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I find they both help the other to a point. But time on each is the important part.

I like short(er) scale octaves for melodic work. For chords, barre chords are your friend.

Definitely will...

I've gone through a lot of BC picks (my wallet can testify). The CT-55 is the best for me. Funny thing was I tried it last, all my other BC's sit on the shelf now. I already loved triangles, so it...

I take them to the UPS store and they do the boxing for me (this is the lazy man's approach), surprisingly the boxing is a lot less than the shipping.

This is only for instruments that are in a...

I can 'chop' barre chords on an OM, and I do it on my tenor a lot. I don't really try to reach the real chop chords.
It mostly sounds like a muted guitar, but there is a lot of variety of sounds...

I think in patterns mostly, but I always know what note I am playing.

I am developing some ease in moving around and switching patterns, but feel like I need to learn more. I forgot about the...

I still got a strap on mine - the kind with a shoestring at the end. The end of the fingerboard is enough of an edge for the shoestring to work ok.

I own a bunch of Ultex myself, use them to brighten certain guitars because they are a bright pick. On guitars they do sound different for different thicknesses (the regular point, not the sharps). ...

Irish banjo is GDAE like an octave mandolin yes?

How about Daddario EJ63i to start with?

They are made for a 4-string GDAE tuned 22-23" scale length Irish tenor banjo, seems like a match there....

Here is what I would have said if you didn't already find the answer :-)

From what I can tell it has a 23" scale (modern banjos are commonly 26.25" scale), so you could use octave or mandola...

I would start with the graphic equalizer, try them all and see how they affect the sound, once you get some experience it gets easier to dial in the sound you want, it's a form of ear training...

When I was shopping archtop ovals, I tried the new hybrids and the old traditional tubby sounding ones and went with the traditional sound. Tubby is the common phrase, but I would also use the terms...

I don't mind the speed, but I still have trouble keeping up in a jam.

My very first BG jam was kinda funny, I couldn't play 16ths at a sustained 90bpm back then, which was the defacto tempo at...

Never learned it before, now that I have a tenor, it seems like a thing to do. I feel like I should have a Martin though. :-)

This latest craze is inspired by my niece singing along to "Dust in...

Congrats! Enjoy.

Awesome! Welcome to the club! I recut nuts on several of my instruments to narrow the courses and give more space between them. It can take a frustrating instrument and turn it into a dream.
...

OK you made me do some work to get an mp3 posted. :-)

I had a Schertler resocoil pickup installed, which has worked well for me with mandolins, but for an OM it is surprisingly awful, I hadn't...

18 month wait, worth every minute.

This is the first truly irreplaceable instrument I have owned, not priceless, but priceless to me.

It is an 18" scale OM, it's basically his 18" flattop...

I have both 305 (and 604 which is a blinged up 304), and the 604 is my main player due to the music styles I prefer (classical and gospel).
Your description of the 305 sounds just like I would...

Interesting thread. Only contribution I can make is I like a wound A (in GDAE) on a tenor, it sounds a lot better to me than a PS A when strumming chords.

Means I have to buy custom strings...

Fantastic! I played a Pava oval hole once, blond satin, I remember it as the one I should have bought but didn't.

Let me suggest a completely different route, and the one I actually use when I need to bang out a quick recording with no vocals.

For reference I am an amateur sound engineer, own a 2i2, multiple...

Is this where we tell all the Eastman lovers that they have tiny frets and they will play a lot easier if you refret them? Eastman OEM size is 53x31, a medieval torture device for unsuspecting...

Starting this as a companion thread to the "why mandolin" thread.

I started mando as an easier guitar with a unique voice, but over the years have had many unexpected and pleasant surprises about...

Over a year ago I commissioned a custom Davy Stuart build, it's larger bodied version of his 18" scale flat-top mandola, intended to be strung as a 4-stringer. Basically a super-short-scale tenor...

For jam sessions there is software that delays things by a fixed number of measures. The assumption is the measures repeat, like a blues progression, so you jam over what everybody else played 8 (or...