Re: Why Mandolin?
I think the first time I ever saw mandolin be played was the Goo Goo Dolls performing on some talk show, their guitar player had a mandolin that he wore up high and a Gibson SG slung low so he could switch back and forth during the song, which I thought was pretty cool. Fast forward a few years and my sister gave me a bunch of Nickel Creek albums which led to my grandparents loaning me their old Gibson mandolin to try out. I already played violin and guitar a little so it was a pretty easy transition to start strumming chords and playing simple songs. I gave it back after a few months because it was hard to play (very old strings, very fretworn) and I thought that was just how mandolin was (I was about 14 at the time).
Fast forward to my senior year of high school, I traded a guitar amp for a cheap (also very fretworn) Fender mandolin to play at camp/church. A lot of my other friends played acoustic guitar, and it was a convenient way to add something "different" and, frankly, it was much more portable than a guitar. This scenario kept repeating itself and soon I found myself playing mandolin more often than acoustic guitar. Over time I just found myself in the position more and more often of thinking it would just be really nice to only ever play mandolin-I loved the sound, it was relatively unusual, my violin background translated nicely to the fingerboard, and its just so compact! A few upgrades later and its unequivocally my main instrument. It still brings me more joy to play than any other instrument I have ever tried, so glad I discovered it!
Summit F-200X (#133)
1919 Gibson A-2
Eastwood Mandocaster
Goldtone BZ-1000
Savannah SA-110
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