I Love these little guys!

**Sellars** · Mar-21-2004, 7:23am

Hi there,

What begun as a love for mandolins is now rapidly evolving from MAS to MSLAS (Mandolin Scale Length Acquisition Syndrome). I recently bought a baglamas and a ukulele, and I'm currently looking for a balalaika, and maybe a charangoo.

Any more short scale length enthousiast?

Any suggestions on what is missing from my collection?

Are there any middle-eastern instruments with a comparable scale length?

Roel

**Bob DeVellis** · Mar-21-2004, 8:24am

I recently picked up one of those plastic-backed "Flea" ukuleles. It's great fun and quite a change from mandolin. For me, mandolin is all about flatpicking melody (mostly Irish stuff). The ukulele is best suited, it seems, for fingerpicking and strumming. It also supports using wierd chords with walking notes within the chord tracking the melody, something I'd never do on mandolin. I'm sure others do this sort of stuff on mando, but it's new turf for me and the ukulele is leading me there. Plus, it's just a lot of fun. I'd forgotten how easy one-to-a-course nylon strings are to fret. It's conducive to all sorts of fingerings that would be much, much tougher for me on mandolin. I only wish it were tuned in fifths.

**Ted Eschliman** · Mar-21-2004, 8:29am

Get thee to a Strumstick...

**Sellars** · Mar-21-2004, 8:44am

Thanks for the replys!

Yes, those ukeleles really are nifty little things!

@mandohack: How nice I have seen those before indeed. that long one reallt looks like a saz.

**Steve L** · Mar-21-2004, 8:57am

The Scottish musician Tony Cuffe played a tiple from time to time to get a different sonic flavor. I don't know how he tuned it.

**Spruce** · Mar-21-2004, 9:15am

I'm a big Hammertone fan...
One of thee through a Vox AC30 is a thing to behold...

I had an acoustic one made for me that I also play quite a bit...

**jpsy422** · Mar-21-2004, 12:59pm

Originally Posted by (mandohack @ Mar. 21 2004, 09:29)

Get thee to a Strumstick...

I played one of these at a county fair out in washington, fun for about 30 minutes, but after that, there is only so much you can do on em. i guess you could take it to the next level... but at that rate, just buy a dulcimer...

**WireBoy** · Mar-22-2004, 3:52am

Hey Sellars – great topic !

Short scale stuff? #From Russia - How about a baliliaka? #
America -Tenor Banjo, #Banjo Uke, #Banjo mandolin, Dobro Uke, Solid body electric Uke, The Papoopse guitar from Tacoma
Caribean- Puerto Rican Cuatro, Cuban Tres,
Spain – Bandurria and Laud
Mexico – Vihuela
Peru- Charango

All these great things and hundreds more from around the world are at http://larkinthemorning.com . #You can spend hours just checking out the instruments of every culture on the planet. #

Ukulele is so much fun. #I’ve got 2 a Pacific soprano and a Mele concert. #I like it for the mellow jazz chord style playing. #Jim Beloff is the big Kahuna of the recent Uke revival. #His brother in law makes the Flea and Fluke Ukes. #Be sure to check out his www site, http://www.fleamarketmusic.com. #I’ll be getting one soon, they are so cheap and the really sound good !

Spruce !!! – the Hammertone octave 12 looks great !!!! #I checked out the Fbass www site. #Fabulous. #I see you in the list of proud owners. #(I think I saw Hershel Yatovitz from the Chris Isaak show play one in an episode) Can we hear a bit of the hammertone? #Any sounds clips you can post a pointer to? #And an acoustic Hammertone? #Please post a pic of that one? #and a sound clip for that too, please!

Strumstick? #I haven’t been bit by that bug yet. #But thanks for mentioning it Mr. M hack!

**Dave Hicks** · Mar-22-2004, 7:21am

Hmmm... I ought to pull out my charango and tune it up!

**Bruce Evans** · Mar-22-2004, 6:15pm

See if you can get a Brazilian cavaquinho. It is a cousin of the ukulele. They are both descended from the portuguese braguinha, but the cavaquinho has steel strings while the ukulele has nylon strings.

**Arto** · Mar-23-2004, 8:53am

The balalaika has a wierd tuning and playing technique. If you want to add something Russian in your Collection of Short Scale Instruments, a domra would be easier for a mandolin player. A 4-string domra is tuned just like the mandolin, a 3-string domra is tuned in fourths. There´s a whole family of domras, just like there´s a family of mandos (and balalaikas!)

