Hello everyone I am currently having an Octave resonator mandolin made for me by a local Luthier. At the moment I am practising on an old tenor banjo that is practically impossible to keep in tune as it was never made to take steel strings and only has pressure pegs so I cant wait to get my new Mandolin. Richard
Interesting, a resonator OM. What musical genres do you plan to use it for? I'd love to see pics and hear sound clips. Keep us posted Richard.
I love old time and celtic and I also like bluegrass. I play 5 string banjo but old time is difficult to play scruggs style the best way I found to do it on 5 string is clawhammer but this involved constantly changing the tuning a real nuisance (well to me anyway) so I tried irish tuned tenor RESULT great tuning you never have to retune and you can play anything great. only thing that instrument is not at all acceptable for bluegrass so I thought hey a resonator octave mandolin is sort of like a cross between tenor banjo and mandolin and acceptable for both types of music. I looked around but none available they seemed to have died out so having one made is the only way.
as Steve says, it would be interesting to see the building in progress and to hear some soundclips later, Richard. Hope it is what you want and you have great fun with it.
Hi everyone I managed to find a Luthier Locally Kif Wood Of Kif Guitars http://www.kifguitars.com/index.html and here is Work in progress https://picasaweb.google.com/1141828...eat=directlink
Looks great, Richard. Resonator looks quite big so sound should be something! Keep us posted.
Will Do
That looks great, Richard. I look forward to following the build, and hearing the finished instrument! Congratulations.
Very cool Richard. Gary
I had trouble keeping my tenor banjo in tune until I took the 1:1 friction tuners off and roughed up the headstock just a little where the tapered part made contact. I also sprinkled a little bit of powdered violin rosin in there to give it some help. And I keep a screwdriver in the gig bag to tighten up the tuners from time to time....and other instruments for when it's all too much trouble. My understanding was that almost all tenor banjos were designed for steel strings, though I can't find a great source to back that up. Resonator mandolins sound great. They're so much sweeter than their banjo cousins, but still have the volume. Good luck with the OM.
HI Thanks for the post. Should have some more pics soon
Hi everyone heres the latest pics of the new instrument https://picasaweb.google.com/1141828...eat=directlink
Looking decidedly purposeful, Richard! Lovely lines to the upper bout and a fine-looking instrument all round.