Help. New to mandolan.

[stevem]

Hi anyone,

My apoligize if I should have posted somewhere diferent, but here goes anywise. #

I just bought a mandolan at a pawn shop for $75. #The guy there told me it was alot like a violin so I decided to aquire it. #I talked him down from $100, which felt good. #I don't play violin really (only twice acually), but I do have one sitting around. #Anywise, my question comes down to this. #When I'm using the violin bow, I just can't get the mandolan to make any good sound at all. #It's just real quite and seems like it's going to shred the hairs on my #bow. #I don't sound so very good on the violin, but at least I can get some sound from it. #But this mandolan just does not do nothing. #Any advise would be really appreciated?

[Tom C]

Mandolins are not made to be bowed. You pick it like a guitar. It's does have frets correct? mandolin strings are made of steel and the lower course ones are wounded. I'm sure it's a great way to ruin a bow, which often costs more than the fiddle.

[Mandomax]

Tom, you beat me to it. I was going to suggest he try a different bow.

[arbarnhart]

I can't tell your location from your post. Do you have 110 or 220 volt electricity? That may be yore problem

<I see there wass a serious response, but I assume this is in jest>

[ourgang]

Don't FRET, could be you just need about a 2" radius on your finger-board and bridge and LOT and LOTS and LOTS rosin on your bow.

You are kidding, right??

[Lane Pryce]

I was gonna suggest more rosin. Lp

[mandomadman]

I'll give it a shot. Jimmy Page eat your heart out!

[stevem]

Wow you guys are fast! #Thanks for the ansers. #And no I am not kidding. #I was really able to talk that guy down to $75. #It cracks me up to just thinking about it.

At least I do know what rosen is. #So I got it put all over my bow now as thick as possible. #But all it does is just smear all over the strings. #BUt the sound is still non-existence. (And now to top the matter off I've got rosin all over my keybord too! #But I guess that's my problem, not yours.#)

I guess I am still confused too. #One person said to use it like a guitar and another said use it like a violin. #And what does 2" radios on the fingerboard mean?

And to the person named "arbarnhart" (whoever you are), I am not really sure what you're talking about, but the mandolin doesn't look like an electric one, but maybe I'm wrong. #

Any more advise is still really, really appreciated.

[TonyP]

I have to admit, I was really thinking this was a joke or something and I think some of the other guys thought that too. It is a mandolin, not mandolan, it is TUNED like a violin, but played with a pick, not a bow. When they talk about radius, they are talking about the curvature of the string courses so like a violin you can bow the strings separately. When the strings are flat across from each other like a $75 mandolin would be it's impossible to bow it correctly. Toss the bow,it's a mandolin, not a violin, get a pick and then it will sound right, or as right as a $75 mandolin can.

[arbarnhart]

Oh, it isn't electric? I bet you will find 8 hand cranks up at one end, then...



<I still think this is a joke>

[siren_20]

O_o
Wow. Just... wow.

[Keith Erickson]

Seriously, Am I on Candid Camera?

[stevem]

Ok, now I'm starting to feel a little guilty after TonyP's post. I'm not much better than I was letting on, but I have been playing mando (with an actual pick) for about 5 years.

I used to have the user name mando-la-manche, but my log-in name was too long to type in everytime so I had the admin delete me and I got a new account with my real name. I was on a long drive for work today and my brain started working up a fun way to break in my new account. Hopefully no hard feelings, just wanting to have a little good-natured fun.

Feel free to keep giving me advice though, while I try to get this darned rosen off of my keyboard...

[siren_20]

Dude, that was ####### priceless... I'm laughing my arse off!

[stevem]

Shoot. I just realized all the quality posts under my former name are now listed as 'unregistered guest'. 'mando-la-manche' as we knew it, no longer exists. And I was up to 50 or so posts.

Well, let's settle it this way. If you come across any post listed as 'unregistered guest' that is cool, you may safely assume it is mine. #Anything not cool belongs to some loser who has also recently switched his user name.

[fredfrank]

I still think you just need more voltage. Connect the strings to the clothes dryer plug-in, you'll get more sound that way.

[ShaneJ]

OK, here's a compromise between pick & bow.

Grab a green frog, and.....

[gdae85]

I still think you should try more rosin.

[flairbzzt]

Ya know Fred-maybe I should try that 220v dryer outlet for my Prucha-it is european made.that was funny to me-I'm an electrician in real life....

[fredfrank]

Rick, I think European voltage is more like 440V. That would be too much for a mandolin. Perhaps It would work on banjo, however.

[J. Mark Lane]

You guys stop making fun.

Stevem, here's what you do. Get a 40 foot section of 12 guage wire from Home Despot. Cut off a 4 foot section. Trim both ends and tie one end around the G and E courses of the mandolin (that's the big strings and the little ones) down near the bridge (that would be at the fat end of the mandolin). Wrap the other ends around a large nail and drive it into the ground. Then unroll the longer section of the wire, and trim both ends of it. Tie one end around the G and E courses of the mandolin up near the headstock (that's the skinny end). Get a hacksaw and a 40 foot ladder. Grab the other end of the long section of wire and take the hacksaw and climb up a telephone pole. Once up at the top, take the hacksaw and cut through the coating on the largest wires on the telephone pole. Wrap the end of the wires around so that they touch the exposed metal.

If you're still with us, go back down the ladder and plan the mandolin. Don't worry about the intonation (don't even bother looking up that word). Just...um, play it.

I promise you will notice a difference. And so, I suspect, will we.

Hope this helps.

Your pal,

Mark

[arbarnhart]

I still have a memory from my childhood of seeing Jethro (on the Beverly Hillbillies, when we gathered around the TV on Saturday night to see brand new episodes) wiring the phone in a manner similar to what you describe. Special effects were not so great; they just used superimposed the negative of him. But for some reason it was and is hilarious whenever I think of it.

And the theme was bluegrass and I am back on topic, right?

[stevem]

Ok Mark, I tride out your idea. (It cost me about 300 buks! But I guess that's my problem, not yours). I got a scared when I was hacking through the telephone wire because birds were droping dead all over the place and my ecstrematies were tingling. But you said we were pals, so I just decided to trust you.

Anywise, now i'm down here in purgatory hoping for them pearlie gates some day. The music could be beter down here. Here's an idea of what i'm going through...

[J. Mark Lane]

I'm laughing so hard my sides are hurting. I think, after all these thousands of years of philosophizing, you have finally found the definition of H*ll.

[Bob A]

Now if we can spread the Word of Lane to those pesky banjo players . . . might be tricky finding one who can read.