A mandolin beginner’s journey.
Since a young boy, I have been fascinated by mandolins, violins and other stringed instruments. Inspired by the folk music artists of the early 60’s I started on guitar and became reasonably proficient on it. I have wanted to learn the mandolin for 20 years and have purchased several - Two of them ( Washburn and TDK) were quite satisfactory but the others were junk or unusable. On occasion, when in financial straits, and since I wasn’t really using the better mandolins, I sold the good ones.
This year, once again, I wanted to try again. First I established criteria for what I wanted in the mandolin; I wanted an F-style, reputable maker& warranty, all solid wood .And one other thing; I wanted some nice flamed maple back wood I know that is a minor consideration but I grew up looking at violins my father played and even the inexpensive ones all had nice flamed back wood - I’ve never understood why they don’t seem to include a nice back wood except on higher priced mandolins. Nevertheless, those were my criteria and of course a resonable price. Well, I finally found a mandolin that met all those criteria AND I really liked the lighter color. The manufacturer is Ibanez and model 700AVS and I got a great price on it. When I got the mandolin the tuners were junk and simply did not work, perhaps this was why the price was so low, but after calling Ibanez Customer service, they said they would send me new tuners. Growing impatient, I ordered new Grover tuners and really improved the tuning ability. I used it for a while and in reading on Mandolin Cafe, I realized it would benefit from professional set up. I took it to Local Music in Salt Lake City, UT, my friend Tom’s place and he did a substantial set up. When he handed me the set up Mando (Which I had named “Jethro”). I strummed one chord and the instrument started to SING - wow! What an improvement in tone and playability. I was really grateful for the suggestin I found here.
As I played the instrument i started noticing it would not stay in tune and a few of the notes sounded “muddy.” Once again consulting Mandolin Cafe I saw several suggestions; change the strings, carefully set the intonation and put a tiny bit of graphite on the nut slots. I did those and used lighter D’Addario EJ73 strings. After I got everything set up and used a pencil to lubricate the nut slots again, everything changed; tone improves dramatically, intonation is perfect, easier to play and stays in tune.
Once again I have Mandolin Cafe to thank! I am now learning songs and working on my favorite piece my father used to play on the violin; “Meditation” by Massenet and making good progress. Thanks for letting me tell my story and thank you everyone on this site for the great advice and help. Hello my son
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