Just received my new electric octave mandolin from Steve Ryder. Looks and sounds awesome!
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Just received my new electric octave mandolin from Steve Ryder. Looks and sounds awesome!
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Obsessed with four strings...
Alan Duncan
HOLLY JESUS, COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS, HEART ATTACK WAITING TO HAPPEN, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OO, HOLLY SMOKES! MAN THAT IS THE COOOLEST THING I'VE EVVERRR SEEEEEEEEEEEN!!! I'M CRYING HERE! MAN O' MAN, I KNOW WHAT I'M BUILDING NEXT!!! OOOOOOOOOO MAN!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOO WAY! THAT IS TOOOOOO AWESOMELY COOOOOOOOOL!
I LOVE IT!
What kind of pickups? Wood? Jumpin' mothers... Tell me EVERYTHING!
Gee...I was beginning to feel unloved. I posted the picture 10 days ago and not a single response. In the meantime I've been having a blast. I hooked it up to my son's Gibson tube amp and it really sounds awesome. Here's a few details. It's tuned GDAE,an octave below mandolin and about the same range as a guitar. The scale length is 20", shorter than a guitar, but still a bit of a stretch for my fingers on the low end, not too bad though. It plays real fast on the high and sounds great all the way to the highest fret. It has Schaller tuners, and ebony fretboard, and two humbucker pickups, with a 3-way switch. Steve Ryder winds his own pickups and they sound great. To be honest I'm not sure what the body is make of...I believe the neck is maple. I paid $1300 and I definitely feel I got my money's worth. I still love my acoustic mandolin but it's fun to take a break and blast away at some wall shaking blues!
Obsessed with four strings...
Alan Duncan
Here's another picture that Steve sent me a few days ago.
Obsessed with four strings...
Alan Duncan
Man that is sooooooo beautiful...
Does it have a blues or rock sound or some other sound?
It really depends on what you hook it up to. I have a Fender Pro Junior tube amp that gives it that nice bluesy tube sound...my son's Gibson tube amp is even better. I also have a Boss GT-6 guitar processor that can make it sound like anything you want, if your not too much of a purist. I personally prefer the blues sound or a nice Jazz lead sound for most of the stuff I play.
Obsessed with four strings...
Alan Duncan
Alan, I'm just curious...why do electric players often prefer 4 string vs 8? That's a sharp looking instrument, I wish you good luck and much happiness with it.
Steve
Someone else may have a better answer. I use the electric to mostly play lead parts in a blues or pentatonic scale over the rhythm chord progression. With doubled strings and heavily amplified it just doesn't sound right unless the two strings are tuned exactly together which is pretty much impossible. On my acoustic mandolin (Rigel A+ Deluxe), it just doesn't seem to be a problem. Maybe it's because the acoustic mandolin doesn't have a lot of sustain so you don't get the slow beat frequency when the strings are a little out of tune.
Obsessed with four strings...
Alan Duncan
What 4Stringmania said is exactly true:
the acoustic mandolin doesn't have a lot of sustain so you don't get the slow beat frequency when the strings are a little out of tune.
Solid-body electric 8-strings will have a vibe of their own, so the kind of music it plays will have little cross-over with what a 4/5 string can do well.
Wye Knot
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