Re: Mandocello compositions
Thank you for sharing, Jim! I especially like Mandocello Agitato and the Goodin 'Nuff Blues.
Re: Mandocello compositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Claudia Amslinger
Thank you for sharing, Jim! I especially like Mandocello Agitato and the Goodin 'Nuff Blues.
Thank you Claudia. When our orchestra played at Bruchsal Zupffest a few years ago, I saw almost no mandocellos--all guitars in the orchestras. What instrument do you have? My best is a 1912 Gibson K4, but for travel I have an inexpensive Thomann, I believe German made.
I'll get the sheet music to you but please contact me at my home email:
jfimhoff@msn.com
Re: Mandocello compositions
Very nice pieces, Jim. Also interesting to compare tone of the various instruments. Am I right in thinking you have your K4 strung with the D'Addario mandocello set? There is a twang to the tone that my Suzuki (with TI flatwound strings) doesn't have.
Martin
Re: Mandocello compositions
Thanks Martin; the K4 is strung with Newtone custom bronze wound, the low C at .070. I don't know that the sound quality is true to live tone, I wouldn't judge it on this recording. And I try to get a variety of sounds out of it, especially to contrast the extreme range between the open C and G and the upper frets of the D and A.
Jim
Re: Mandocello compositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jim Imhoff
Thank you Claudia. When our orchestra played at Bruchsal Zupffest a few years ago, I saw almost no mandocellos--all guitars in the orchestras. What instrument do you have? My best is a 1912 Gibson K4, but for travel I have an inexpensive Thomann, I believe German made.
I'll get the sheet music to you but please contact me at my home email:
jfimhoff@msn.com
Bruchsal was a great event. Yes, that's right, I also noticed that there were guitars in most of the orchestras, not mandocellos. So it was a great pleasure to see and listen to you with the Oregon mandolin orchestra with several - I think three (?) - mandocellos! I also remember the orchestra from Israel, who had a great mandocello player with them. They performed a piece where the mandocello had one or even the main part. Very impressive.
Gibson K4s are wonderful instruments! Mine is a 2010 Weber F-4 mandocello with oval hole, a fine instrument that I enjoy very much.
Thanks in advance for the sheet music, Jim, I will contact you at your home email.
Re: Mandocello compositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jim Imhoff
Thanks Martin; the K4 is strung with Newtone custom bronze wound, the low C at .070. I don't know that the sound quality is true to live tone, I wouldn't judge it on this recording. And I try to get a variety of sounds out of it, especially to contrast the extreme range between the open C and G and the upper frets of the D and A.
Jim
Thanks, Jim. Don't get me wrong -- I like the tone of bronze wound strings, and I have them on all my instruments except the mandocello. When I got mine, it was strung with TI strings and I was struggling to get a strong tone out of it. It all sounded rather muted and dull. So, I changed to the D'Addario mandocello set, which had a much brighter tone. However, I now couldn't control the buzz on the C and G strings. Clearly, you don't have that problem as all your notes ring out clear and true.
In the end, I went back to the TI strings and after much trial and error settled on a particular pick that gives me brightness and volume from the flatwounds -- a thick large Jim Dunlop "Stubby" triangle pick with sharp points (not rounded) in clear stiff plastic. Sounds terrible on my other instruments, but just right on the mandocello.
Martin
Re: Mandocello compositions
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Claudia Amslinger
Bruchsal was a great event. Yes, that's right, I also noticed that there were guitars in most of the orchestras, not mandocellos. So it was a great pleasure to see and listen to you with the Oregon mandolin orchestra with several - I think three (?) - mandocellos!
Glad you enjoyed the event. We were worried about traveling with the bigger instruments, so I put out a plea (here on the Cafe) and heard back from Holger Plaetz who loaned me his K2. Another player got to use Mike Marshall's Monteleone. I had bought a cheap guitar-conversion for practice which had a broken head when I opened the case in Germany. Then a string broke on Holger's K2 in our warmup session! Talk about a string of bad luck.