Re: Mando/OM for Americana type music
My band plays in a more or less Americana style, if more toward the rock end than country. Most of the time I am playing my solid body single-string electric MandoBird, with the gain all the way up on the EQ pedal to get a little distortion (for fattening) and then a reverb unit (for sustain, and warmth), a phase pedal (for intrigue, and warmth) and a Morley volume/wah pedal for, well fun, but also, especially on the slow songs, I use just a touch to simulate a pedal steel sound. That said, my acoustic is a 1917 Gibson A which I got on ebay for around $900. This may be out of your budget - and these often go for twice that, so I did well - but I find that it is versatile enough (it could be me and my <ahem!> incredible skill) to handle a variety of genres reasonably well. This is a key point, because to my thinking Americana encompasses several, and also we work without a set list, and I never know what the guitarist/singer is going to throw at us, so I have to be ready. I could be playing John Prine or Steve Earle or Bill Monroe or any number of Texas singer/songwriters, and I have to make it work. Bluegrass sounds fine on it, though I would probably not win a prize at a festival or picking contest. Sometimes I get caught with it still on when I should have the electric, because I have to figure out from what he saying over the mike what is coming up next, and have to get through the first verse or two of a blues or rock song before I can switch. This is what I call "keeping it fresh." So you should have something that can accommodate some variety, because you just never know. BTW, I do put this through the same effects - just take out the cord from one instrument and swap to the other - though tend to just leave the wah at an intermediate setting. Anyway, keep your eye on ebay for a while, maybe something like this will come your way. That good old feel is right there in the wood.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
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