Excellent...very well done.
Excellent...very well done.
I can only play half as much as I want, because I only play half as much as I would like.
I saw an as new Eastman MDA-815 sitting on a wall at GC. I had never tried playing a mandola, but knew I could take it back if we didn't bond. I didn't take it back. After two years it has become a useful member of my axe arsenal, sharing equal time with my old Gibson A. I have found the dola to be more useful than an octave because it fits my hand and I can actually play like I want. It offers more sustain than the mando and more projection than an octave.
I have not attempted to learn the dola thoroughly. I simply use it as a musical tool where it fits. And it is useful.
I did rid myself of my beautiful Weber Gallatin octave because I had difficulty with hand reach. In contrast, the dola feels perfectly comfortable.
You can hear me play Mandola on The Rocky Road to Dublin. (See my post.) It is the first instrument played and continues throughout the video.
I purchased my Mandola years ago and struggled to play it because of the lack of an E string. I also found it awkward on many mandolin tunes in D without using a capo on the 2nd fret.
I posted on the Cafe a few months ago and asked for help. A few people suggested using the A string for the high A on the treble clef. In other words, the A string would be played for the note you normally play at the 5th fret of the high E string on a guitar or mandolin. This made a huge difference for my ability to play. I set up Musicscore to tab out tunes using this method and it is very helpful.
I bought my first mandola in the nineties, pretty soon after starting to play mandolin. I upgraded over the years from Gibson H2, Lebeda H4, Flatbush A5 style to a very nice L. Smart H5. It's a beautiful instrument with an awesome sound. But to be true, it does not get used very much. I use it on recordings where I think it fits - that's all. Play mandolin every day but mandola five times a year. What a shame.
Here are two vids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpV2kP8UFqE
https://youtu.be/iMacJNn3IOk
Ellis F5 Special Deluxe custom
Anton Krutz F5
Lawrence Smart H 5 Mandola
Gibson K 2 Mandocello
Northfield mahogany arch top Octave Mandolin
guitars, banjo, dobro, weissenborn, pedal steel, fretless bass, upright bass
Robert that Smart mandola sounds fantastic, nice playing too!
Stormy Morning Orchestra
My YouTube Channel
"Mean Old Timer, He's got grey hair, Mean Old Timer he just don't care
Got no compassion, thinks its a sin
All he does is sit around an play the Mandolin"
Hey, thank you very much. Yes, it's an awesome instrument. Lawrence Smart is a highly reguarded luthier. And I was lucky years ago to find it at Elderly at a reasonable price.
Those years seem to have passed. Lawrence has a used A-style mandola in the classifieds for $5500:
https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/156111#156111
And when I asked him a year ago about an F-style mandola, the figure I heard was $12K.
1924 Gibson A Snakehead
2005 National RM-1
2007 Hester A5
2009 Passernig A5
2015 Black A2-z
2010 Black GBOM
2017 Poe Scout
2014 Smart F-Style Mandola
2018 Vessel TM5
2019 Hogan F5
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