Playing -in a mandolin

[Jonathan Peck]

Well considering that you can't un-play in a mandolin....with inactivity your mandolin might go to sleep, but with a little playing it will wake again....what physically is happening to your mandolin that can't be undone by not playing it?

Why do old mandolins sound, well...old?

[Kevin Briggs]

Oh, man. Do a mandolin cafe search on this. A book has actually been written on this.

Generally speaking, the mandolin is made up of something like 200 different parts. They are glued together. As the glue settles in, and as the parts start to combine together, things change.

That's one way of looking at it.

Another thing i've read is that the cell-structure of the wood literally changes as time goes on. The amount of playing and the way you play will influence the changes to some degree. this sheds an interesting light on the "put it next to a speaker" philosophy, because that would make it change into somethign that you didn't influence with your own playing.

Anyway, who knows? Some people have ideas that sound reasonable. The fact is, the changes occur. I've experienced it with my mandolin and with my guitar. I aexperienced it most dramatically with my guitar, because it sat there for like three months, and then I brought it to a jam where I played ti for three hours. After an hour it was "alive." It was amazing.

[lgc]

I think leaving a mando lying around for any length of time can do a lot to "undo" the effect of lots of playing playing. Maybe I just get worse.

[JeffD]

My understand is that the cells of the wood share the tension and compression imposed on the body of the instrument by the strings. Over time the cells slowly microadjust so as to optimize the sharing of "the weight".

If a mandolin is left unstrung, or out of tune, for very long periods of time, the slow microadjustment converges to an optimum for the state the instrument is in, unstrung or out of tune. When it is then picked up, tuned up and played, the molecules start a slow re-adjustment to the new condition. Until they have readjusted to the new tension the instrument sounds dead, or old. If an instrument has spent 40 years unstrung - it may never have enough time to re-adjust to an up to pitch condition, and so will sound dead for ever.

Something like that. I am sure there are others who can describe it better.

[jmoncr]

Wow, Jeff.. if that's not right, it ought to be![I] http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JeffD]

Well its how it was explained to me once.

As a result I am pretty disciplined about getting each of my mandolins out at one time or another on a regular basis, and if I am not going to play, at least I tune it up.

[Caleb]

I wonder how differently an instrument that was built 40 years ago and put in a closet to never be played would sound compared to the same type of instrument that has been used heavily. If that could be done, it would be a cool thing to see.

[Kevin Briggs]

This phenomenon is one reason why I reduced my mandolin collection to one. I figure I will play my Fern all the time and it will really break in nicely.

[mythicfish]

'Well considering that you can't un-play in a mandolin....with inactivity your mandolin might go to sleep, but with a little playing it will wake again....what physically is happening to your mandolin that can't be undone by not playing it?"

Don't worry about it ... it's just a distraction from the purpose for which the instrument was intended.

[JeffD]

I wonder how differently an instrument that was built 40 years ago and put in a closet to never be played would sound compared to the same type of instrument that has been used heavily. #If that could be done, it would be a cool thing to see.
I think that would depend on a lot of things, was it tuned when it was put away, is the atmosphere really dry or really damp. I have experience with a mandolin that was put away without strings for something like 30 years or so, and when I got it and strung it up it sounded kind of thunky. Not bad bad, but no brightness to it. I owned and played it for many years, and while it improved it never got to sounding as good as its pedigree would indicate.

At the same time my main axe was being played a lot and over the 20 years I have owned it, it just sounds magnificent.


I just recently played a friends mandolin that has been sitting in a laundry bag since 1965, with the strings on and roughly in tune. I tuned it up and played it and it sounded really nice. I changed the strings on it and it sounded even better.

But this is all just single data points, and there are a lot of variables.

I think the main thing about playing it a lot is that you are keeping it tuned up. I have heard that the actual sound vibrations from playing make a difference, but I have not had that explained to me in a way that makes sense, so I am skeptical.

[TonyP]

There are just sooo many variables, all one can do is relate their experiences. My '86 Newson F5 was bought in the Bay Area and kept in the case for a year. Basically unplayed. Then traded back in on a guitar. A friend bought it with the thought I'd like it. He brought it to a big weekend jam, straight from the store. So, it was basically green/new, had been hanging in the store for several months, and had total garbage strings on it. Before we went up the hill to the jam, my buddy got out the mando and offered it to me. It was fairly loud, but thin sounding. After about an hour of playing at the jam I was really intrigued, and changed the strings right there. It was a definite improvement, but still iffy. But by the end of the night, and especially the next day, I was in love and bought if off him in '87.
I notice a big difference in that mando when it sits. Two things make it wake all the way up, playing with others(as I don't practice loudly) and humidity(I use a Dampit, works good for me).
There was a period I gave up playing for almost 4yrs. Almost sold the Newson because I thought I was done. I was told by my x, I couldn't sell it. But as it sat, it REALLY went to sleep. To me, just as asleep as the very first time I played it. The couple of times I got it out for the 10-15min, it never did wake up. It was stored in tune.
I got a job up at a YMCA camp way up in the Sierras, and for the first time in 4yrs felt like playing again. It took most of the summer for me to get my chops back, and the mando to wake up. What I've noticed is, the more it's awake, the less likely to go to sleep. And the longer it's a sleep, the longer it takes to wake up. But for the first time since I've owned it, I've got another mando, and it's got a cedar top and never seems to be as a sleep at the Newson. Consequently it seems to get more play time as I just love that awake tone. Needless to say, it's impacted the Newson.

[Steve Ostrander]

I was playing my md615 the other night and after about an hour I remarked to one of the gtr players that she was really starting to open up. I give the 615 all the credit; it certainly wasn't my playing that got better...