Emando in the guitar range ?

[Klaus Wutscher]

Hi yáll
having played a couple of emandos and having one on loan and given the fact that I have a background in electric guitar playing , my problem is that all emandos sound too "bottomless" to me, compared to an electric guitar. my question is, is there anybody who builds or plays an emando that is tuned down to the tonal range of the guitar (give or take a few notes)? Does it work(sound, scalelength) Could it work in a country/countryrock band?

thanks
klaus

[jmkatcher]

There are a few electric octave mandolins out there, most notably those from Joseph Yanuziello. I've thought about getting one of these or having a custom made for the same purpose. What I wonder about is whether the sound would be that much different from my emando with the treble rolled off a bit which is how I usually play it.

[mandocrucian]

For single string setups, I go with a mini e-guitar conversion. #Tune it G D A E a or G D A E b, the four bottom strings an octave below a mando. #For all practical purposes, it's just a short scale (17" or 19") electric guitar in a tuning. #Rock players can be just as narrowminded as any BG banjo fanatic, so I avoid using the "M" word whenever possibile. Say the the M word and you'll be immediately consigned to "Rocky Top" and then the reject bin. Especially if you can match or outplay the electric guitarist on their type material. (And if you were a female playing the "M" instrument, then it would really rattle mental cages with a double whammy.) #If asked about what I'm playing, I make up something about using "Ry Cooder tuning" or "the Keith Richards tuning" which pretty much defuses the issue.

I've done lead guitar gigs with these things. Not as good for all-around rhythm stuff as guitar, but it can be done if you don't have to play a lot of 6-string arpeggios and such. But still miles and miles ahead of trying to do it on a regularly tuned mando

I've got to stick the necks of my MandoBirdVIII and 5-string mandola conversion onto a single (doubleneck) body so I can switch off between necks at will.

Niles Hokkanen
<span style='font-size:8pt;line-height:100%'>Yahoo Groups: RockMando (http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/rockmando/)</span>

[mandroid]

Maybe you would love my Pentalin, thats FS,in the classifieds, designed to start 3,1/2 steps lower than typical 5 string ,Its bottom A same as open A on guitar.

[Klaus Wutscher]

The one thing that makes me a bit sceptical about a longer neck is the increased stretching. I tried a "bayby strat" (or whatever they call these things) and playing that thing without a capo for three or four sets seems pretty scary. But then again, I really like the idea of the doubleneck - maybe that would be something!

[seano]

You ought to check out the "Kingston" electric mandola in the classifieds. I've got one of these tuned in mandolin tunig, but drop it down a 5th and you get the nice low C. I can get some pretty funky sounds out of it, but it definately does not sound like an acoustic. And it is a bit of a stretch w/ the longer scale, but the goofy little ####### sure is fun to play.