Electric OM newbie

[B. T. Walker]

After Hurricane Katrina, I purchased an electric octave mandolin from Rick Felkel at Elloree Guitars, the proceeds of which went to the Salvation Army in Monroe, LA. #I've plinked and plunked on it, thinking OM is the same as mandolin, but (surprise!) it is a whole 'nuther animal, and I don't know doodly-squat. #Need some answers to several question, please.

1. #What are your recommendations for chord charts, especially jazz chords? #My fingies don't stretch far enough to make a chop G.

2. #What about small amps? #I just play at home mostly, but I got this with the idea of sitting in with the school jazz band. The school has an amp.

3. #Where can I find ball-end strings for OM?

4. #Instruction books? #Favorite song collections?

Any help will be gratefully welcomed. #Thanks in advance. #I really enjoy playing, but I need to get more serious before school kicks back up.

Here's a pic.

[otterly2k]

Cool lookin' OM.
You should be able to get ball end strings singly at any music store... you can use guitar strings. I don't have the foggiest idea what gauges to get for an electric OM. Maybe someone else here does. Or see if you can find the builder of this one and ask if there are recommended string gauges.

Re: chords... because of the scale, chords work differently on OM than on mando for everyone but those with the hugest hands. There is a lot of use of 2 and 3 finger chords, chords that use open strings, and also use of alternate tunings that make it easier to reach stuff or play against drones. Usually that's discussed here in relation to Celtic or folk music. I don't know for sure how that'd apply to jazz.

I'd recommend John McGann's book/cd set b/c it has several different styles represented, has music notation as well as tab, has melody as well as accompaniment parts, and the cd has melody in one speaker and accompaniment in the other, so you can hear them separately, play along with one or the other, etc.

Anyone out there with jazz suggestions?

[Jim M.]

Hans Speek has exhaustive lists of chords for several different CBOM tunings:
Hans page (http://www.xs4all.nl/~hspeek/bouzouki/index.html)

The builder's contact info is here:
Elloree (http://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin/builders/searchdb.cgi?uid=default&view_records=1&keyword=felkel)

[B. T. Walker]

Thanks, Jim. You weren't kidding about extensive chords on Hans Speek's site. Wow. Thanks for the recommendation of John McGann's set, otterly2k. I like his column in Mandolin Magazine. You've gotten me started. Much appreciated.