I don't understand the holes.

[mado-line]

I'm having a bit of trouble working out what I need.

At the moment I am still playing (happily) my vintage Carmencita flat back mando with an O sound hole. I like the sound very much. I play celtic stuff. Now we've just played a concert and for the mando bits I had to make do with a microphone hovering near me, which I don't like. So I want to buy an electric one too (just for fun really and occasional concerts) But nearly all the electro-acoustics have F holes. Now I know the arguments for O and F holes for acoustic instruments but does it still hold true for electrified ones? Since the sound is captured differently and it comes out of the amp rather than the holes.

Basically can I still get my nice mellow celtic sound with an F holed blues grass looking instrument?

I can't try them out before I buy, there are no mandolins anywhere near me.
Cheers

[keithb]

If you like your current mandolin, why not have a pickup fitted, or use a clip-on mic?

[mado-line]

I don't want to mess with the mando that I've got and I've already got an electric violin that I adore but I use it differently to the accoustic violin. I expect that I will do the same with the mandolin. I also want to use my effects pedal with it (just for fun) and I want to avoid the extra sounds that the clip_on would pick up. And I'm allowed to get an electric ......

[Tobin]

I've only owned one acoustic-electric mandolin (an F5 style), so I won't proclaim to be an expert here. But if you're going to use effects pedals on a mandolin with a piezo pickup, I really don't think the sound holes are going to matter.

[almeriastrings]

Worth noting many guitar FX pedals are not designed to work correctly with piezo transducers (typical input impedance is far too low, and they easily clip at the voltage peaks piezo's generate - they're intended for use with magnetic pickups). The best way to use them is via a suitable buffer preamp that also features an FX loop.

[Flame Maple]

Would a Fishman Loudbox mini acoustic amp be ok to use with effects pedals.

[mado-line]

I don't want to only use the effects pedal - I like to flip it on and off on the violin and intended doing the same with the mando. My electric violin works really well with the effects pedal but it does have a preamp though. I forgot that an electro-acoustic wouldn't have a pre-amp.....

[allenhopkins]

Effect of the differing soundholes, f vs. oval, depends on what kind of "pickup" you're using on your so called "electro-acoustic." Some of these are just acoustic mandolins with magnetic pickups inserted into their tops. For this type, the soundhole configuration is pretty much irrelevant; the plugged-in signal comes from strings vibrating over the pickups, and the body of the instrument could be solid wood, with no soundholes, and it would make no, or little, difference.

If your amplified mandolin has a piezo-electric pickup, the configuration of the top may be a bit more relevant, depending on how the piezo is mounted. If it's in the bridge, then again it's only the vibration of the bridge that's amplified, not the vibration of the top. If it's mounted under the top, then the top's vibration creates the signal, and the fact that the size and shape of the soundhole(s) affect the way the top vibrates, means that there'd be some effect on what the piezo is sensing.

Concur that if you have an acoustic-electric with a piezo pickup, you'll want a pre-amp if you're planning to use effects pedals. In fact, most of the acoustic-electric players on the Cafe recommend pre-amps for mandolins with piezo pickups.

[Tobin]

Hmm, so it sounds like it really depends on what mandolin you're going with. Mine is an acoustic-electric Michael Kelly FS-E with a piezo in the bridge saddle and a Fishman preamp on board (it takes a 9V battery).

It sounds completely different when plugged in as opposed to played acoustically. I virtually never plug it in, because it doesn't sound very much like what I want a mandolin to sound like any more. If I had to play plugged in, I'd rather just use a clip-on mic or something. But if you're wanting to use your pedal, this configuration would probably work for you.

[mado-line]

So is there can be little difference in the sound between the hollow electro-acoustic mandolins and the solid pure electric ones?

Oh duh just realised that I can play the e-a unplugged, but can't do that with a solid (it's late sorry)

[sblock]

Unless you're using something like a high-quality, instrument-mounted microphone (e.g., DPA4099) to pick up the acoustic sounds of a mandolin with high fidelity, then any hollow-bodied, electrified mandolin with a pickup (piezo or magnetic) will always sound pretty much like an electrified mandolin, irrespective of whether it has a single oval hole or two f-holes. The comparatively small differences in timbre (sound quality) between oval and ff holes will be completely DWARFED by the much larger differences associated with your transducer type and location, amp settings, equalizer settings, effects, PA, speakers, and so on. These are what really affect the sound, and how "natural" it will sound to the audience.

