What is it about the mandolin that you love?

[Mr. Loar]

I love the way they look and feel personally.

[burcher]

I like how at first they look really pretty and interesting, then you think they're completely ridiculous, then you get sucked in for the rest of your life pondering their intricacies.

[f5loar]

I'd say it was Bill Monroe and his F5; Bobby Osborne and his F5; Lester Flatt and his F5; Donna Stoneman and her F5; Dean Webb and his F5;Ronnie Reno and his F5;Frank Wakefield and his F5; Jesse McRenyolds and his F5;Earl Taylor and his F5;Ralph Rinzer and his F5;PeeWee Lambert and his F5;Dewey Farmer and his F5;Harry West and his F5; and Dave Apollon and all his F5s that got me hooked on the Gibson F5. Beautiful to look at,delightful to hold, and picks and sounds like a dream and seems to be the mandolin of choice by all of my early influences.

[gnelson651]

I like it because I no longer have to endure the banjo player jokes. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[sgarrity]

I love the way they sound and their versatility. And they are beautiful instruments.

[blawson]

That, when my old car broke down, I could throw the mando in a backpack and still make it to jam sessions & rehearsals on my motorcycle.

The bass player in a former band I was with used to show up in his MG Spider, top down, bass in the passenger seat.

[Glassweb]

I'd say it was Bill Monroe and his F5; Bobby Osborne and his F5; Lester Flatt and his F5; Donna Stoneman and her F5; Dean Webb and his F5;Ronnie Reno and his F5;Frank Wakefield and his F5; Jesse McRenyolds and his F5;Earl Taylor and his F5;Ralph Rinzer and his F5;PeeWee Lambert and his F5;Dewey Farmer and his F5;Harry West and his F5; and Dave Apollon and all his F5s that got me hooked on the Gibson F5. Beautiful to look at,delightful to hold, and picks and sounds like a dream and seems to be the mandolin of choice by all of my early influences.
Well stated Tom!

[Mr. Loar]

That, when my old car broke down, I could throw the mando in a backpack and still make it to jam sessions & rehearsals on my motorcycle.

The bass player in a former band I was with used to show up in his MG Spider, top down, bass in the passenger seat.
I used to carry my bass around in a Porsche 914 with the top off. Man the looks I'd get driving through town. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[mandolirius]

<Quote (f5loar @ Mar. 11 2008, 10:15)
I'd say it was Bill Monroe and his F5; Bobby Osborne and his F5; Lester Flatt and his F5; Donna Stoneman and her F5; Dean Webb and his F5;Ronnie Reno and his F5;Frank Wakefield and his F5; Jesse McRenyolds and his F5;Earl Taylor and his F5;Ralph Rinzer and his F5;PeeWee Lambert and his F5;Dewey Farmer and his F5;Harry West and his F5; and Dave Apollon and all his F5s that got me hooked on the Gibson F5. Beautiful to look at,delightful to hold, and picks and sounds like a dream and seems to be the mandolin of choice by all of my early influences.

Well stated Tom!>

Perhaps this thread should have been titled "What is it about Gibson F5 mandolins that you love?" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[mandolirius]

<The bass player in a former band I was with used to show up in his MG Spider, top down, bass in the passenger seat.

I used to carry my bass around in a Porsche 914 with the top off. Man the looks I'd get driving through town.>

Ours used to bring his in a Volkswagon Beetle, with the front passenger seat taken out.

[Keith Erickson]

I'm not just another guitar player in the crowd.

No offense to guitar players (that's how I got started in this mandolin obession was by way of the guitar)

[JEStanek]

I'm not so hooked on the F5 and the mandolin sucked me in because of how versatile it is, how you can change the sound of a given instrument with string and pick changes, the array of styles and players, because it is a bit of an unkown instrument (non-conformist in me), the lines and designs of different models (As, F,s 2 points, bowls, harps, lyres!)

This sums it up in a goofy way...
http://www.mandolincafe.com/images/wallpaper/640x480f.gif

Jamie

[allenhopkins]

I love the fact that they're easier to carry than my aluminum bass fiddle.
I love all the different styles/sizes/sounds you can get, everywhere from a "piccolo" mandolin to a mandocello (hey, anyone got a mando-bass for sale?).
I love the fact that a bunch of interesting and pleasant people like to talk about them.
I love making a few bucks here and there playing one.
I love all the different styles of music I can access through the mandolin.
I love the fact that more and more decent, good, and even great mandolins are being built, here and around the world.

