accents in the knobs and truss rod cover seem like a cop-out.

Here's a great shot of an excellent yellow white guitar (and guitar player)


Daniel

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## ...and Master of None

> ...Check out Blue Star emandos at Elderly.com


I tried, I tried, they're all out of stock  :Crying: 

I wanna blue five-string!  I wanna blue five string!  :Crying: 

John

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## Jim MacDaniel

I'm not sure if they are above the OP's desired pricerange, but Jeff Cowherd got the aesthetics right on his new JBovier emando lineup...

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## TonyEarth

wow, those look awesome. how much do some of those usually sell for?

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## Jim MacDaniel

According to Ted's review of them at jazzmando.com:

4-String List $849, Street Price $679
5-String List $949, Street Price $779

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## TonyEarth

Ouch, i believe that is over my range. i might be able to buy one at 679, just barely, though i doubt it. maybe by the time i decide to buy an electric mandolin i will have saved enough money. still, your suggestions are really great, jim, i appreciate it.

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## Dan Hoover

epi mandobirds are at $199...from what others have said,they might need a little tweaking? couple more dollars unless you have a friend or knowhow..
    i'm kinda in the same boat..i want electric..i want loud...and i have a couple amps just sitting...just not sure if i want to jump in on a jbovier?or go with gold tone or epi??or something else just for starters...what to do???? my wife say's kitchen redo first..

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## Jim MacDaniel

There's an article somewhere in the forums on pickup upgrades for Mandobirds from Almuse.com, which apparently are favorably reviewed.

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## Daniel Nestlerode

Dan,
If a kitchen redo comes first sell an amp and use the proceeds to grab as much emando as you can.   :Smile: 

Daniel

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## rmartinez

If you're handy with a screw driver and a soldering iron I'd recommend the Moongazer kits.  Pretty great value.  There's a video posting in the recent thread history where I posted a quick snippet of mine.  Tom's great to work with.

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## mrmando

> my wife say's kitchen redo first..


In that case, when she asks about the new electric mandolin, you can tell her you thought you were getting one of these.

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## Dan Hoover

earlier response was lost,thought i'd repost..



> If a kitchen redo comes first sell an amp and use the proceeds to grab as much emando as you can.  
> 
> Daniel


i wish my mind worked like that,my wife wishes my mind worked like that too.. :Grin: i have a hard time parting w/stuff,do-able,but man it's tuff....i keep going back to picking up a mandobird as a starter,it's a really good affordable price,always like epiphone...maybe upgrading like jim say's..then down the road if i'm liking the loudness,upgrading to say a jbovier???
  martin,with my fingers,that could be very dangerous. :Grin: .and my wife hates kitchen gadgets..we don't even have a microwave here...
  tony, you have some good choices here,good luck

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## David Ray

I have a 2 Jon Mann electrics - one 14" scale and the other is an 18" octave - Both are great, but the octave has a rich lower register tone similar to a guitar - lot of fun...

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## TonyEarth

> tony, you have some good choices here,good luck


Thanks, dan, i will surely consider all of these thoroughly.

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## TonyEarth

Thank you all for your responses. I believe that right now, my best choice would be one of the mandobirds. i agree completely with dan: 


> i keep going back to picking up a mandobird as a starter,it's a really good affordable price,always like epiphone


, and as i get better i could upgrade. the hard part now would be choosing a mandobird (the eight string or the 4 string). However, more suggestions are always welcome!  :Smile:

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## mandroid

One of each?  :Popcorn:   CGDA string the 4 string , leave the 8 as is.  :Coffee:

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## Daniel Nestlerode

Tony,
A 4 string will sound more like an electric guitar than an 8 string will.  And then if you tune it CGDA (as I and others have done) it'll sound more like an electric guitar than if you leave it GDAE.