[almeriastrings]

Would a Fishman Loudbox mini acoustic amp be ok to use with effects pedals.

It is not ideal, as that one does not feature an FX loop. The Loudbox Artist does.

There are 'workarounds' though. The simplest is to use a separate preamp that does include an FX loop then instead of going into the 'passive' input of an acoustic amp, you'd go into the 'active' jack.

In Europe, probably the best value I know of right now is this Studiospares Preamp/DI box. It works very well and has a versatile set of inputs/outputs. Quite a few 'high end' units offer similar feature sets, but at correspondingly higher prices.

[Charles E.]

This just showed up in the classifieds........

http://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/98379#98379 NFI

Also there is a company out of Canada, Godin I think , that makes an oval holed acoustic - electric mandolin at a lower price point.

Good luck with your search.

[Steve Ostrander]

The Godin A8 (if that's the model you are referring to) does not have an oval hole, but it is an A/E mandolin with bridge piezo pickups. They sound OK plugged in but only so-so unplugged and no volume to speak of.

[allenhopkins]

So is there can be little difference in the sound between the hollow electro-acoustic mandolins and the solid pure electric ones?...

Solid-body mandolins almost invariably have magnetic pickups; they tend to sound like small, treble electric guitars. "Hollow" ones may have magnetic pickups, like this Ibanez, or piezo pickups, like this Gretsch.

It's the difference in pickups that makes the most difference in sound. A magnetic pickup on a hollow-body mandolin will sound very much like a magnetic pickup on a solid-body -- not totally identical, probably, but close. A piezo pickup will sound less like an electric guitar, and, depending on what type and where located, may be somewhat influenced by oval-hole vs. f-hole construction.

It's not all that common to find commercially-made oval-hole acoustic-electric mandolins, though Gretsch makes one. Most oval-hole mandolins I've seen "plugged in" have had after-market piezo pickups installed.

[mado-line]

Thank you all. That helps alot. I think that pretty much all of the ones I was looking at had magnetic pickups, I suppose if I want the accoustic celtic sound plugged in I'll need a piezo pick up but then I can't use the effects pedal. Gah.

[pheffernan]

I suppose if I want the accoustic celtic sound plugged in I'll need a piezo pick up but then I can't use the effects pedal. Gah.

And thus was born MAS. You clearly need one of each!

[pops1]

I use a K&K with a preamp and actually get a very good sound that, while not the same as my acoustic sound, it is very close and sounds a lot like my mandolin sounds. Traits that are to my mandolin over other mandolins I hear thru the pickup. It depends a lot on setup and how you dial in the sound. I have also not just glued the K&K in, but glued in the tape, glued in a second piece of tape, then glued the pickup to that. It is a nice warm sound more like using the putty to stick it on, but permanent and out of the way. A couple years of experimenting with lots of pickups and locations led me here and for me I couldn't ask for a better setup when I need to plug in. You might experience more feedback with an oval hole mandolin because of the sustain on an oval hole, but that would depend on the volume you play at. Lower volumes will be no problem, but I think an ff hole mandolin would not feedback as easily, but still give you that acoustic sound. I played a square dance last night plugged in and had a very nice acoustic sound.

[Mandobart]

...I suppose if I want the accoustic celtic sound plugged in I'll need a piezo pick up but then I can't use the effects pedal. Gah.

Not true. You just need a preamp prior to the effects, or use an acoustic amp with an effects loop. I use different effects on my piezo equipped instruments. I fitted all my AE's with twin head piezo's (JJB). My F4 mandolin, F4 OM, A4 mandola and F4 mandocello all have oval holes. When playing thru my Carvin AG300 (which has an effects loop as well as on board reverb and chorus) they sound pretty much like they do unplugged, just louder.

[Charles E.]

Well it looks like Eastman makes an oval hole acoustic-electric in the 600 series.......

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Eastman-MD60...cAAOSw~OVW1Kg4