**Spruce** · Mar-23-2004, 12:24pm

"Can we hear a bit of the hammertone? #Any sounds clips you can post a pointer to?

You hear the Hammertone all the time on recordings, and probably think it's a Ricky 12 on steroids...
Sarah McLaughlin's recent record has it on there quite a bit...
But my favorite Hammertone records are the ones made by Buddy and Julie Miller. #There are a couple that seem to have Hammertone on every track...
Also Dan Lanois recordings feature the instrument quite a bit...

I've got a CD in the can that is almost entirely Hammertone-driven, but I'm sidetracked on another project at the moment, so it will be awhile before it sees the light of day...

Here's a pic of my favorite Hammertone setup....
Hammertone>1962 Vox AC15 Twin>EV RE38 mic...
Lovely sound...

**Spruce** · Mar-23-2004, 12:28pm

" #And an acoustic Hammertone? #Please post a pic of that one? #and a sound clip for that too, please!""

Here's a pic of the acoustic octave-12 string built by Ted Beringer...
Archtop, with a great sound...
The scale length is a bit too small, but it's still very playable...
Nice axe...

**Áine** · Mar-23-2004, 1:08pm

Here's a great place to hear some tamburitza music. #They even have transcriptions for some pieces.

Tamburaland

Enjoy!

All the best, Áine

**vkioulaphides** · Mar-25-2004, 8:23am

Playing the double bass for a living, day in, day out, with its 42-inch scale, I have a curious experience: I find instruments with a long scale (but not as long as the bass) oddly confusing; my reflexes seem to want to go with the 42 inches they have been conditioned to since adolescence (that is, ehm... a while ago

On the other hand, with an instrument as small as the mandolin, the "reflex confusion" simply dissipates: When I play mandolin, I think mandolin; no reference to anything else.

I find this very, very hard to explain, either to myself or to the many mando-friends who have encouraged me most warmly to take up the mandocello, (full-size) zouk or other such, long-scale lutes. (Their point, of course, is based on my de facto fluency in reading bass-clef, not any other promising quality on my part

So: 42 inches, good; 13, good. In between... ? Or, in true scientific terms (ha, ha):

42 > (*&^*%*@#^&@%)* > 13

**Eugene** · Mar-25-2004, 9:33am

Originally Posted by (Spruce @ Mar. 23 2004, 13:28)

Here's a pic of the acoustic octave-12 string built by Ted Beringer...
Archtop, with a great sound...
The scale length is a bit too small, but it's still very playable...
Nice axe...

Assuming octave guitar tuning, one could apply the original terminology to such a thing...and its ring is tres chic. Try "mandolino Genovese" on for size. It was Paganini's first instrument.

**Eugene** · Mar-25-2004, 9:36am

...And Sellars, let's not forget the domra (both Russian four-stringers and Ukranian three-stringers), the renaissance mandore, the mandolino in five or six courses of the baroque era, and how about a Chinese yuet chin for good measure?

**Eugene** · Mar-25-2004, 9:38am

...Oops. I see Arto beat me to domra.

**jeffshuniak** · Mar-25-2004, 10:13am

what about tzouras, lyre of crete...

I will have them all eventually.:laugh: I would like a domra, a tzoura, a baglama, and the I cant spell balaikaila, or can I ? too lazy to scroll up...

**pklima** · Mar-25-2004, 10:27am

Are the German waldzither and the Portugese guitarra too big? They're roughly mandola-sized citterns.

**Arto** · Mar-25-2004, 3:24pm

"let's not forget the domra (both Russian four-stringers and Ukranian three-stringers)"

Sorry Eugene, actually it´s other way round. The 3-string domra was (re?)created by the father of balalaika revival, Andreyev, in 1890s I think, and the 4-string one in early 1900s by Lyubimov. The 3-stringer is standard in Russia, the 4-stringer is popular in Ukrainia and in some parts of southern Russia.

Back to the original subject:
how about guittern and citole?

greetings, Arto

**Eugene** · Mar-25-2004, 5:51pm

You are correct, Arto, and I am adept at typographic error. I even have a good friend of Ukranian descent with a proper Ukranian four-stringer! Thank you for that.

**WireBoy** · Mar-26-2004, 11:28pm

Bruce, thanks for the hammertone pics. looking forward to the hammertone CD.

And once again let me say Ukelele's are so darn fine. #They are so gentle and subtle. #everyone should have a Uke, if only to honor George Harrison.