"Open Up?"

[5string]

Hi Folks - Well, picked up the mandolin three months ago after a short time with that other "thing" that's real noisy and has 5 strings (actually 4 1/2.) Have been lurking, and now am wondering: when the comparisons come out with the "under 1k's" and the "over 1K's" soon someone will say, "well, your beginner may sound good to you NOW, but the "flower pot" will really open up later!"

So.....what zat mean, "open up?" Does it not sound "open" when you pay the over-1k? Is it tone bars or wood or age that do that? I have moved from my MK to a used Gibson A-9 due this week......will the A-9 "open up?" I guess that would be good!


FYI - got to play an A-9 at the Gibson Showcase last week --- sounded great to me! (of course, I'm only "three-months-old here.) Met a great guy, "BigJoe." I think you have to pay them to work there!!

thanks all! dave

[lownote]

I asked the same question a few months back with very little feedback. #Here's my limited experience with mandos opening up. #I'm in the Coast Guard and go to sea for about 2/3rds of the year. #The ship I'm on is loud and full of vibration, those big ALCO engines really make a lot of rackit. #I've taken my A9 and MK underway and they sit in their cases when I'm not playing, when I take them out to play the wood is vibrating just from the surrounding environment. #Both these mandolins have a great punch and, to my ear, have opened up quickly. #I can only believe the continous vibration of the ship/engines have accelerated their maturity. #I hope this helps.

Lee

[jim simpson]

Lee,
Do you realize that you could market a new service to mandolin players? We could send our immature mandolins off to sea with you for the treatment!
Jim

[lownote]

Jim, it looks as if I've discovered a goldmine too late, I'll be retiring with 23 years of service on April 8th.<g>

[jim simpson]

Lee,
Timing is everything. Congradulations on your retirement and thank you for your service to our country!
I hope this means you'll have more time for pickin'.
Jim

[lownote]

Jim, I appreciate your "thank you". The last 23 years has been my pleasure and am very proud to have served. As far as more pickin' time, I don't know, I had quite a bit of nothing else to do but stand watch or pick while underway.
Lee

[PCypert]

Hey,
Someone posted a link about this somewhere. Maybe not in this forum, but somewhere online. Anyways, they have this machine that they hook guitars up to. The machines intensly shake your guitar or whatever and simulate playing on an instrument for 20 to thirty years. The instruments don't suffer anything from it, but they found some very interesting results. The main one being that great quality instruments get sweeter highs, bolder lows, etc. Cheap guitars tended to change radically in tone, not always for the best. I'd say there's also a "mojo" factor to a mandolin/guitar that's been played for a long time.
Paul

[lownote]

Paul, I remember reading the same article, it was quite interesting and perhaps controversal (sp sorry). If I was going to pinpoint one specific area which seemed to really open up on both my mandolins, I would say the bottom end.
I surely hope I havn't taken this thread hostage, If so I dearly appoligize.

Lee

[sunburst]

Jim, it looks as if I've discovered a goldmine too late, I'll be retiring with 23 years of service on April 8th.<g>
Sounds like a good excuse if you've ever thought about buying a boat!

[lownote]

sunburst, if the last thing I ever see again is a boat it'll be too soon.
Lee

[TonyP.]

If I remember right this has been hashed a couple of times with the most vehemence coming from some who said that a mando is all opened up within a couple of weeks. I totally disagree as mine continues to evolve and I would bet others who are sensitive to their mando notice this too. I agree with Lee, alot of the opening up is in the bottom end but also in volume. But there again it's the mando adapting to YOUR style. Also a mando needs alot of constant playing. I don't know how these folks with multi instruments do it. Ever noticed how someone else can grab your axe and make it sound different? I also talked to a guy early on that took all of his instruments and had a closet he'd sound proofed and he had a couple of regular stereo speakers and he'd hang his new instrument, guitar or mando, even a bass, in there with Bluegrass blaring away and he swore that he could break in any instrument in a week doing that. I never heard one before and after but he always had the loudest instruments! I was taking a lesson from a one of my hero's and told him about that and he commented he noticed that when he would put his Loar in his secret compartment(the spare tire hole on his station wagon) and drove to a gig his mando was always warmed up when he pulled it out of the case. I'll bet the constant noise and humidity on a ship would break a mando in quick too.