Chop chords on electric mandolins

Hi, I am a mandolin beginner and even newer to electric ones. Tried to learn guitar a long time ago but it seems fifth-tuning somehow fits better into my brain...

Recently I bought an 8-string eletric mandolin in hope of meeting some old friends again who used to play music together. They play basically guitar and keyboard, while one now enjoying an easier life playing ukulele. It led me into thinking "well, we have no drums but how would chop chord work out?".

I am interested in knowing your comments about doing chop chords with electric mandolin. Does it sound differently to acoustic mandolin? Would 4-string/5-string work differently than 8-strings?

Thanks!

Chop chords on an 8 string electric mandolin imho, fall into the catagory of "less is better". It sounds more like percussion if you're playing somewhat muted double stops on the lower G and D stings, then moving on to tremoloed double stops in the middle regions of the neck. Outlining chord arpeggios works well. The bottom line is not too much over drive on the sound, especiall with 8 stringers where you want a distinctly mandoln (clean?) sound.

With a 4 or 5 stringer, you want to treat it like a small electric guitar. Add iin all the over drive and effects that suit your sound. Single stringers get me thinking of playing guitar with my right hand and mandolin with the left hand (Yikes!!).

Len B.
Clearwater, FL