This story reminds me of my dear friend Virgil who passed away from cancer this past year. In his dying days he was divesting all of his personal possessions. I had built a couple instruments for him...
Type: Posts; User: Rob Roy
This story reminds me of my dear friend Virgil who passed away from cancer this past year. In his dying days he was divesting all of his personal possessions. I had built a couple instruments for him...
I would say if you're dealing with unwanted spikes while playing, then a compressor is called for. I use one for that purpose on my tele when playing in the praise band. Definitely leave the sustain...
(there have been several threads about this already) I've made and installed my own for all three of my mandolins and they're very similar in size and style to the stringworks ones. They function as...
What tasteful, clean picking. I'm sure if I could just get an Apitius mandolin I would be that good. :crying:
Bravo Jozef! A nice eclectic mix and a very ambitious outing. Is it available for purchase yet?
+1 on the XS strings, they hold their tone for a long time. If you don't have one yet, the TC Electronics UniTune tuner is great for mandolin.
Beautiful design and execution! I would love to hear a recording of it if one is ever made. I love your bridge, very articulate work. I'm curious, the saddle looks to be a separate piece sitting in...
Good answers here already. Even though it looks fancy, to me the protection factor is more important, especially for the spruce top. It seems like the edges ended up take abuse when instruments get...
In 1980, I was working in a shop in the Kalamazoo area and was able to get a reject F4 top out of their bargain basement. Somebody had nicked the top with a bandsaw in the area that's under the...
As a Bourgeois (ME) guitar owner and builder of mandolins I was curious. I've only heard one short YT video and was wholly unimpressed. In that price range, if I was willing to buy a Chinese mando,...
I'm another fan of small diameter condenser mics when stage volume doesn't cause feed back. I've used an AT pro 37 successfully on guitar and mandolin. From two feet away you can chop without...
If you had the fingerboard radiused and new frets installed, it should play like butter now. The only real advantages of a newer ($$$$) instrument would be a slimmer neck and better tuners.
But...
The Unitune is more accurate. When I tune each string of a pair independently, they come out in tune with each other. The Unitune is WAY faster, it nails the pitch instantly. They are indispensable...
Great tone on that Northfield! Then I noticed she's playing in the bathroom (I think) which is something I like to do to really hear what's going on with the instrument.
As John said, the term "varnish" is used to describe lots of different formulas these days. If referring to traditional oil based varnish, then yes, it doesn't cure quite as hard and will pick up...
On the five mandos I built I stuck with the traditional plastic binding and haven't tried wood, but it occurs to me that the same scraping technique used with plastic may be workable with wood. I...
D'Addario XS are gentle on the the fingers with a slick feel and they do last a long time (coated strings). A second vote for Nickel Bronze, a gentler tone and feel and last about 50% longer than PB...
I prefer an abbreviated finger rest, mounted about 1/8" below fretboard level and angle down at 15º. But it's just for registering my hand height, my right hand isn't wild enough that I need...
Awesome! and you say this is your backup mandolin? You should have trouble if you're stuck using it in an ensemble situation.
I just use the cheap plastic ones but narrow the button pocket by cutting it on the bandsaw and reglueing so it's just wide enough to accommodate mando tuner buttons. This way the winder doesn't hit...
Dan,
Regular 515s show up from time to time in the classifieds for <$1000. If you're patient a 515v may come along. https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/search[/URL]
"Good tone"- they are a loud,...
Well, picks are definitely not the issue then. TAD60 and CT55 are my go to picks. One other possibility is bridge fitment. If it's not fitted really well to the top, the tone will be thinner. If a...
Very nice! Having done this process myself, I'm guessing he only leveled the existing lacquer enough to get a good base for dying and new lacquer (as opposed to stripping it all the way down to the...
I concur with TD. I found the 11.5 E to put a little more body in that string on one of my mandos that is slightly weaker on the E.
Nickel Bronze strings are a bit mellower sound than PB, also...
Hi Dan, Your original post shows that you're aware of what techniques are generally helpful to producing good tone. You mention that you're a beginner but don't say how long you've been at it. Some...