 :Smile: 

Daniel

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## TonyEarth

Thank you for being so helpful.  :Smile:

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## Chief

Don't know if this is allowed- but I have a blue Bluestar Mandoblaster 5 string for sale. Contact me for details if interested. Thanks, Steve Johnson

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## Ben Milne

NFI here... but there is a 5 string emando built by Cafe member G.D. Armstrong in the classifieds ATM. - price seems very reasonable and looks to be a somewhat simple though lovely looking instrument.

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## TonyEarth

By the way, how big a range of different types of music/sounds can one get on... lets say.. a mandobird viii with.. a vox da5 amplifier? could i get a bluesy sound but a Boston guitar solo kind of sound as well? this is all hypothetical, thats IF i had these, could i do that?

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## rico mando

I do can't say if you can :Cool:

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## TonyEarth

... what? what do you mean?

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## rico mando

sorry -to properly answer your ?

the cheap pick up in the mando bird put through some modern effects processors will achieve a incredible array of sounds.the pick up them selves are not hot enough to really overdrive a old style tube amp.
 i own mando bird 4-string and a fender 5-string(both listed in classifieds) 
a 66 fender mando caster
a steve ryder 5-string (1 single coil 1 humbucker)
i made a 4-string with two steve ryder humbuckers on it (pic as avatar)
barcus berry magnetic pick up on gibson F-9

the two instruments with the steve ryder pick ups will over drive my gibson goldtone amp  (8-tubes/ 2- 15 in speakers) easily 
the others don't. the barcus berry does but the acoustic mando feeds back easy

so yes you can get many different blues and rock or mod synthesizer stuff out of the bird with a good effects processor. my favorite is the boss GT-10. 
but a clean patch to the amp may need max volume to over drive
hope i have not confused you more

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## TonyEarth

wow... thank you, you are very helpful!... and yes, i am just slightly confused, but thats just because i'm not very good with technology or names of amps and stuff, but i understand you in general. Thanks  :Smile:

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## TonyEarth

oh and by the way, are there any cheaper but still "good" (i know this is very unspecific) effects processors you would recommend?

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## rico mando

well if you just want blues then a single pedal might give you better quality for less money.but there are lots of cheap stuff like digitech  rp-50  and others. there is probably some good used stuff out there that people might sell cheap or just give you. there has been lots of upgrades every year for the past 15 years so some people are sitting on out dated but decent stuff. if you can get to a music store they might have lots of stuff you can try. there is some good cheap stuff but not quite stage quality out there now. i have a roland micro cube amp that runs on power or batteries that comes with a lot of effects on board. you can patch it to another amp for gigs

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## Soundfarmer Pete

Effects wise, another fun route is using your computer. I often fool around with Amplitube or my Line6 Guitar Port.
If using a laptop for gigs though, it`s a good idea to delete the "bing bong bung bing" noise when Windows starts up (just in case you`ve already plugged the `pooter into the PA :-)

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## rico mando

a friend of mine swears by using his lap top.if you have the computer skill i think you will love it. you can totally use it on stage but you have to have it set right to avoid unwanted sounds. should be as good as anything you can buy.

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## TonyEarth

well, the only thing i have on my laptop is garageband, with which you can plug in your computer and it has a few effects, but i'm not sure how good it is. with live recorded instruments that aren't plugged in, effects aren't very good. probably the best thing to do for me was what rico suggested about going to a music store and trying out different stuff. another question... do amps with built in effects sound the same as an amp connected to an effects processor?

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## rico mando

far to many variables for a strait answer to your question.a cheap amp is a cheap amp and cheap effects are cheap effects. should be similiar if you have the same quality gear separate or as one unite . but a nice quality tube amp will sound better than a cheap one but good effects in a really cheap amp will still sound cheap. you get what you pay for there is some inexpensive stuff that will get you started then you can upgrade if it becomes your thing

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## Daniel Nestlerode

I love the versatility of software amp simulation, but the purist in me hates the fact that when you plug your mando into a MIDI interface you're turning an electric signal into binary code.  It is a removal of the source from the output.

