instrument response to external sounds

[Bill Bradshaw]

I recently got a new (to me) mandolin that I'm having a blast playing. Among the many things I've noticed about it, relative to the 20 Gibson A I used to play, is that it vibrates noticably in response to other instruments being played. Like when I'm just holding it and not playing at all. Is this normal, good, bad, unique, common, unusual?

Just curious about it as I've never noticed it before.

Thanks for any responses.

Cheers,

Bill

[Chris Keth]

I recently got a new (to me) mandolin that I'm having a blast playing. Among the many things I've noticed about it, relative to the 20 Gibson A I used to play, is that it vibrates noticably in response to other instruments being played. Like when I'm just holding it and not playing at all. Is this normal, good, bad, unique, common, unusual?

Just curious about it as I've never noticed it before.

Thanks for any responses.

Cheers,

Bill

I see that as a very good thing. It means it's very sensitive to vibrations around it, which most likely means that it is good and loud when your strings are driving it.

[Bill Bradshaw]

Thanks Chris:

Yes, you are right. It is plenty loud and really responds to a light touch on the strings.

Thanks,

Bill

[man dough nollij]

There have been threads on this phenomenon before. If you hum loudly into the top, you will probably find that there is a certain frequency that causes it to resonate. You can even use a tuner to find out what that resonant frequency is.

I don't know what it all means, but it's cool because it makes it seem that the mandolin is "alive". :disbelief:

[Bill Bradshaw]

There have been threads on this phenomenon before. If you hum loudly into the top, you will probably find that there is a certain frequency that causes it to resonate. You can even use a tuner to find out what that resonant frequency is.

I don't know what it all means, but it's cool because it makes it seem that the mandolin is "alive". :disbelief:

Thanks a lot. I didn't think to search on the word "resonate" which did indeed turn up some past, and useful, threads.

Cheers,

Bill