M. D.s.

[Mandomonte]

My Eastman 805 has been in the shop since Fri. Took it in for a little tweak on Fri. Thought it would be done Sat. Now due to back up, we are looking at Mon. I am lonely and suffering from Mandocello Deprivation Syndrom. I have only had it 3 months but it is a big part of my days. Guitars need workouts too , but can't get motivated.

[garryireland]

what do you do when you have no backup? if my zouk goes in for work, im stuck twiddling my thumbs> although there is the banjos, mandolin, waldzither, harmonicas, whistles etc etc etc BUT not the same!

[Mandomonte]

Right Gary, the desire to play is less with the others, but beats not playing.

[clobflute]

Sell the guitars.

Sounds like you've got GOS [Guitar Overload Syndrome] and CGEMCS [Can't Get Enough Mandocello Syndrome]. You need to double your MCAS [Mandocello Acquisition Syndrome] which is distinctly different from smaller instinctive kicks of mere MAS [Mandolin Acquisition Syndrome] and buy a a second mandocello to stave off the MDS [Mandocello Deprivation Syndrome].

Only then can you pronounce yourself cured

[Lord of the Badgers]

I just found my guitar. It's lurking in a corner in my bedroom. I have no idea what it's doing there. Perhaps it isn't mine & it just snuck in late one night. Either way it isn't fooling me. My OM has sat next to it to "help it see the error of its ways"...

[clobflute]

Funny enough, since this thread started, my guitar has been in the corner of the room untouched. I think it's time to sell it, that is, if Ibanez Prestige's still fetch anything like enough to buy a pair of mando strings

Reading these mandocello pages is really unhelpful. I didn't realise it was possible to have Mandocello Deprivation Syndrome before I even had a mandocello..

[Claudia Amslinger]

MDS: Yeah, I know what you mean. During my stay in UK last year I was soon discovering that I suffered from a similar illness: OMDS (octave mandolin deprivation syndrome). The fault was I had left the OM at home. As a first cure visiting the Hobgoblin shop in London and trying their instruments helped. But only for a few days. I ended up buying a mandolin at Jimmy Moon's workshop in Glasgow, the little sister to my OM. And I learnt that you shouldn't go on a journey without your OM. If you don't want to get a real big mando family at home

[Bernie Daniel]

Sell the guitars.

Sounds like you've got GOS [Guitar Overload Syndrome] and CGEMCS [Can't Get Enough Mandocello Syndrome]. You need to double your MCAS [Mandocello Acquisition Syndrome] which is distinctly different from smaller instinctive kicks of mere MAS [Mandolin Acquisition Syndrome] and buy a a second mandocello to stave off the MDS [Mandocello Deprivation Syndrome].

Only then can you pronounce yourself cured

Never have I heard such insightful and profound advice -- you should hang out a shingle.

[Mandomonte]

Bernie, please don't tempt me with buying another purchase. If I did buy another MC, it would be an F body. Maybe a Weber, if one ever came into my price range. Leaning towards and F Octave and Maybe ? a mandola. Of course I do miss my F9, at times, as I have no mandolin at present. THEN there is a Killer, early 70's D35 at a local dealer with a great price on it ! But, then I do have 3 good guitars and only one mandolin Family. Wait ! I just sold my ubass and if my electric archtop sells, I'd only need another grand or two.

[clobflute]

"Maybe a Weber, if one ever came into my price range. "


How does this take place?!!

I was trying doing it the old fashioned way of saving up. By gum is it hard...

[clobflute]

Never have I heard such insightful and profound advice -- you should hang out a shingle.

Haha.....Watch out - after contributing to this thread as a non-mandocello gatecrasher, I now need to swallow hard at my own advice having just joined the ranks with my new MCAS inspired acquisition.

[Mandomonte]

Maybe we could form an online support group for sufferers of MDs or those of us who are wise in the ways of the www. could set up a link to our homes so we could monitor our lonely MC when are in the grip of MDs. Or even set up a loop of ourselves playing it, that we could access via phone or laptop. I suppose you could just record something and carry it along. BUT, there is a certain comfort in actually holding and playing the darn thing.

[Mandomonte]

Maybe MDs is too general. It might apply to any mando' family instrument. Then it would be Mandolin Family Depravation Syndrom. To be more instrument specific McDS ( sound like a fast food chain tho')might work.

[Claudia Amslinger]

BUT, there is a certain comfort in actually holding and playing the darn thing.

That´s just the point. Holding and playing. Feeling it. Listening to the sound at the very moment. Feeling the vibrations of the sound. A photo or watching it via www. or a clip is not the same. These things make it even worse. Unfortunately. That´s the problem with this odd M.D.S. thing.

[clobflute]

Originally Posted by Mandomonte
BUT, there is a certain comfort in actually holding and playing the darn thing.

This is just too Freudian

Well my MDS has abated for the moment. I need some help: when you play mandocello, do you play at the sheet music pitch, or are you all learning to transpose immediately?

I'm busy watching my left hand to try and find those monster frets to watch the sheet music. At the minute, I can do one or the other, but not both :/

[Mandomonte]

I don't read music well. Learn a lot by ear and using mandolin tabs, which makes it in a different key on Mc. If I CAPO up to fret7 It should be same key. Sometime transpose mando, or bass tabs, but generally not that patient.

[Mandobart]

"Maybe a Weber, if one ever came into my price range. "

Webers are very nice. I've played some really good ones. New a "basic" Weber F OM will run around $3800. But....There are other options. If you want an F style OM you just can't beat my friend TJ at Cricket Fiddle. NFI, but the F4 OM I got from him sounds better to me than any other I've played. Granted I bought it a few years ago, but with a case, shipped to my house it was less than half the cost of that Weber.

[clobflute]

It's okay - resistance was futile. I've got a gorgeous Hathway mandocello now

Your friend's mandoguitarcello conversion looks interesting. It's a great price, but by the time it makes it to the UK, it will be 1/3rd + postage more :/

I think I would have opted for something with a shorter scale if it was available, since I'm still trying to work out what the most comfortable posture and playing for the mandocello is without keeling over forward hunchback.

The Weber Gallatin mandocello I think I like for the colour and the kind of house brand assurance that it won't be a lemon - I'm sure the European Rosa Capeks would probably be just as great without the huge import issues. I'm happy to stick at my Hathway until I finally kill that fret buzz on the Gsharp pinky note! Only a mandocello player must know how many painstaking months of work it will take just to get a purity of tone! In that respect, it reminds me of 'difficult' instruments, like the flute, which require articulation control before making the note (unlike instruments like the piano).

Webers are very nice. I've played some really good ones. New a "basic" Weber F OM will run around $3800. But....There are other options. If you want an F style OM you just can't beat my friend TJ at Cricket Fiddle. NFI, but the F4 OM I got from him sounds better to me than any other I've played. Granted I bought it a few years ago, but with a case, shipped to my house it was less than half the cost of that Weber.

[clobflute]

I don't read music well. Learn a lot by ear and using mandolin tabs, which makes it in a different key on Mc. If I CAPO up to fret7 It should be same key. Sometime transpose mando, or bass tabs, but generally not that patient.

that's probably the best way?

I seem to have tabs in all the books for mandolin. Any books for mandocello?