[pjlama]

The sound. The size. The perfection of tuning in fifths.

[first string]

I like that most mandolins have about four to five times as much power as you would think based on their size. All the volume of a dread, almost as much cut as a banjo, and portable to boot. To me, all it needs is the sustain of a dobro and it will truly be the Nietzschean uber instrument.

But then really, the appeal of it can't be broken down easily. It's just a wonderful sound. Academically speaking it can't touch the violin, and yet in most songs where there is a mandolin, my ear is drawn to that part. And that has been the case since before I took up playing mando myself.

[chip]

I like the high prices... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[mandopete]

I'm only in it for the money.

[Santiago]

It's the perfect blend of violin and guitar sound and playability... the equal tuning of fifths and the sound meets the ability to play chords and pick. I played violin for years, then I played guitar for years, then the right and left side of my brain made peace. In fact, as a kid I didn't know from mandolins, but I used to pick my violin with a guitar pick and my friends would laugh at me, then realize I was the only one who could keep up with the music on the radio.

[John of Patcham]

Coming off the back of many years mediocre fiddle playing I find the mando a wonderfully relaxing instrument to play. I can play for hours and still not want to put it down. The fiddle, by contrast, wears me out in about 20 minutes.

[Fretbear]

Tremolo; sweet and high or down and dirty.....

[bienkow1]

The chicks

[Mr. Loar]

The design itself is ingenius. I also like the perfect fifth concept.

[Jack Roberts]

sounds good

[miked500]

Throaty lows, woody-chop, bell like highs. It can add sweet, sweet fills, serve as a beautiful back-up instrument, and kick some serious tail on a break - all on the same tune!!! What's not to love!

[Rick Schmidlin]

That it speaks to me.

[arbarnhart]

That no one is ever rude enough to ask me what I paid. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

5ths tuning and personal size. Plus I like being unique, just like everyone else here. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[JeffD]

I also like the perfect fifth concept.
I was going to say all kinds of mushie stuff, but in terms of practical things, this is dead on. The instrument plain makes sense. Things are where you expect them to be, relationships remain the same moving from string to string and from fret to fret, everything you learn is applicable every where else on the instrument.

Many other instruments seem to me like a huge pile of special cases, whereas the mandolin has this system, this web of inter-relationships - there is something there to understand, not just memorize.

[Milan Christi]

I liked the mandolin from the first few notes I played on a borrowed instrument. Within a few months I thought I "had it". Then I started listening more and practicing more and have discovered that it's a real challenge to play well. My listening skills have improved ten-fold and I've become a huge fan of Monroe and Wakefield. Who'd a thunk it? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Jim MacDaniel]

I like the fact that playing mandolin makes me unique*.

(* Except when I login to this web site.)

[f5loar]

Like it or not 90% of all mandolins made today are patterned after or a varaition of the Gibson A and F models. Not saying they were first but I don't see many copies of the old Washburn/Vega/Bacon bowl backs. Obviously Gibson did something right at some point in their long run of mandolins. So I see nothing wrong with saying I love a Gibson mandolin. Had Monroe been known for a 1910's Vega bowlback I doubt I would have been drawn into playing a mandolin.

[Don Stiernberg]

Let's not forget that our favorite instrument, the greatest instrument in the world, superior to all others, can:

1) make a musical contribution to ANY style of music.

2) play EITHER melody or accompaniment. Try playing a chord on a saxophone.

3) actually help you find your ideas due to its symmetrical layout, alluded to many times above as the "tuned in fifths" thing

4) be played in tune. Good setup, strings, and perhaps a tuner and some luck required, but it can be done.

5)fit in the overhead compartment on a plane. A piano, about the only instrument that rivals the mandolin in layout, design, and stylistic flexibility, cannot do this. Sorry, piano guys.

[tjg]

Don - but there is a way to fit a piano in an overhead. Well, kind of...

