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welcome!

welcome to the mandolin and cafe! if you want specifics on what to look for in a well set up mandolin, shoot an email to rob meldrum and he'll send you his free guide to doing your own setup -- it...

Depending on the case ... extra picks, wire cutters, string winder, Oasis humidifier too dried out to use, band biz cards. i keep the tuner on the mandolin(s) and a pick in the strings. I believe one...

Sometimes the musicians are fulfilling expectations by playing at breakneck speeds. Certain songs/tunes are remembered by listeners or players as being super fast (well or badly played) and if you're...

Snow through my window
Mandolin sits on crossed knee
Which hornpipe is next?

My strad and one of my bandolims are blondes. My first mandolin (a bowlback) was a blonde -- so I guess I'm more attracted to blondes than other colors. My two next favorites are a matte brown (my...

I have to admit, when I played it, it was pretty darn silent!

Odd that nobody mentioned 'price point' for collections. you know, the best you can get for, say, under $600.

I like the idea that a collection is something you deliberately set out to do, not...

What a great story!

Showed up on Facebook posted by a fiddler friend.

Jeez. Sorry to see this

Buddy of mine lives in Buffalo and plays mandolin. he might be able to help you out if you run into trouble or just want to meet another mandolin player. He plays Irish (and rock and roll and just...

I'll second (or third) the comment that mandolin technique isn't guitar or bass technique. for one thing, your callouses are most likely in the wrong place for the mandolin. then, there's the chance...

You seem to be on the right path -- I learned the mandolin from Mel Bay (back in the dark ages when there was no tab that i recall) and the first lessons were all about where to put which finger on...

Lovely version! Thanks to both of you!

what a lovely thing! congrats!

I've never tried one, but the Silver Angels, I've heard, have a darker sound. They're beautiful instruments either way.

I started with a bowlback which was perfectly fine until i put it away for 20 years and when i finally got back to it, the neck was too bent to keep the instrument in tune. Sigh. My next was a lovely...

Lass on the Strand is another hornpipe that's loads of fun to play, lots of arpeggios. I was going to mention the difference between the bluegrass/old time hornpipe rhythm and that of ITM (or at...

in the last picture -- does the instrument also lack frets, at least up near the head? because if so, those need replaced, too, i'd think.

OK, now i have to go back and actually learn Tullycrine and Galway Bay, which I've played but not memorized.

Such a sprightly hornpipe! i can see why it caught your imagination!

I'm a huge fan of hornpipes in almost any version. I think they absolutely suit the mandolin the way other tunes suit other...

I'm sure this has been posted before, but it just showed up on a Facebook feed with a question about the "big instrument with all the strings" but I was too dazzled by the F-styles to pay much heed....

Friend of mine gave us a book of old fiddle tunes that look to be from about the 1940s or older -- lots of waltzes and translations of opera themes -- that's a lot of fun to drag out when I tire of...

pretty, pretty, pretty! really like what you've done.