Inexpensive OM?

[Huda]

I recently moved from guitar to mandolin, and instantly fell in love with the mandolin's 5th's tunings.

However, my chubby fingers have a hard time fitting onto the mandolin's tiny fretboard (and the high pitch of the mandolin is a little TOO high for my ears).

So anyway, I thought that an OM or a bouzouki would be a good alternative. I rented a Greek bouzouki for a month and it is wonderful (although I think I would prefer the smaller scale length of the OM). However, both the bouzouki and the OM are expensive!

My budget for a new instrument is limited to about $250. Do you fine people have any suggestions for what I can do on this limited budget?

P.S. I was so inspired by the idea of an OM/bouzouki that I converted my old acoustic guitar into an OM! I followed the instructions at the following website, added 2 tuners to the headstock, and strung the instrument with bouzouki strings.

Convert guitar to octave mandolin (http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/mandolin.htm)

The resultant product is fun to play, but sounds more like a guitar than a bouzouki. I figure I can practice on this one until I get a real OM/bouzouki.


Any thoughts?

[Huda]

A few more questions:

1. Does anybody have any comments about the Soares'y brand of OM? I keep seeing them on ebay but I don't know anything about them.

2. Would you guys recommend Lark in the Morning? How is their service?

Thanks!

[mad dawg]

I can't speak to your OM questions, but I am familiar with Lark in the Morning. They are definitely a fun place to visit (I enjoy visiting their SF and Mendocino stores a few times a year), but their service is sub-par for a music store. They don't do shop setup on their stringed instruments, they don't accept returns, and they won't sell on approval; so, if you buy from them, you should do so in person (or through a proxy) so you know what you are getting.

[glauber]

Why not a tenor guitar? It would be more like what you're used to, but keeping the 5ths tuning. I think "average" ones show up in eBay for $200-ish.

[Jim M.]

For $250, I'd say you can't get much that's worthwhile. Save your money and play your converted guitar for now.

Some people here have had experience with the Troubador brand mandola. They may chime in but the reviews seem to be that it's not too bad for the money, but the set-up can be pretty bad. They also make a bouzouki in your price range: http://www.troubadour.uk.com/mandozouki.html

I have no personal experience with the Soares'y brand, but, for what it's worth, I have heard that their tenor guitars are not bad for the money.

And, like mad dawg says, Lark is a fun place to visit, but I wouldn't want to buy there. Their stuff is generally over-priced, i.e., you can get the same budget quality instruments for less money elsewhere. And, I've found their in store service to be more ignorant and have worse attitude than at Guitar Center, so I wouldn't trust them for mail order.

[Huda]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Here are a few more questions:

Do you guys know if there is such a thing as an 8-string tenor guitar?

Are their bodies all shaped in the traditional guitar shape, or do they come in more exotic mandolin-esque body shapes?

Where would you buy one (other than ebay)?

Thanks again.

[RolandTumble]

Hmmmm.... I think that most people would consider an 8-string tenor guitar to be a "guitar-bodied octave mandolin" or a "guitar-bodied long scale (tenor) mandola", though I might get some argument on that.

Aside from old National resonators, which tend to a rounded-triangle body shape, all the tenor guitars I've seen have been in one or another variant of "normal" guitar shapes. They do come with either arched or flat tops--arched are almost always floating-bridge-and-tailpiece affairs, flat-tops can be either that or pin bridges (like a "normal" flat-top guitar).

Traditional tenor guitar tuning is that of the mandola ("tenor mandola" in Europe): CGDA. Second most common is prob'ly OM, and then there are several others. The Yahoo "Tenor Guitar Registry" group will have more information than you ever wanted (unless you get the tenor bug, as I did after finding one at a garage sale...), including an item in the Files section that lists recommended string gauges for several different tunings.

My first recommendation for buying a tenor--after eBay, where I've had good experiences, but YMMV--would be Elderly Instruments (http://www.elderly.com). I'm sure that other vintage dealers get them in from time to time, but Elderly is another place that I can vouch for personally (NFI), and they're good about keeping their Used/Vintage section up-to-date. Look for tenor guitars in the "Tenor and Plectrum Instruments" sub-section of the banj* section, used or new (new they stock the Gold Tone at $446 (currently), and they seem to get used through fairly often).

Several luthiers will build them for you, but that's way out of the budget you set for an OM....