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Amanda, I fear this is a week late to catch the latest program, but any northern Vermonter should be aware of these classes run by Hilari and Benedict. They certainly helped to bring me in to...

Happy to announce that my OM is complete. Here's the builder himself with a video he created a week before sending it across the pond -- certainly putting the instrument to better advantage than I...

Consider: on-line advertising, credit cards, ordering on-line or by phone, free shipping one-way; and if you live some distance from the retailer, the urgency to try an instrument before it gets...

This is terrific, I'll have to try it out on mandolin and mandola.

It was my understanding that Paddy Fahey declined to name any of his numerous tunes anything more elaborate than "Paddy Fahey's"....

Well, I'm gobsmacked!

For years I thought all I needed to know was EJ-74 for any of my mandolins, old or new: Rigels, Lyon & Healy, vintage Gibsons, custom Campanella, some I won't recall until...

I was there Thursday as well. My mission was strictly mandolas, and with some time to spare (while they re-strung the Collings MTV-2) I purposely did not sample the mandolins since I hardly deserve...

Hey, Darwin, glad to see this sale came through. In another thread last year it was just a gleam in your eye! -- Paul

Ireland's on my bucket list, Jill, so thanks for providing my itinerary! -- Paul

To nobody's surprise (Mary in Maine?) the last of my resolve vanished and I placed my order today. Credit a great deal of pull from Edinburgh, and a little push from Texas; both of which contributed...

I always considered the manager's point of view: if piped-in muzak was preferable to what he was hearing from us, we were sure to be toast. When I was in an "open" session where friends of friends...

I know what you mean when you say to play in D on the mandola, play as if you were playing in A on the mandolin . . . but I very seldom play in A (major) on the mandolin, so I never found it helpful...

Nope. Paul is sitting tight for a new octave mandolin from Macdara O Faolain, hopefully to be completed before year-end.

But it's nice to find myself considered a "usual suspect"! -- Paul

In analyzing my own MAS I have come up with a "tractor-beam" theory of incremental helplessness. This all began in the 80's when the late great Gordon Stone let me try his Stelling Bellflower: "oh,...

I have a 1963 Gibson TG-50 tuned CGDA with 23-inch scale, using D'Addario EJ66 strings 10-14-22-32. Never had any trouble with string breakage. -- Paul

I should add: yes, it's heavier than any of my other banjos though the neck is not at all chunky. The mass is all in the pot, and there's no wasted energy to support the neck while playing. -- Paul

I have a 17-fret Sierra which I like very much, tuned CGDA; I have a 19-fret Gibson TB3 tuned GDAE, which I'm more likely to reach for for my usual Celtic melodies. I use my CGDA instruments to play...

Bb-D-A-F . . . I'd say Bbmaj7.

By dropping the root (B), you have left a diminished chord, nominally Cdim. So in general a diminished chord in the name of the tone one-half step up from the root your progression originally calls...

I am indebted to Aidan Crossey's "A spectacular find" thread in the "Celtic, etc." forum, and inputs from John Kelly and Jill McAuley among others, for bringing Macdara O Faolain to my attention. ...

Long ago as a middle-aged wise-guy, I realized that since all number combinations were equally probable, the greatest controllable factor must be avoiding the horror of having to split the pot. ...

. . . and to speak to some of the rest of your questions: correct, the two instruments playing together in their respective D and G settings wouldn't work, since they'd always be a fifth apart. ...

Deering makes both 17- and 19-fret tenor banjos. I was lucky to snap up a used one last year, a 17-fret one which spent a terrific New Hampshire spring afternoon with me today. -- Paul

ollaimh, that is a Campanella "Due" made by Joe Cleary in Burlington VT. As it happens I have one of his F-models that I wouldn't trade for anything else I've played.

Thanks, all. There's plenty to chew on here, and I appreciate your help. -- Paul

If there are too few wraps around the post, the string will not have wound below the hole in the post. Since the cross-section of the post here is not round, the result of turning the tuning knob...