Another Returnee - Long and Boring Story

  1. Michael Nelson
    Michael Nelson
    Hello Folks

    I'm 60 years old, live in San Francisco, and have been playing various different musical instruments since I was 13. My first instrument was a Gretsch single cutaway electric guitar with a single pickup... had a cream colored top and copper back and sides, and flatwound strings. That was the first of many, many instruments.

    Over the years I have played acoustic guitar, electric guitar, pedal steel guitar, electric bass, standup / acoustic bass, banjo, dobro, fiddle, and last but not least, mandolin. I gave mandolin its first try back in 2001 when I had a great job and plenty of money. Back then I started with a Morgan Monroe MMS3 (I think) from Mickey at Folk of the Wood. Played that for a few months and decided I loved mandolin but wasn't that crazy about that instrument, so I bought a custom Weber Bitterroot from Greg Boyd. That was a wonderful instrument... cedar top, maple back & sides, Brekke bridge, radiused fingerboard.

    However, I eventually got discouraged at my slow rate of progress on the mandolin. In retrospect, I am pretty sure this had a lot to do with the fact that I was learning dobro and banjo at the same time... too little attention paid to each of them, so I didn't make much progress on any of them. I ended up selling off ALL of my instruments and didn't play anything for about 8 years.

    Recently, I got laid off, and being unemployed and not being able to find a job, had too much time on my hands. I remembered that of all those instruments, I really did enjoy mandolin a lot. Started looking around an on an impulse I used a little of my savings to buy a Rover RM-25S (solid top, but likely pressed) A-style mando from Amazon. Naturally when I received it there had been zero setup done, it was exactly as it was when it went into the box in China.

    Well, I did a bit of setup on it and put on some GHS light gauge strings, and it was pretty playable. Fortunately when I sold off my instruments I hung onto all the instructional materials I had bought back then. I have Jay Buckey's wonderful Virtual Band for Mandolin volumes 1 through 5 and Roland White's mandolin book & CD, so started working on that stuff. I also bought Greg Horne's Beginning Mandolin book.

    It only took me a week or so to decide I wasn't going to want to continue with that Rover RM-25S, the sound was just too puny and tinny. Did some research on Mandolin Cafe and heard lots of praise for the Rover RM-75 and for The Mandolin Store's setup and customer service. I went ahead and bought an RM-75 from them and when it arrived the setup seemed pretty good, and it sounded LOADS better than the RM-25S to my ear, it was also easier to play even with the great-sounding medium gauge D'Addario J74 string set on it.

    So, I have been playing that one and sold the RM-25S without taking too much of a loss on it. Never one to leave well enough alone though, I bought a Cumberland Acoustics bridge, and after two of the string hooks broke on the stock tailpiece I got an AXL cast brass nickle plated tailpiece for it. Spent quite a while sanding the bridge to fit, and I paid Steve Smith the $5.00 extra to have the string slots cut so I didn't have to mess with that. Got it all together and it sounds pretty terrific!

    I have been working my way through the Horne book, but it honestly doesn't appeal to me much, since it spends a lot of time on reading standard notation, which I have no desire to learn (virtually everything I want to play if it is written down is in TAB, not standard notation).

    I also got the Homespun "Instant Access" Sam Bush 2 DVD set (wayyyyy too advanced for me except for his version of "Ragtime Annie", which I can play pretty well at reduced speed), and the 2 DVD Mike Marshall set (very, very useful for beginner to intermediate, concentrates on proper technique rather than tunes).

    So I have been working on Sam Bush's "Ragtime Annie" and Jay Buckey's versions of "Gold Rush" and "Walls of Time" (which is really the Ricky Skaggs version all tabbed out). All three are probably too advanced for a beginner, but I have a problem with losing interest quickly when I have to play stuff like "Bile Dem Cabbage Down", I like more of a challenge.

    This morning I was reading the thread about Newbie Tunes and checked out that tutorial on REM's "Losing My Religion". I was never a REM fan, mostly because I had a roommate who was a REM fanatic and played their stuff on his big stereo CONSTANTLY. I never realized what a cool song Losing My Religion was until this morning. I went through that YouTube tutorial several times and I now know all the parts and am practicing it... very fun tune to play.

    Anyway, here I am, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
  2. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    It's a good story! And it's good for music to have you back. Hope you enjoy the cafe and this group!
  3. Garden Music
    Garden Music
    Welcome Michael! I've been working on "Losing My Religion" as well (definitely NOT a beginner piece, but challenging and fun to learn). That tutorial is excellent.

    Karen
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