[JGWoods]

I like the mandolin because i made a million dollars playing it...I started with 2 million. I'm not stopping until I've made tens of dollars. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Gutbucket]

I love this little instrument because it still amazes me that something so small can be so powerful.

[mandroid]

I can play it on the Comfy couch.
I gotta sit in a proper chair to play the guitar.

[Griffis]

Coming from the guitar world, then through the ukulele and finally into mandolin, I really appreciate the fifths tuning. The doubled courses. I find beauty in all kinds of music and all kinds of instruments, but the mandolin, when well played, just sounds like an angel stuck its beak in your ear and is singing to you.

I love the history of them. The proliferation of sizes and shapes and the variations of it.

There are times when I'm playing my guitar that I think "Maybe I should concentrate more on the guitar....why did I pick up the mando?"

But then, as soon as I pick up the mandolin, I know. I remember. It's not that I'm terribly skilled on it yet, but it beckons to me. On my way to sleep at night I find myself going over scales in my head and thinking of pieces of music or styles that I want to pick up and learn.

It's actually to the point where I'm thinking of selling a lot of my other instruments to invest in a really nice mandolin and an octave mandolin. I'm REALLY jonesing for an octave mandolin. I miss fingerpicking.

[Denny Gies]

What is there not to love? Sound, feel, looks, ease of playing and much, much more. I must be doing something wrong however because the chicks have not flocked to the chops yet.

[Jason Holmes]

I must be doing something wrong however because the chicks have not flocked to the chops yet.
You too? I thought maybe my mandolins were just broken or something. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Really though for me it's the portability, the pleasing tonal range, the versatility, the logical tuning, and of course as mentioned above its being the greatest instrument in the world.

[Mandolusional]

Don, you forgot to mention the part about mandolin being the hippest instrument in the band! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

[West]

Wilt Chamberlain

[Patrick Sylvest]

The beautiful sound.....and the fact that it's not a guitar, everyone plays guitar. Go to a jam, 15 guitars, a mando, a bass, a banjer maybe, the occasional dobro.

[micall5]

the size... I'm compensating.

[LateBloomer]

The SOUND of the mandolin is the main thing I love..... but I also love the mandolin cafe - whenever I have a question, concern, interest, or a half hour to waste I visit the cafe and learn one or two, or ten things!

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[birdman98]

Double stop Tremelos....coolest sound EVER.

[Chris Wofford]

Right now I don't like mine all that much because I have been playing less than a week and my fingers don't feel right. They hurt and about 15 minutes of a C chord and G chord are all I can stand. But, boy, when I hear somebody else playing, I love theirs. It sings, different than anything else.

[mandozilla]

All the sounds you can wring out of it, that it's tuned in fifth's, fits into all music genres, it can drive an entire band, it's an American original (as opposed to bowl backs), and they're kinda purdy.

[PatrickH]

The sound. The size. The perfection of tuning in fifths

Definitely my sentiments.

I would add "The Scroll" (even though they all don't have them).

[woodwizard]

Someone said "WHAT'S NOT TO LIKE?" Took the words right out of my mouth. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[jasona]

sounds good
Yup.

[bshpmark]

The mandolin is unique, easy to get started playing on, looks great, but most of all has been a lifesaver for me. When suffering from stress and burnout all I need to do is pick up my mandolin, play, and I am in another world. I'm not very good yet by a long shot but it has had a profound effect on my life already. I wish I would have started playing 30 years ago.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Sound,appearance,versatility & a heck of a lot lighter than a Banjo !,
Saska

[Peter Hackman]

My main instrument is the guitar, has been for 50 years, and will always be. That's where I learned all I know about music.


The reason I still play the mando, in spite of diminishing technical ability,
is its superiority in stating a tune - you don't need as many notes (chordwise or linearly) as you do on the guitar. (And, of course, arpeggio-scale tunes,
e.g., fiddle tunes, are much easier to play in fifths tuning.)

A two- or threenote chord makes an awful lot of noise. However, playing the guitar I'm very much aware of the harmonic limitations of the mando
(soprano register, wide spacings)
and I don't really enjoy listening to things like guitar solo to mandolin backup. In a duo setting with me on guitar I will stick to accompaniment, because I simply love it. There are many examples on my website.

