Any guitar players who've all but abandoned their 6-strings?

**Pipeous** · Jan-23-2012, 8:47pm

and finger picking a mandolin just sounds thin though I do it sometimes. some habits...

**Kip Carter** · Jan-23-2012, 9:14pm

Originally Posted by Jill McAuley

I sold both my electric and acoustic guitars back in Ireland to fund my move to the States
Cheers,
Jill

Funny how people always want to be going different directions... I've wanted to go to Ireland for most of my life! How long you been in the states Jill?
Kip...

**Mandobart** · Jan-23-2012, 9:17pm

Funny you chose "6-strings" vs "guitar" for abandonment in the subject. I have pretty much abandoned my six string guitars (I sold my electric due to non-use). Also, after taking up octave mandolin and mandocello I've satisfied the itch for a larger instrument for solo performance. Anything that sounds good to me on a guitar will sound as good (or better) on OM or 'cello. Fingerpicking works well on these larger instruments, too. I also don't want to be just another guy with a guitar at the jam. I've had so many more playing opportunities with mandolin that I never had as a guitar player. I find on mandolin family instruments the songs just flow out. Writing a song with guitar never seemed as easy or enjoyable. And I'm another who despite decades of playing music never really got into theory until I took up mandolin.

But - I haven't abandoned my 12 string. I still like to play it almost as often as my mando's (maybe 4 times a week vs every day).

**sachmo63** · Jan-23-2012, 9:23pm

Yes, my story also. I played guitar for a long time and was quite good. I have a beeeeutiful Huss and Dalton TDR but can't bare the thought of playing guitar anymore. In fact, the saying I like to say is "if I hear another G run i'm gunna puke".

The last time I played guitar was for a xmas gig in town with some unmentioned butt head (mandolin player) and I regret pretending to have fun playing guitar and agreeing to play the job with that butt head!

So it sits in my closet while I play mandolin every day.

**Eliot Greenspan** · Jan-23-2012, 9:31pm

I resemble these remarks

**Pipeous** · Jan-23-2012, 9:35pm

I have an octave mandolin enroute so maybe the guitar will go the way of the dodo too lol

**Kip Carter** · Jan-23-2012, 9:37pm

Originally Posted by Pipeous

I have an octave mandolin enroute so maybe the guitar will go the way of the dodo too lol

That is an interesting thing to note too... I love my mandolin but my first build project is going to be be and Octave.... cuz I just want one!!!
Kip...

**Pipeous** · Jan-23-2012, 9:40pm

It's all your fault I got an octave coming Kip haha... should be here any day now... then I have to build it

**Kip Carter** · Jan-23-2012, 9:43pm

I'm sorry Barry...NOOOOOOOOOOOOOoootttt!!! You're gonna have a blast with that! Remember to take notes for me!
Kip...

**Santiago** · Jan-23-2012, 9:56pm

I still have my custom 335 and my blonde Ibanez acoustic, but I sendom play them. I'd unload my acoustic, but it's not worth much and I just can't part with my 335. Once in a while the bug bites me, like earlier this evening, or I hit a plateau on mandolin and I go guitar crazy for a few weeks, but it wears off.

**JeffD** · Jan-23-2012, 9:58pm

Originally Posted by jaycat

It's all about the chair. If you're in an armchair, you go for the mando. On the couch, the guitar has an even shot.

**JeffD** · Jan-23-2012, 10:02pm

Originally Posted by Charley wild

I don't play guitar as much as I used to but sometimes only the Tele will do!

**Ray Neuman** · Jan-23-2012, 10:40pm

I have had to all but abandon the guitar due to arm/neck damage. I just wish a good mandolin didnt cost the good arm! LOL

**terzinator** · Jan-24-2012, 1:20am

Fun hearing your tales.

I pulled out the D-18VS tonight because I wanted to make some backing tracks for a couple of fiddle tunes.

Man that thing is a big beast. And the neck, holy crap. Tried figuring out a few fiddle tune melodies by ear, and I remember why I never liked to play them on guitar. Intuitive, it is not!

It sure does sound nice, though.

I don't know if it's going to be this way forever, but I'm so much happier playing mandolin. No question.

**John Flynn** · Jan-24-2012, 2:05am

I'd been playing guitar aobut 20 years when I got a cheap mando. I was hooked right away. Within a year, I upgraded and also realized the mando had become my main instrument. Now, nearly 20 years after that, I still have one guitar, a Martin 000-15S, which I rarely play. I started playing the electric bass guitar about a year ago, because that's what was needed at church. I've gotten OK at that and while I don't like it nearly as much as I do the mandolin, I like it a lot more than I thought I would.

