View Full Version : Newbie, here's my mandolin
plaintop
Nov-10-2007, 7:59pm
Hello, I'm very new to the Mandolin, but very well versed at electric and acoustic guitar. Here's my entry level Bradley Mandolin. It sounds really good. I think it even has Brazilian rosewood back and sides.
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff258/plaintop/mando1.jpg
http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff258/plaintop/mando2.jpg
JEStanek
Nov-10-2007, 8:05pm
It looks nice! Welcome to the Café.
Jamie
plaintop
Nov-10-2007, 8:40pm
Hi Jamie, thanks for the welcome.
It's cool, nothing like what some of you here have. I just wanted to see if I could get into the instrument without spending too much. So far, I'm really enjoying it.
johnwalser
Nov-10-2007, 9:43pm
plaintop,
If your journey into mandolin playing yields you even a quarter of the pleasure it has brought me, you will be a very lucky individual.
John
Hi plaintop, welcome! Nice mandolin - enjoy http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Fliss
ab4usa
Nov-11-2007, 7:37am
Welcome indeed! Nice to see a fellow Marylander here.
Soupy1957
Nov-11-2007, 8:02am
Greetings from Connecticut, and the world of Mandolin players. Watch out for "M.A.S.!!!"
-Soupy1957
plaintop
Nov-11-2007, 8:41am
Thanks everyone!
Very nice looking mandolin...have fun!
plaintop
Nov-11-2007, 8:58am
Yeah, for $70 with a case, it's hard to beat this one. Bradley instruments were made in Japan for Veneman's music, who had shops around the Washington DC area in the '70s and '80s (they eventually sold out to GC). So, these instruments pop up around here from time to time and I had been wanting to get a Mandolin for while. I passed on a 1920s Gibson F style mandolin the same shop had earlier this year for a grand, and have been regretting it ever since.
Can anyone confirm the rosewood origin from the back shot?
Kevin Briggs
Nov-11-2007, 9:24am
I passed on a 1920s Gibson F style mandolin the same shop had earlier this year for a grand, and have been regretting it ever since.
Wow.... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
You should have gotten that. I mean, wow....
plaintop
Nov-11-2007, 9:28am
Yeah, I just wasn't into them, and had no understanding of the value of them. I think that model is worth about 6k. It was a highly decorative 'burst with the scroll headstock and said "the gibson" on it. Believe me, I still regret not at least buying it for resale.
Kevin Briggs
Nov-11-2007, 9:53am
Did it have F holes?
plaintop
Nov-11-2007, 10:12am
I don't remember. It had an inlay on the headstock, and had a hard shell case with maybe purple interior? That's all I really remember about it.
mandolooter
Nov-11-2007, 10:53am
all still ends well...ya got yo self a mando!
elvisNoir
Nov-12-2007, 2:04pm
Yeah, for $70 with a case, it's hard to beat this one. Bradley instruments were made in Japan for Veneman's music, who had shops around the Washington DC area in the '70s and '80s (they eventually sold out to GC). So, these instruments pop up around here from time to time and I had been wanting to get a Mandolin for while. I passed on a 1920s Gibson F style mandolin the same shop had earlier this year for a grand, and have been regretting it ever since.
Can anyone confirm the rosewood origin from the back shot?
The back on that mando definitely appears to be rosewood of the type that has been put on good quality acoustic guitars for a couple of decades. I don't know this mando brand, so if you want to verify that it is a solid back, you can illuminate the interior of the mando and look in to see if the grain matches inside and out. Just for something to do, ya know? #Enjoy.
One other thing. This may not be applicable at all but, while I am here...
I also have a pacrim mando which although it is a lively mando, it doesn't have a pretty tone. It has a slightly bright sound, not very sweet, and a slight sharpness to the high trebles--this is very typical of many pacrim jobs.
In search of better tone--and I offer this thinking that you might be in the same boat--I put the Weber all-wood Bekke Bridge on it in place of the Loar-copy standard bridge, and it made a lot of difference in the sound. It now sounds a bit sweeter, a bit "woodier", a bit more complex in tone. All for the price of a bridge.
MY THEORY: many folks don't like this Brekke bridge as well, and I suspect that it is because it takes a mando's sound a step or two in the darker direction, and it might reduce volume...not sure about that last part.
Most folks that have tried this brige likely have a decent sounding mando to start with, and what they are after, I believe, is an enhancement of, an unleashing of, the existing qualities and tone they think are restrained by the existing "standard" bridge. That is not what this bridge does, I think. Instead it allows some of the sweeter, woodier sound to emerge, and it restrains the tinny top end. That seems to be it, I have seen it on other mandos.
plaintop
Nov-12-2007, 7:48pm
Hi, thanks for the info, what is a "pacrim mando?"
The tone is bright and loud for sure. Not very woody at all. I was thinking of putting EXP strings on it get more woodiness out of it. The bridge has a sway, so I'm not opposed to replacing, but I don't want to spend much on this one.
mandolooter
Nov-13-2007, 12:26am
pacrim = made in Asia...Korea, China, etc.
JEStanek
Nov-13-2007, 8:24am
PACific RIM...
Andrew Faltesek
Nov-28-2007, 9:51am
Its not a foolproof identifier; but rosewood from Brazil will have a purple undertone or flash, and the East Indian type will look more red/brown.
That's a nice mando...$70 what a steal!