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Thread: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

  1. #26
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    Quote Originally Posted by chuck3 View Post
    Trinity? No love for the mandola?
    Well, I did try one, but it was an oddball: a Breedlove "Radim Zenkl" model. Same body and neck as their usual style but designed for fingerstyle playing with 4 strings, wider spacing near the bridge, and a humbucker pickup mounted at the end of the fingerboard. I was coming from the fingerstyle guitar world, and thought it would be fun to experiment with.

    But again, working backwards from the music, the Irish and Scottish tunes I was playing didn't fit the tuning. At least for playing with others. So at first I capo'd it at the second fret to get DAEB, where the lower three strings are the same as a fiddle or mandolin but an octave down, with a nice handy B on top for fiddle tunes. That worked, so I finally just used different gauge strings and kept it in DAEB tuning without a capo. But I missed the G string on the bottom I had on mandolin. It was kind of a bastardized octave mandolin, and since I already had a nice octave mandolin, I decided it just wasn't worth the effort. The fingerstyle approach didn't grab me either, because I missed having enough low strings for bass notes with my thumb, like I do on guitar.

    A little off topic there from what the OP is interested in, but that's my sob story about mandola.

  2. #27

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    F-path is smart: a good way to limit the mess is not get into CGDA...because then you'll want a tenor guitar, then a jazz banjo, then a viola, then...what the heck, a cello!

    I'd say that mandola caused (me) the most damage, in all. ... *Oh yes, as I now recall it was my 9-str (5-course) 'dola that was the main culprit - its bottom string being an octave lower, like cello, oud...
    Last edited by catmandu2; Jun-18-2019 at 10:45pm.

  3. #28

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    This website spreads MAS, so if you have any doubts whether you will get it, keep coming back. :-)

    I for one just went through a bought of electric MAS, I now own an e-mando, e-mandola, and e-OM is on order.

    I don't like long-scale instruments, the bigger the scale the slower and more painfully I play. I have to switch to one-finger-per-fret (like guitar players) at around 20" scale for 1st position. The OM is an experiment to restring an 18" scale mandola as an OM. I know I can play all over an 18" scale since I have the mandola already and really like it.

    My next MAS thing is I am thinking about commissioning a custom ~18" scale GBOM, not sure anyone is willing to build that though.
    Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
    Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
    Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
    DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
    Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.

  4. #29

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    Quote Originally Posted by kurth83 View Post
    My next MAS thing is I am thinking about commissioning a custom ~18" scale GBOM, not sure anyone is willing to build that though.
    I'm on the look-out for papoose 12-stringers - something like this (18.5" SL): https://www.zzounds.com/item--VEIAG1...SABEgKraPD_BwE (NFI)

    I've seen some nice CF ones too - perfect "take it everywhere; play everything" instrument.

  5. #30

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    my mandcello experiment a fina seven string taiwanese guitar. jumbo, converted to a five course mandocello.Click image for larger version. 

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    it came out amazingly well. my lutheir had the small 12 string machine heads from the old takimine 12 strings. the head stock was longer than normal and the fingerboad wider,all laminate but very good sounding. good action. a fun project.

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  7. #31

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    I've been a 12-string (gtr) player since age 11 when I got my first steel string acoustic. Still, no acoustic makes a bigger noise from leadbelly to led zeppelin.. Alas my hands can't cope with a wide fingerboard these days, so I assuage that with a big-bodied 10-str cittern (i can still rock Kashmir ). Vis-a-vis the thread, I find this one to be more versatile than a 4-course cbom/cello for composing, fingerstyle, solo arrangements...in addition to flatpicking.

    If playing in an ensemble perhaps the std m'cello is more suitable.. But I'm addicted to a 12-str!

  8. #32
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    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    F-path is smart: a good way to limit the mess is not get into CGDA...because then you'll want a tenor guitar, then a jazz banjo, then a viola, then...what the heck, a cello!
    Well, at least so far I've managed to avoid the ones without frets.

  9. #33

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    I hope Hermann gets an instrument. Or maybe a play on one..

  10. #34

    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    Quote Originally Posted by catmandu2 View Post
    I hope Hermann gets an instrument. Or maybe a play on one..
    I was at GearFest last week and didn't come across one. I have played a few in the past few years but at this point, I think I'll hold out for a Pango F or sell some guitars and get something from the Weber catalog. Folkway has an '15 K-1 I have yet to try out so maybe I'll make my way there for some picking. Yesterday I came across a great video of a young guy playing some Bach on one of the Weber F's...great sounding 'cello

    Thanks all for your input on the subject.

  11. #35
    MandolaViola bratsche's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    I succumbed to mandola acquisition syndrome and got 6 of them, still have 5. I've often imagined playing one that was an octave lower, and wished I had something in the cello range, but a Mandocello was simply out of the question considering my small hands. I had a craving for an octave mandolin for a long time after that, and even did a conversion of a Baby Taylor guitar, but its scale is still too long for me to play a lot of things comfortably. Ironic, as the first mando-family instrument I ever owned was a 20" scale Johnson octave which I re-homed soon thereafter, when I discovered mandolas.

    Then several years ago, I acquired a baritone ukulele, which of course I strung for GDAE tuning. I love playing it, and despite the 20" scale, I can play it as easily as a mandola. Then on the Ukulele Underground forum, I chanced to read a thread by Ondrej, who I believe posts on MC as well, in which he demonstrated a "Ukecello" - a baritone uke he successfully converted to cello tuning using classical guitar strings. That stuck in the back of my brain for a couple years, and to make a long story shorter, rather than simply doing what he did, I have just commissioned a "Cello-Mando-Uke" hybrid for my very own... a nylon 5 stringer, tuned CGDAE with the scale around that of a baritone ukulele, but on a larger, mando-shaped body. I can hardly wait!

    bratsche
    "There are two refuges from the miseries of life: music and cats." - Albert Schweitzer

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  12. #36
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    Default Re: Mando Acquisition Syndrome and the Mandocello

    Too cool! Can't wait to see the video...

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