[wichitamando]

The tone, the versatility, the fifths. I love the sound of a really good tremolo...

[Mr. Loar]

It's the easiest instrument to play while on the toilet.

[Bertram Henze]

The mandolin stopped me from going mad when I was alone. It led the way to many friends and a wife. It changed shape on the way several times and is now an OM, but always remained a mandolin at heart.

Follow the mandolin.

Bertram

[Bertram Henze]

It's the easiest instrument to play while on the toilet.
Well, at least the wavelengths fit the size of the room to give good resonance...

[Mr. Loar]

The mandolin stopped me from going mad when I was alone. It led the way to many friends and a wife. It changed shape on the way several times and is now an OM, but always remained a mandolin at heart.

Follow the mandolin.

Bertram
Post of the day!! Nice little story.

[JeffD]

A piano, about the only instrument that rivals the mandolin in layout, design, and stylistic flexibility,
Thats really true.

I think the mandolin is a superior layout in one respect however - the piano layout emphasizes the differences between the notes of the C scale and all the flats and sharps. As if there were something special about the key of C.

On the mandolin there is no such emphasis, so flats or sharps are not "special notes", but integral to playing in keys other than C.

It sure helped me to see things this way.

[mandocrucian]

I think the kool-aid has been spiked with psychedelics, because a lot of these assertions need a reality check! "Rationale" is fine, if that's your preference, but it isn't the same as "fact".


5) fit in the overhead compartment on a plane. #A piano, about the only instrument that rivals the mandolin in layout, design, and stylistic flexibility, cannot do this.

Except that a piano has a 7 octave range! And you can play not just "play EITHER melody or accompaniment", but BOTH..... at the SAME TIME!

Instruments that fit in airline overhead compartments:
Violin, Viola, Concertina, 1-row accordion, 2-row accordion, harmonicas, (small) 5-row chromatic accordion
Uke, Mandolin, mandolin-banjo, kazoo, flute, piccolo, tin whistles, recorder, clarinet, soprano sax, trumpet.
perhaps even alto sax??

The symmetricality issue.... You left out the chromatic 5-row button accordion, (much favored over the piano accordion in Europe) which is a monster instrument capable of simultaneous accompaniment and lead .

Symmetricality better? Well standard guitar tuning with the "horrible" 3rd interval between the G and B strings, allows electric guitarists a whole barage of licks which exploit that tuning interval. (And dropping the E-string down to D tuning on mando and/or bouzouki never seemed to impair Andy Irvine's playing!) How bout all those DADGAD fingerstyle guitarists? - I don't think you'll be able to achieve that sound tuned in 4ths, or standard (with that one miserable 3rd interval).

Assymetric tunings or keyboard layouts can keep things from sounding the same in every key. Just due to the physical layout of the white and black keys, different patterns and effects and ornamentation are going to lend themselves to certain keys because of the interface with the human hand.

12-tone-equal-temperament is a "symmetric tuning system". Then why are fretless instruments (violin, dobro) so much more expressive, and the doublestop intervals they play can be so much "sweeter"?


Hey Don,...as a jazz guy, haven't you ever had a twinge of regret about not having had a real go with the sax? #(And by now, you'd be playing multiphonic fingered intervals, or humming through the instrument or even throat-singing...boing!!!)
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

NH

[bienkow1]

I think the kool-aid has been spiked with psychedelics, because a lot of these assertions need a reality check! "Rationale" is fine, if that's your preference, but it isn't the same as "fact".


5) fit in the overhead compartment on a plane. #A piano, about the only instrument that rivals the mandolin in layout, design, and stylistic flexibility, cannot do this.

Except that a piano has a 7 octave range! And you can play not just "play EITHER melody or accompaniment", but BOTH..... at the SAME TIME!

Instruments that fit in airline overhead compartments:
Violin, Viola, Concertina, 1-row accordion, 2-row accordion, harmonicas, (small) 5-row chromatic accordion
Uke, Mandolin, mandolin-banjo, kazoo, flute, piccolo, tin whistles, recorder, clarinet, soprano sax, trumpet.
perhaps even alto sax??

The symmetricality issue.... You left out the chromatic 5-row button accordion, (much favored over the piano accordion in Europe) which is a monster instrument capable of simultaneous accompaniment and lead .

