New Fender Emando

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Mine:

That is a truly great photo.

[mrmando]

Had a chat with Alex Gregory today...he was surprisingly (methought) positive about the Mando-Strat. Said he played it at NAMM and found it worthwhile, particularly the jumbo frets.

[wellvis@well.com]

A couple of years ago, Fender put out a "reissue" of an early lap steel. It looked cool, and there was a lot of buzz about it in the lap steel world. Unfortunately, Fender cheaped out, and put a crappy sounding strat pickup in it, and the buzz died quickly. I don't think that they are going to do much differently on the Mando-strat, as far as custom shop options, etc. I'm sure that you could get the Fender custom shop to build you one, but and original would probably be cheaper.

Actually there were a lot of complaints about the Fender FS-52 lap steel, ranging from the chrome fretboard that prevented you from placing the bar correctly (and reflected stage lights back into your eyes), to the pickup cover that prevented correct hand placement. The Steel Guitar Forum had several previous discussions.

I expect the Mando-Strat will fare better. I wish Fender would try again in the lap steel market, although there is this solid koa Stringmaster style Deluxe 8 shown at NAMM - price? $12,000.

[Michael Eck]

Anyone have body width and overall length measurements for the Mando-Strat. I'm case/bag shopping while I wait for mine to arrive.

[Ed Goist]

Had a chat with Alex Gregory today...he was surprisingly (methought) positive about the Mando-Strat. Said he played it at NAMM and found it worthwhile, particularly the jumbo frets.

Jumbo frets?! My cockles are warming.

[F-2 Dave]

Anyone have body width and overall length measurements for the Mando-Strat. I'm case/bag shopping while I wait for mine to arrive.

The old mandocaster is appox. 25 1/2" long by 10" wide. The outside dimensions of the case are 28"x 11 1/2"x 3 3/4".
I'm just guessing that the new mando-strat is the same size.

[OKMike]

Has anyone on here played one of these yet???

[Verne Andru]

I "played" one unplugged at NAMM.

[Spruce]

Apparently these are shipping...
Here's a sighting....

[John Eischen]

They shipped to Netherlands before the US!!!

[mrmando]

Hm. Well, the fellow who posted his Mando-Strat says he lives "in the Dutch mountains," but since there are no mountains in the Netherlands, I wouldn't make too much of that. It's probably a reference to this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Dutch_Mountains

That being said, Indonesia is a former Dutch colony and the import/export process between it and the Netherlands might for that reason be quicker and less complicated than between Indonesia and the USA.

[Spruce]

Ahhh, I did not notice that...

[mandroid]

dutch mountains .. Geographically, Maastricht , in the NL SE corner,
starts getting rather Hilly..
Amstel sponsored UCI Bicycle race is held there, annually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstel_Gold_Race.

and now back to the regular musical Program..

[mandopete]

Dutch Mountain Music played on the Fender Emando....

I can hear it now!

[MikeEdgerton]

Hey, look at the little electric guitar!

http://youtu.be/dYTz1WYuXQ4

[Pete Martin]

What did you all think of the sound of this demo? I thought it sounded really harsh and ugly.

[Spruce]

What did you all think of the sound of this demo? I thought it sounded really harsh and ugly.

....kinda like the vintage Mandocasters?

[Eddie Sheehy]

So, Bruce, did you play one at NAMM?

[sbarnes]

i havbe one on order (u.s.a.) and was told they would ship in feb. (not specific date, just feb.) - looking forward to it.....

[MikeEdgerton]

What did you all think of the sound of this demo? I thought it sounded really harsh and ugly.

I got the feeling that the guy playing it played the guitar and not the mandolin although the original could sound very guitar like.

[Spruce]

So, Bruce, did you play one at NAMM?

Not through an amp, Eddie...
Just acoustically, and it felt pretty good...

But I did play a really nice late 50's Mandocaster that same weekend (through a Princeton) a lot, and it had that same midrange "honk" that I'm hearing on that Fender demo of the new Mando Strat (or whatever the hell they call it)....

[delsbrother]

Is that the original case?

[Lock]

Hey Spruce,

I will second that question about the case.
Do you know what it was?
It looks like my J.Bovier would fit in there nicely.
Or if anyone knows of a good hard case for my J.Bovier, please comment (sorry for hijacking thread).

Lock

Not through an amp, Eddie...
Just acoustically, and it felt pretty good...

But I did play a really nice late 50's Mandocaster that same weekend (through a Princeton) a lot, and it had that same midrange "honk" that I'm hearing on that Fender demo of the new Mando Strat (or whatever the hell they call it)....

[Spruce]

Hmmm....
Not sure about that case...
Back with you in a bit...

[Pete Martin]

Jonnathon Mann has a couple different case options with his electrics. Might want to contact him and see where he gets them.