What I mean is, if I can manipulate the software with an electric mandolin attached to a MIDI converter, then I can manipulate the software with a computer keyboard too.  Seems to me that the mandolin becomes merely a convenient input device rather than the reason you play in the first place.

I know, I know.  I think too much!  

Daniel

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## rico mando

your absolutely right daniel but i'm afraid you probably just confused the heck out poor tony :Disbelief:

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## TonyEarth

well... man you do understand me.. haha. but i understand the general message behind all the confusing terms

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## Dave Greenspoon

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Cafe member and builder Andrew Jerman.  You can order a basic electric build from a great person and builder.  NFI, just the happy steward of #11. Here's the url to Andrew's site:

http://www.crossroadswood.com/index.html

Good luck on your search!

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## Daniel Nestlerode

Tony what I mean is...
When you plug the mando into a computer, it does not carry the electric signal produced by the action of the strings over the pickup.  It turns that signal into 1's and 0's, completely removing the real physical connection between the mandolin and the sound coming out of the computer.

I prefer that real, direct relationship between an instrument and amplifier.  Natural overdrive over programmed overdrive.  Though I do use a pedal-type effects for overdrive, flange, and chorus when necessary.  :Wink: 

Daniel

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## mandroid

add Steve Ryder, offers E mandos with a pickup for each string to use polyphonic synth's such as Roland's. 
GI 20 is a pitch to Midi Converter.

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## Flattpicker

I think that once you go from playing acoustically to electrically you are taking a larger step than going from analog electric to digital electric.  OTOH, I am used to playing electric guitar and I accept it as valid, and I share your distrust if not disdain for the digital realm.  I think it depends on the individual effect, the manufacturer, etc.

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## TonyEarth

> Tony what I mean is...
> When you plug the mando into a computer, it does not carry the electric signal produced by the action of the strings over the pickup. It turns that signal into 1's and 0's, completely removing the real physical connection between the mandolin and the sound coming out of the computer.


Oh, i see what you mean now, daniel. i think i kinda agree with you. 

before getting a mandolin and posting on here, i never would have known that what there was such a variety of instruments, or different ways to play it. guess it wasn't as simple as i thought. i think i'm pretty sure that for now, maybe next christmas or so, ill get an electric mandolin. i say christmas because i think by then i can be sure i'll have enough money to spare, and to have decided on an instrument, amplifier, etc. the range is so big its hard for me to choose. there are also very few videos or recordings of electric mandolins being tested or played in different ways, styles, with different effects. i guess i'll depend on luck!

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## TonyEarth

Well, i know this is an old thread, but i just wanted to ask something. i saw that almuse also makes mandolins, and some of them look pretty cool. do you have to call or send an email to buy one? or is there some website or store that sells them? still havent gotten an electric mando btw. im trying to get the most info i can on a mandolin for an intermediate.

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## Jim MacDaniel

I think he sells them direct, but I see no purchase option on his web site. But he provides an email link and his phone number, so you might want to drop him a note or give him a call.

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## mrmando

Almuse is in the UK, so unless you want to fly over there, you are pretty much limited to phone and email. 

But that's not unusual. If you want something better than the cookie-cutter Mandobird or Kentucky or Eastwood at your local Guitars-R-Us, and you don't happen to live down the street from someone like Andrew Jerman or Kevin Schwab or J.L. Smith, you are pretty much stuck with phone and email.

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## mrmando

Free Homer Simpson!

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## thistle3585

Believe it or not, but this is where filling out your cafe profile really pays off.  I have sent out mandolins purely on an inspection basis, no money down, to cafe members that I "know" through the cafe only.  Last year, I had a inquiry about an instrument and noticed the members location in his profile and it worked as such that I was going to be in the same area for a convention.  We ended up meeting at the convention where he was able to play the instrument.  He has since bought two instruments from me.  There are lots of members on this site that I would send an instrument out to for a test drive.

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