PRW
Oct-24-2010, 8:11am
Hi, I registered for the forum to ask this question. I have a 16-year-old son who's taught himself to play mandolin. He's taught himself guitar as well and a couple of years ago I got him a cheap Johnson A-style mandolin to mess around on, but honestly at this point his mandolin chops have gotten better than his guitar chops, we played together the other night and I could barely keep up with him.
FYI, he's a left-hander, and he flipped the bridge and worked with it and the nut himself with the Johnson and darned if he doesn't have the thing playing in perfect intonation at least to my ears.
Any way, he's going to get a new, better, albeit not massively expensive mandolin for Christmas. I've decided we're going to buy from FolkMusician.com, after what I've seen at their site and the recommendations for that vendor that I've seen while browsing the forum here (and some of the owner's posts).
First off, he wants an electric mandolin. He plays with a band at church. And he doesn't play bluegrass, he rocks and rolls with it. Think Peter Buck a la "Losing My Religion" or Mark Heard. I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Mark, who died in 1992, but he was a Christian/folk rock musician who played a lot of mandolin and on his last album, "Satellite Sky," he played an old metal-bodied National electric mandolin on every song, it was really in the forefront. My son has taught himself the entire "Satellite Sky" album, so that's kind of where he is mandolin-wise.
We were looking at a Morgan Monroe MM-100SBE lefty. We've actually seen a right-handed, non-electric version at a local music store, and my son played it and liked it (of course he'd like anything better than what he's got). However, I'm thinking that one of the Kentucky solid-wood mandolins like the KM-161 or KM-174 might be a better investment for him (although there would be the added expense of electrifying it, which he really wants).
Can anyone give me any input here? It certainly would be appreciated. Thanks!
FYI, he's a left-hander, and he flipped the bridge and worked with it and the nut himself with the Johnson and darned if he doesn't have the thing playing in perfect intonation at least to my ears.
Any way, he's going to get a new, better, albeit not massively expensive mandolin for Christmas. I've decided we're going to buy from FolkMusician.com, after what I've seen at their site and the recommendations for that vendor that I've seen while browsing the forum here (and some of the owner's posts).
First off, he wants an electric mandolin. He plays with a band at church. And he doesn't play bluegrass, he rocks and rolls with it. Think Peter Buck a la "Losing My Religion" or Mark Heard. I don't know if any of you have ever heard of Mark, who died in 1992, but he was a Christian/folk rock musician who played a lot of mandolin and on his last album, "Satellite Sky," he played an old metal-bodied National electric mandolin on every song, it was really in the forefront. My son has taught himself the entire "Satellite Sky" album, so that's kind of where he is mandolin-wise.
We were looking at a Morgan Monroe MM-100SBE lefty. We've actually seen a right-handed, non-electric version at a local music store, and my son played it and liked it (of course he'd like anything better than what he's got). However, I'm thinking that one of the Kentucky solid-wood mandolins like the KM-161 or KM-174 might be a better investment for him (although there would be the added expense of electrifying it, which he really wants).
Can anyone give me any input here? It certainly would be appreciated. Thanks!