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Thread: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

  1. #1
    music with whales Jim Nollman's Avatar
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    Default double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    https://reverb.com/item/6063561-doub...ndolin-mandola

    Made by Anthony Tsai, the luthier well-known on Ebay for several years for his fantastic inlays. I've only known one person whose bought one on Ebay. It was a mandola, gorgeous when my friend received it, but became unglued at a few key places within a year. He figured that the woods hadn't been properly dried, and that even if they were, the inlays were too large and complicated to survive even a tiny ebb and flow of the wood.

    That single experience has always kept me from trying my own"luck" with one of these, although this one is the most interesting, as far as I'm concerned.

    How much fun would it be to string up the Mandolin in the usual way, but string the mandola with Tomastik octave strings and play verses of the same tune in different octaves. Then again, not much fun, if the joints start separating because of all that incredible tension generated by two mando family instruments using the same body parts.

    I'm posting partly because I'd be curious to hear reports from others who have experience playing Anthony's instruments.
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  2. #2
    I may be old but I'm ugly billhay4's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    play verses of the same tune in different octaves
    This is perfectly easy to do with a 5-course mandolin; much easier than a double necked instrument.
    Bill
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  3. #3
    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    Rather tasteful and understated as Tsai instruments go.
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    Registered User Freddyfingers's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    I would be curious to hear what it sounds like.
    Its not a backwards guitar.

  5. #5
    music with whales Jim Nollman's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    What I suggest is not possible to do on a five course instrument. I'm not talking about tuning the mandola CGDA, but like an octave mandolin: in low GDAE.
    Explore some of my published music here.

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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

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  8. #7
    fishing with my mando darrylicshon's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    Nice but I would rather have a octave and regular Mandolin, but I would like to play it
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  9. #8
    Registered User CWRoyds's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    There are a lot of videos of his mandolins on YouTube.
    Personally, I think they sound awful.
    Could be that the are just badly recorded, but I get a sense from the videos that they have a very weak tone.
    There are many horror stories on the internet of these instruments basically falling apart, as the wood was too green when they were built and when they ship from the high humidity of Vietnam to anywhere else they shrink up and crack.

    Here are some videos of other models being played.
    I suggest one is better off with ANY Other mandolin.
    These are just not practical player instruments.

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  10. #9
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    The ornate Vietnam-made instruments that pop up frequently on eBay, by Tsai, inlaidartist, perhaps others, often have clever or unusual designs. Reports filtering back to the Cafe, however, mention unseasoned woods, detachable inlays, flimsy metal parts, and other hazards. Plus side, they're almost invariably solid woods. Minus side, they're apparently made, like the razor in the old poem, not to shave, but to sell. Attractive eye candy, and comparatively low prices, but risky.

    Double-neck acoustic instruments start out with two strikes against, since bracing a top heavily enough to accommodate that many strings, is likely to fatally reduce its responsiveness. Still, harp-guitars were made for many years, with a standard guitar neck plus an array of bass strings. I think the discussion above, that a ten-string instrument covering mandolin and mandola range would be a lot more acoustically satisfactory, makes a lot of sense.
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  11. #10
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    How do you access the screws of the inside tuner sets with a screwdriver?
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  12. #11
    Registered User zedmando's Avatar
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    Default Re: double mandolin/mandola on Reverb

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    How do you access the screws of the inside tuner sets with a screwdriver?
    There are screwdrivers that have angels in them--both fixed & adjustable...
    so it would be doable.
    Although he may have placed the tuners on before he attached the necks.
    Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?

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