Since the electric mandolin is something of a niche instrument unless you really stretch out on it, I'm wondering how the rest of you have adapted your electrics to your style/taste in music.
In my case, I've made a conscious decision to stay as far away from bluegrass/mandolin styles on my electrics as possible. My early experiments with my Schwab (just after I got it) demonstrated to me that I was going to have to invent a hybridized style of playing if I was going to get out of it what I wanted.
I spent a long while (at least two or three years) coaxing Steely Dan licks and various other jazz-type musics out of the Schwab. It was easy to adapt to the Steely Dan style, because so much of the really fun stuff is single note, and the fun I had playing, note for note, Dan guitar solos (that I had never been able to touch on the guitar) was enough to convince me early on that I had found the right instrument.
But, my chording suffered considerably. Typical mandolin chords just don't sound right when incorporated into most rock music. There's something vaguely whiny and too major about them. I got a little fed up with trying two-finger variations on them, some of which worked and some of which were miserable failures.
I returned to playing mostly single note runs and occasional double-stops of one type or another, and pretty much stayed away from chords altogether.
Then, a brief experimentation with a Flatiron bouzouki gave me what I needed - exposure to barred two- and three-finger chords that could be played over a short distance, and that had a very guitar-esque power-chord-ish sound.
When I took that back to the emando, it was exactly what I needed. It's not that I was looking to completely replace/mimic a guitar, but since I would prefer to play the emando in a band setting (and most groups I play with don't want to play bluegrassy stuff) I need to be able to sound like a guitar (tonally) in the right places.
With those barred chords, I can do what I wanted to do: play rock riffs interchangeably with decent soloing ability.
Hence, my recent foray into Queen.
I've played with the following:
<ul>[*]Steely Dan: this one is pretty successful. They're jazzy enough that standard mandolin chord voicings often fit right into the music, and there's enough solo work in there that you don't always have to worry about chords.[*]Huey Lewis and the News: I don't do this often, but it's surprisingly easy on the mandolin.[*]Queen: Really gave me a run for my money early on. First one I ever tried was Killer Queen, which was relatively simple, but stuff like "One Vision", "Hammer to Fall," or "I Want to Break Free" was a nightmare. But, using those barred power chords and a good boost, it's possible to get surprisingly close to the May tone. And the rest is just fretboard acrobatics.[/list]
Those are a few of my attempts. Needless to say they're not always successful, but I played with some guys the other weekend, and the entire songlist comprised groups like Zeppelin, the Who, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, and (hooray!) Steely Dan. "Reelin' in the Years" was a blast.
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Originally Posted by (jgarber @ May 31 2007, 08:39)
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