Jake Wildwood
Apr-30-2009, 11:44am
Well here's a funny one... this is a nice early 1900s Il Globo with a zero fret and brass tuners with bone knobs... rosewood bowl and very pretty spruce top. I've done a bit of work including: brace re-glues, top seam repairs, usual setup and finish work, fret polish/dressing, whatnot. I liked the sound with steel strings (very resonant and loud!) but it has a hair of warp in the neck which makes it feel like a typical "beginner's mandolin" in terms of playability -- ok but not what I like.
My solution? I've always wanted to try nylon on a bowlback and luckily I had enough leftover nylgut charango string bits and enough leftover uke fluorocarbon string bits to do so. I've strung it DGBE with octaves on the D and E... and it's really fun, like a quick-playing, deep-sounding charango (my argument with charangos is the super-wide flat neck). I think next time around I might use all nylgut and not octaves and string it in 5ths either CGDA or GDAE.
Can't wait to do some recording with it, however!
Here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlMTHp5WVzA) so you can hear/see it...
My solution? I've always wanted to try nylon on a bowlback and luckily I had enough leftover nylgut charango string bits and enough leftover uke fluorocarbon string bits to do so. I've strung it DGBE with octaves on the D and E... and it's really fun, like a quick-playing, deep-sounding charango (my argument with charangos is the super-wide flat neck). I think next time around I might use all nylgut and not octaves and string it in 5ths either CGDA or GDAE.
Can't wait to do some recording with it, however!
Here's a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlMTHp5WVzA) so you can hear/see it...