**Ivan Kelsall** · Jan-24-2012, 2:18am

I honestly can't remember the last time i even saw my 2 Guitars,& even my Banjo,my 'main' instrument, is beginning to understand the meaning of loneliness !!. I love almost every style of Guitar playing there is,that's my problem - which style do i go for ?.On Banjo & now Mandolin,it's Bluegrass,so that's what i'm into.I don't feel that i'd be a very good Guitar flat-picker,but how would i know unless i try. Or should i try Jazz or Blues or even Ragtime & on, & on, &, on &......................... !!!,
Ivan

**P.D. Kirby** · Jan-24-2012, 4:21am

While I love to play and hear the Mandolin played my first love was and still is the Banjo. Rather than give up one for the other I just make more time to practice and play both. In the early mornings when I first get up (4am) the house rules are no Banjo playing until all are up and awake so I play the Mandolin in the mornings. Once everyone is up and on their way to school and work I get out the old 5 string and rattle the rafters. Guitars I just keep around in case someone stops by to jam, yes I can play the Guitar but it just never held my interest like the Banjo or Mandolin.

**Dave Hicks** · Jan-24-2012, 7:18am

Guitar and mandolin seem completely complementary to me. I think of guitar in terms of chords and chord-based improvisation. Mando seems like a more melodic instrument. Also, when I play guitar, it's more likely to be electric and mando is almost always acoustic.

Having said that, I do tend to go in cycles - sometimes more guitar, sometimes more mando, sometimes charango or lap steel. Unfortunately, none of the cycles lasts long enough for me to learn very much.

D.H.

**KennyE** · Jan-24-2012, 9:38am

I just need a couple more hours in the day ... no, wait. I need to stay awake!! a couple more hours in the day so I can give them all the time they deserve. Mandolin, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo and fiddle. Love them all. But the poor little resonator just sits in the case hoping I'll find time to tinker on it.

**Jill McAuley** · Jan-24-2012, 11:19am

Originally Posted by Kip Carter

Funny how people always want to be going different directions... I've wanted to go to Ireland for most of my life! How long you been in the states Jill?
Kip...

Moved here in '08, though had lived here on and off prior to that but always ended up getting homesick and heading back home, then once I was there I'd miss my pals and life in the States and cross the pond again!

Cheers,
Jill

**Ed Goist** · Jan-24-2012, 12:54pm

Originally Posted by Charley wild

I don't play guitar as much as I used to but sometimes only the Tele will do!

Hear, Hear! My Telecaster is also my lone guitar hold-out...
I've not yet found an acceptable substitute for the amplified and well overdriven guitar Power Chord.
Maybe an electric Tenor Guitar of E-O-Mando will supplant the Tele for that someday, but until then, I'm sticking with Mississippi Red...

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**Markus** · Jan-24-2012, 1:02pm

Never play the guitar anyome, excepting to add another layer when I'm using my looper or recording.

I don't think I'd get rid of it ... at least until my daughter is grown and doesn't want it.

**catmandu2** · Jan-24-2012, 2:15pm

Originally Posted by Ed Goist

Hear, Hear! My Telecaster ...

I always rhapsodize what great blues instruments are clarinet and accordian (my new favs)...but the tele!...I can't get much satisfaction like Keith on the ol box and stick

**John Rosett** · Jan-24-2012, 3:04pm

I all but gave up guitar in the early 80's in favor of the mandolin, but over the years, my tastes have changed, and I now play at least twice as much guitar as mandolin. I became very interested in western swing and 50's country and it is just more satisfying to play that stuff on guitar than mandolin for me. I also find mandolin more difficult than guitar due to arthritis in my left hand fingers. Fortunately, I have a weekly mandolin gig that requires a certain amount of practice, so I do play it a couple of times every week.
These days, the electric guitar and steel guitar are what I'm most interested in.

**Markus** · Jan-24-2012, 3:31pm

Originally Posted by terzinator

Man that thing is a big beast. And the neck, holy crap.

After playing mandolin for a while, playing a guitar is like hugging a bear ... huge body of the instrument and ten times the space between frets that I remember. Sure does sound nice - mine comes out for backing/looping tracks too.

The bright voice of the mandolin and the logical fretboard are impossible to beat. I had a mandolin for 6 or 7 years before it converted me a couple years ago ... and once the mandolin clicked, my time with guitar will always be less.