Symmetricality better? Well standard guitar tuning with the "horrible" 3rd interval between the G and B strings, allows electric guitarists a whole barage of licks which exploit that tuning interval. (And dropping the E-string down to D tuning on mando and/or bouzouki never seemed to impair Andy Irvine's playing!) How bout all those DADGAD fingerstyle guitarists? - I don't think you'll be able to achieve that sound tuned in 4ths, or standard (with that one miserable 3rd interval).

Assymetric tunings or keyboard layouts can keep things from sounding the same in every key. Just due to the physical layout of the white and black keys, different patterns and effects and ornamentation are going to lend themselves to certain keys because of the interface with the human hand.

12-tone-equal-temperament is a "symmetric tuning system". Then why are fretless instruments (violin, dobro) so much more expressive, and the doublestop intervals they play can be so much "sweeter"?


Hey Don,...as a jazz guy, haven't you ever had a twinge of regret about not having had a real go with the sax? #(And by now, you'd be playing multiphonic fingered intervals, or humming through the instrument or even throat-singing...boing!!!)
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

NH
"We're talking about unchecked aggression here, dude."

[Lee]

I'll never be able own a chateau on the French Riviera. Nor will I ever be able to own a Ferrari.
But for just a few thousand dollars I can appreciate and enjoy playing a world class mandolin.

[Brandon Flynn]

I love the tone and look of the F-5. I love the versatility of the mandolin. I love the fact that the mandolin is relatively unknown and underated. I like the fact that relativelly few people play it, and at times I don't like this fact because there is no one to play with and discuss mandolin issues.

[Brandon Flynn]

And I agree, I think the only truly superior instrument in versatility and layout. The violin is close, but the fact that you can't play chords for accompaniment make the mandolin superior in my opinion (then again, it kills the mandolin in the ability to sustain a note).

[Don Stiernberg]

Hi Niles!

Good points about the piano, especially the range and a greater potential for playing orchestrally, i.e. melody and accompaniment AT THE SAME TIME. Jethro, Evan Marshall, and Calace all do that on the mandolin, but it is only four little notes at any given time..

I still stand by my assertions, however, which were admittedly an attempt at a humorous answer to "what do you love about the mandolin?"--it does fit in the overhead. Sometimes airline personnel don't even know you walked on with it! How cool is that?

Your excellent observations about tuning systems prompted recollection of another thing I love about the mandolin. I was thinking about the guitar. (This is tough to admit publicly, but I am a guitar owner as well)In workshops I sometimes in tongue-in-cheek fashion refer to the guitar as having "The Evil B String"which prevents finding as many uniform patterns as we might on the mandolin. Ultimately all instruments are seen by their practitioners in patterns, aren't they? Bela Fleck certainly has no trouble keeping track of where everything is on the banjo, in spite of it being(gulp,yipes, Oh my...) Tuned To a Chord!!
Anyway, the other "I love the mandolin" point vis a vis the guitar was that P.A. people can handle a mandolin more readily than a guitar. Acoustic guitars are always more of a challenge...
Sure enough I did play saxophone for a short while. I played bassoon all through grammar school, high school, and college. There's a beautiful sound, also fits in the overhead, but I never heard anyone play Salt Creek or Tico Tico on it! Actually ensemble parts on bassoon can be boring, but that may have been laziness on my part all those years ago--not getting to concerto level as a player.Then one semester the baritone sax chair in the jazz ensemble at college was open, and there was a horn to use!I volunteered, had a blast, found a horn of my own which I gave up a few short years later because...I couldn't figure out how to improvise on the thing! Couldn't SEE the patterns. And yes, I wish I could. I love all those sounds: soprano, alto, bari, bass sax. Tenor? That's like guitar, everyone plays it. Probably has a B string..

