Mando is affecting guitar sound

[darthstar]

Okay, this is weird, but in the past few days my guitar, which had a nice warm sound to it, generally, has sounded a bit flat and off. My mando, however, is bright and cheery. Could my guitar be suffering from depression because of kind of mando-envy? I am spending far more time on my mandolin lately.

[El Rey del Mando]

Welcome to the world of mandolin!You should at least fire up the gitbox once in a while though.

[darthstar]

Welcome to the world of mandolin!You should at least fire up the gitbox once in a while though.
But I still like my guitar...granted, it's on its stand across the room while the mando is in its case next to my chair so I can pull it out during commercials, but I'm not obsessed with playing it by any stretch of the imagination...yet.

I almost put new strings on my guitar to see if that would help, then remembered these strings were only two weeks old.

[El Rey del Mando]

See what I mean? Thats a sign,When you forgot that you just re strung your guitar,you may be starting to develop the sickness.I'm guilty myself and not afraid to admit it.Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh !

John

[David M.]

That's odd because after long periods of playing my mando, my D-35 sounds really deep, boomy and sweet when I pick it up. My guitar's sound is a contrast to the higher pitched mando. Always pleasant to "come back to" after being neglected.

I have noticed that in long periods of picking only mando I start to question if the mandolin I'm playing still sounds good, etc. Then I play it with a guitar player and it sounds great again. My ears play tricks on me.

[bjc]

The guitar is jealous...my strat is betraying me this evening, so trust me I know..
:-0

[otterly2k]

It could also be affecting how you are playing... I know I've been spending a lot of time with my OM lately... when I pick up my guitar, the touch is so light compared to the double strings I almost over-do it...takes me a little while to get the feel for the guitar strings back...

KE

[MandoJon]

I keep my Mando and my guitar in their cases and in different rooms so they don't know how much I play the other one. This way they both sound sweet all the time. Maybe they'll find out one day but, so long as I don't try to play them at the same time, it should be OK.

As for a light touch on the strings, well, I play acoustic guitar in a large church building with no amplification and share space in a band with three horns, a grand piano and a few other instruments. So, I play it hard and loud and throw subtlety to the winds. This means I have a very heavy hand and need to lighten up on the mando with my fretting hand! My cheap mando's frets suffered badly and I can even see wear begining in my new mando which I've only had a couple of months. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

[dan@kins]

I attribute that to your ears getting accustomed to your mandolins tone since you're doing more playing on it... and then your guitars voicing seems lower, or not as sparkly. . (tough to describe tone).