I've been teaching ukulele for several years -- intro and occasionally intermediate -- for a local town rec department. Never have a problem getting a half-dozen or more students for a six-lesson...
I've been teaching ukulele for several years -- intro and occasionally intermediate -- for a local town rec department. Never have a problem getting a half-dozen or more students for a six-lesson...
Was it a D-25? I loved Guild D-25's!
Anyway, great story, and evidence of a generous spirit -- yours and hers -- and the admirable impulse to "pay it forward."
"New to mandolin" may = new, or nearly new, strings. Almost all musical instrument strings with which I'm familiar take a while to "settle in." and during the "settling" period require frequent...
If you want bigger tips, play someplace where the clientele is drinking.
Nah, don't be thoughtful. If you post frequently and relentlessly, you increase the chances that one or more of your posts will be insightful and garner bunches of "Thanks" (shotgun vs. rifle...
"Swelled up" from what –– the extra humidity in Arizona? Generally if an instrument dries out (which I assume would be the humidity difference between CT and AZ), it shrinks, rather than swells. ...
Here's a recent Fretboard Journal article on a turn-of-the-20th-century scrolled mandolin built by Orville Gibson. I've seen nothing to disprove the generally-held position that he introduced the...
The ball swivel on Snarks is a definite weak point. Usually it's one segment of the collar that fits around the ball, that busts off.
I've glued a couple of the joints, in the...
My two faithful Strad-O-Lins, which have accompanied me to more musical events than any of my others. Jammed, performed, recorded, and just sat alone and "woodshedded" with first one, than the newer...
Loretta Lynn was a grandmother at age 29; she came from an incredibly difficult background of poverty, teen motherhood, and gender discrimination. Her talent and her determination -- plus relative...
Problem I run into is that mandolins come in such a variety of shapes. I'll be playing an F-model or a newer "pancake," and someone will ask what it is, and when I say "mandolin," the person says,...
Mandola is a wonderful addition to any mandolinist's toolbox. I found the difference in scale lengths is not so large to make an entirely different fingering strategy necessary -- contrast with...
As a general rule, I could agree with that. But, when you get into serious collecting (or accumulating, or hoarding, or whatever ya wanna call it), not quite as true. Over the past few years, I've...
I have a tenor lute with a "Master Model" label. Perhaps the "MM" got spread around more than a strict quality hierarchy would be expected to.
Harder to sell an instrument with an unfamiliar label, well-designed and made though it may be. I think Jeff M makes a good point that instruments with unusual designs and/or materials may put...
The reason stringed instruments (generally) come with adjustable tuners, is that tuning needs adjustment, more or less frequently. Temperature and humidity changes affect string pitches; newer...
Bad news is that someone's apparently glued the bridge in place. Ain't supposed to happen; mandolins generally have "floating" bridges held on by string tension.
Of course, I'm extrapolating from...
Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but overall I think that most instruments sound the best when they're strung and tuned the way they were designed. Doesn't mean one can't try other stringings and...
Yeah, Spell-Check's been my worst enema for quite a while. How many times must one change "manual" to "mandola?"
Got pics or other evidence of that? If not, I call "urban legend."
My 2010 Honda Element gets me anywhere I want to go, and carries all kinda equipment besides. To me, a car's a tool -- so is a...
From what I can see, it looks pretty much like the Asian-made, brass-bodied resonator mandolins that have been sold for years under names such as Johnson, Republic, et. al. I played a few of them...
Try the Civil War version:
"Let us pause our game of poker, take our tin cups in our hand,
While we all stand around the cook-tent door --
Where dried mummies of hard crackers are handed to each...
Lots of vintage instruction books are labeled as the "XXX Method for the Mandolin." Usually refers to the musician/teacher who had them printed.
From the catalog pic of the Style C in Longworth's Martin book, they came with "cloud" tailpiece covers, engraved. Can't make out the engraving pattern from the small pic. Reproduction "cloud"...
We have a tendency to get a bit facetious in responding to what I'm sure is a serious inquiry from someone who doesn't know a lot about mandolins, but has heard of Bill Monroe and Gibson and thinks...