Before I go I have to mention in as friendly and positive way possible that I disagree about the violin and dobro being more expressive than the mandolin. I love those sounds too and confess to trying to play them also at various times. But expression is entirely the domain of the player. There are mandolin players who are cold, others who will bring you to tears. There are violin players who are....well, you get the point. I never like to hear about the "limitations" of an instrument. Just when we think a harmonica is "limited", along comes a Howard Levy who smashes all preconceptions and just plays the damn thing every which way. And you know better than most people alive who are the counterparts to that phenomenon on say, balalaika, oud,fretted Norwegian fiddle, tympani, and so on. An expressive artist will find a way to say what he needs to say on the instrument which he has chosen or has chosen him.
Thanks, Niles, and everybody, for entertaining these notions and engaging in discourse about them. There's something about that process that somehow brings musical goals into clearer view.
And if any of of you do put your mandolin in the overhead, please have it in a hard case! I haven't had a problem with my gig bag yet, but it seems laptops and those carry-on strolling suitcases get heavier and more threatening every day...
Maybe it's just a bad habit after 30 some odd(very odd!) years, but...I still love the mandolin.

[Lee Callicutt]

It has strings. I can whack 'em. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[Gerard Dick]

I can play it with my damaged hand. Index finger 1/2 in shortened on the end, thumb shortened by the width of a saw blade in the middle. The tuning in fifths make such perfect sense any pattern can be repeated with the same results.
Gerard

[Jim Rowland]

I hate the danged things. They ruined my life!...in good way,of course.
Jim

[Peter Hackman]

Let's not forget that our favorite instrument, the greatest instrument in the world, superior to all others, can:



5)fit in the overhead compartment on a plane. A piano, about the only instrument that rivals the mandolin in layout, design, and stylistic flexibility, cannot do this. Sorry, piano guys.
What abut the violin?

[Peter Hackman]

The symmetricality issue.... You left out the chromatic 5-row button accordion, (much favored over the piano accordion in Europe) which is a monster instrument capable of simultaneous accompaniment and lead .

Symmetricality better? Well standard guitar tuning with the "horrible" 3rd interval between the G and B strings, allows electric guitarists a whole barage of licks which exploit that tuning interval. (And dropping the E-string down to D tuning on mando and/or bouzouki never seemed to impair Andy Irvine's playing!) How bout all those DADGAD fingerstyle guitarists? - I don't think you'll be able to achieve that sound tuned in 4ths, or standard (with that one miserable 3rd interval).

Assymetric tunings or keyboard layouts can keep things from sounding the same in every key. Just due to the physical layout of the white and black keys, different patterns and effects and ornamentation are going to lend themselves to certain keys because of the interface with the human hand.

12-tone-equal-temperament is a "symmetric tuning system". Then why are fretless instruments (violin, dobro) so much more expressive, and the doublestop intervals they play can be so much "sweeter"?


Hey Don,...as a jazz guy, haven't you ever had a twinge of regret about not having had a real go with the sax? #(And by now, you'd be playing multiphonic fingered intervals, or humming through the instrument or even throat-singing...boing!!!)
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif

NH
I think this issue is overrated, at least by mandolinists, who also tend to overrate the harmonic and rhythmic possibilities of the mando
forgetting (HACKMAN'S THEOREM: rhythmically and harmonically the mando comes on top of everything else.

The so-called classical tuning of the guitar is really an open tuning, an em7 chord; suitable for standard chord voicings with a seventh in the bass and a triad on top. It also allows dense voicings in the treble, such as d-e-g, b-c-e, etc. where the mando is hardly capable even of stating a triad in close voicing
(but then it's hard to add something in the bass - piano envy!).

There are key-specific effects and possibilities on the mando, mainly in first position. Eb is very different from D, and Bb from A or B, for instance

Entering the realm of pure taste I can't agree that dobro® is more expressive
than mandolin. OK, if you say, e.g., that Jerry Douglas has more soul than Jesse Cobb, but then we're comparing individuals.
But the dobro is almost unheard of outside more folk-related,
harmonically limited,
idoms, such as BG, and blues, and I tire easily of the sound and idiomatics.

[Bertram Henze]

Just remember the OP's question - what is it that you LOVE. Can't argue about reasons for love. Its a personal relationship, not a competition for the best instrument by common standards.

Hope I haven't got the question wrong?

Bertram

[John of Patcham]

Yes, I was just thinking along the same lines myself. It's like the person you are in love with - you can reel off a whole list of things that you LIKE about them. But love is more than the sum of all those things. It's all the other intangibles that somehow trigger a certain chemistry.