Signing off for a while...

[pklima]

I hope this doesn't start some giant flame war...

I've decided to concentrate on bass and give up on the mando, guitar and most everything else. This is really less of a decision and more of a recognition of facts. I'm a much better bassist than anything else. There's also much more demand for bassists, and none of the other instruments have been played outside my house since last year. Well, house and backyard, to be precise. So everything else gets neglected while my bass skills improve.

I still enjoy playing mando (and have just figured out I like mandola even better), but being a multi-instrumentalist isn't very useful if one can play any low-end instruments with any degree of skill. I'm keeping the cello banjo, though, as that makes a good portable bass substitute. Being tuned in fifths and having frets makes it a distant mando-cousin, doesn't it?

Perhaps I'll come back to mando someday. Maybe I'll take up tuba instead, or pick up electric bass again (I gave that up a few years ago). I'll see...

[Tom C]

Good luck and I hope you never completely put it down.

[vkioulaphides]

Your choice. Best of luck. Hardly flame-worthy, Peter.

Speaking for myself, however, I never let making a living on the bass get in the way of all the fun I have on the mando. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

P.S. ... lousy mandolinist as I may be.

Stay in touch!

[Jim Garber]

No flaming at all Peter. You have been a worthy contributor to this board. Cello banjo is not all that far from its mando cousins so please "stop by" whenever you feel like it. You are always welcome here.

In fact the bass is just a mandolin turned upside down in tuning http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Jim

[Rex]

I've done the same thing a couple of times. I sold my guitars a few years ago to focus on mandolin (I played mando in a band at that time). Also sold my two fiddles and my concertina. I had become a jack of all trades and master of none. About a year ago I ditched the mandos to focus on classical guitar. I had dropped out of the band earlier and my F style was causing me to have hand problems. A year later now and I like to plink on the mando a bit once again, but remain focused on the guitar. I agree with you that there is little demand for mandolin players (outside of the bluegrass world). Many of the local players here play mando as a second instrument, not their main instrument (again, bluegrass aside). I am not suggesting that the mando is a novelty instrument, but it seems that it is sometimes treated that way.

[RSW]

Cello-banjo? We'll have to commision or write a cracking duo with this instrument in mind and I'll play the mando-banjo. Seriously, I can understand the limiting factor of TIME with all of these instruments. I'm faced with trying to keep 4 or 5 instruments (mandolins of all sorts, mandola and violins) on some sort of consistent and acceptable level. Worked out a few shortcuts for the technical side. Problem is that I have precious little time to learn new pieces or even maintain the old. The mandolin is actually deceptively difficult to bring above a certain level of playing. It also has very little market value (in the music world) unless you play bluegrass or pop-classical style. In my opinion, you play the most important of all stringed instruments (the bass). The violin might be the fish in the stream, but the bass is THE stream...

[billkilpatrick]

i expect you'll be back...

for the bowl-back photos and the bonhomie if nothing else.

ciao - bill

[pklima]

Thanks, guys... I'm putting off taking up any new instruments or returning to old ones once until next year, after I settle down in Poland. I'll probably drop by once in a while to see what's going on.

And yeah, a cello-banjo, and an unusually large one, too. Probably the last instrument most sane people would decide to keep!

[Plamen Ivanov]

Hello Peter,

I still remember the first time, when I met you here - it was about the picks, that you make out of different materials. Then I made a little joke by asking what`s the next material-dragon tooth or T-rex skin? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif #But I can assure you, that it was a very conscientious joke and not mocking. I learned interesting facts from you and have always appreciated your contribution to the board. Well, when you settle down in Poland, may be we will see each other. I`ll prepare something for mandolin and bass!http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Good luck!

[Jim Garber]

BTW, Peter, when you say cello banjo, to what are you referring. The term seems sort of loosely applied. Could be a 5-string banjo with long scale like this one (http://home.earthlink.net/~minermusic/stewartbanjos.jpg) from Gregg Miner. I have also seen ones tuned like a std cello with 4 courses, single or double strung.

To connect to another thread... I wonder if there is a liuto-banjo.

Jim

[pklima]

Here's a photo of my 1920s Windsor cello-banjo. I tune it like a cello, the previous owner had it strung with electric bass strings and presumably tuned in fourths. It has a 28 3/4" scale and 16" head. Sounds like the crack of doom.

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Peter,

It is a good thing to choose for one instrument to play well. And with double bass you have so many possibilities! One is perhaps to join a (local Polish) Mandolin Orchestra for their concerts every now and than.


Best wishes and good luck,

Alex

[Eugene]

Bye, Peter. Feel free to stick around, mando or not. I've enjoyed our correspondence...and the sharing of dead bits of aquatic biota.

[pklima]

Not being an active mandolinist has naturally diminished my interest in mandolin subjects but I will pop in once in a while. And no way am I giving up my dead-animal-part-pick-manufacturing ways! I can now concentrate on making the perfect cello banjo plectrum.

Thanks again, everyone.

[mandolooter]

Enjoy whatever choice ya make Peter! It was nice having ya around and hearing/reading your inputs to the mando community. Hope to see at least a post or two in the future too. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif