Mando Player, Guitar picker

[Rick Schmidlin]

I have had and played guitar on and off for 8 years. I never lived up to expection. On mandolin I play better then I exspected after five. So the mando is my go to every morning and night:) I have found I can strum and finger pick my favorite singing song on guitar and sing but on mandolin I don't sing. How many use the guitar as a second sourse and mando as there prime instrument?

[MikeEdgerton]

I do now.

[GTG]

Yep, that's where I'm at too. I mostly think in melodies, and translating a melody from my mind to my fingers is easier on mando than on guitar, despite playing the latter for 4 times longer (20 years) than the former (5ish years).

[Matt DeBlass]

I'm gradually doing more and more on the mandolin. I mostly strum and sing in either case, but I like the sound of the mando as accompaniment, and find it easier to add in breaks and solos, something I never got the hang of in a dozen years of guitar playing. ~:>

[Ken_P]

I try hard to keep both mandolin and guitar in regular use. I'm actually a little more comfortable improvising or playing backup on guitar, but when I'm working out a new composition or arrangement, I prefer mandolin. I can't foresee one ever taking precedence over the other for me, though.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Since playing Mandolin,i've found that the 'logical' tuning intervals,lend an ease of playing tunes that Banjo & Guitar never had for me. I'm not saying that the Mandolin is 'easy',just that tunes fall into place more easily under my fingers - & the shorter scale does help,
Ivan

[D C Blood]

I will pick up a guitar once in a while, usually just to show someone how a song goes or some such thing. I can play some lead on it, but the problem is, it sounds just like what I play on mandolin. (which is generally not what is desired on lead guitar)

[Soupy1957]

I'm in a hurry to see my grandsons get old enough to inherit their choice of guitars.........it's MY way of not admitting that I'm more "in love" with the mando now than the guitar.

I'll always keep a guitar around however, but I don't enjoy it as much anymore.

-Soupy1957

[Stephanie Reiser]

When performing, it is 80% guitar and the rest mando.
At home, I play 50/50 mandolin and fiddle, and the guitar gets some saturday play time. Though now that I am trying to learn some Tommy Emmanuel tunes, the guitar will get more time.

[catmandu2]

How many use the guitar as a second sourse and mando as there prime instrument?

As a solo performer, naturally I'm a guitarist first. But in group work as an instrumentalist, I use fiddle/mando extensively.

[Richard Moore]

45 years on both mandolin and guitar for me but mandolin is my love and go-to instrument.

[wreded]

i've played guitar for about 30 years (:disbelief:) and mando (seriously) for about 5; though i've had one since the mid-80s. My "family" consists of 4 mandos, 3 guitars, an electric bass, and a banjo (though my daughter-in-law left her fiddle here and it's starting to look friendly to me :))). The only one i haven't picked up since getting serious about mando is the banjo. i do find myself getting more mando time than guitar time. It's hard for me to completely put down the guitar since i'm a Kottke fan and it's hard to play some of his tunes without all the extra strings. i'd say i'm about 60/40 mando now. i'm real proud of the fact that i can play at church without getting out my "flat instrument" (i can put a capo on guitar:grin:) too much. It usually just sits on the stand, ready to go if i need it.
i can't say i'll ever completely put down guitar, but mandolin has made me a better guitar player since i'm more versed in theory (at least in my mind) than i ever was as a straight guitar player.

[GRW3]

I became primarily a mandolin player over the last year. While I still practice my CAGED scales to keep limbre, guitar is used primarily for singing. I use it to set/find the tempo and style and for introducing to jam groups. On regular songs that people know I use the mandolin. This is covered in thread called "Weber Bighorn" (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53802) where I describe how I arrived at my current instrument status.

[bluedrew]

5 months on Mando, 30 some (off and on) guitar. For some reason, I never really took theory very seriously on guitar. Mando just seems more logical in some ways. The IV chord is right below, and the V chord right above!

On mando I can voice through scales and figure out how to play a chord or variant...and find it amazing that I can play any given chord 5-6 different ways..on guitar, maybe 2.

It has motivated me to go back and look some more at scales and theory on the guitar, and has helped. Thrilled to realize that since it's tuned in 4ths (mostly), that the IV chord is right above!

Sometimes when I'm jamming on one or the other and on a roll, things come to a screeching halt when I try to use an instrument inappropriate fingering however. Suspect that will diminish with time. I think they're so different that it's pretty easy to keep things separate.

God, the guitars seem so HUGE to me now!

Andrew

[lespaul_79]

Played guitar for 18 years. Mando for 7. I love them both.....

[Santiago]

Every once in a while I burn out on mandolin, and I revert to being a guitar player for a week or two. I always come back, and I always come back with new ideas about the mandolin.