The Incredible String Band existed in the hard-to-market musical space between folk music and rock music, so remained a niche act. But they clearly enjoyed themselves whilst scraping a thin living,...
The Incredible String Band existed in the hard-to-market musical space between folk music and rock music, so remained a niche act. But they clearly enjoyed themselves whilst scraping a thin living,...
You should certainly end up with an outstanding mandolin for that budget. Personally I would go for one of the top Northfields, where you are guaranteed great playability and tone, well within your...
If you have access to BBC iPlayer you can see a performance by Scottish mandolin hot-shot Calum McIlroy, playing his Taran in the BBC Scotland Young Musician of the Year competition 2023. His playing...
I got the Eastman DG2, a match for my original Bacon Professional mandolin. The finish on the Eastman has not been assaulted like the Collins has been, but the ex-owner was evidently not bothered...
This is a rare Frankendolin, assembled from the corpses of a cheap Italian mandolin and a cheap English banjo mandolin (probably a John Grey). Likely to be unique because that kind of corporeal...
It reminds me of the lump-scroll Gibson f-style copies made in very small numbers by the Windsor banjo company of Birmingham, England. They were probably experimenting with diversifying into...
I found the Wegen TF 100 to be the best commercially available picks for mandolin. I got hold of some special order thinner 0.85mm TFs which I like even better, but have never seen them advertised....
Great old tune probably originating in England as a military band marching tune, with the words redolent of soldiers longing. As a band tune it is widely known as Brighton Camp. Many songs have been...
Brett, you may be the person who did the excellent finish job on my Weber Elite A5 in what I believe Weber called the 'black ice' finish? The black top finish, combined with the outstanding birdseye...
The daddy of all 'Irish' mandolin recordings must be Dave Swarbrick's 'Rags, Reels and Airs' LP of 1967, since reissued as a CD. Not all mandolin but plenty of great Irish mandolin stuff on there...
William Smith points out this Jubal is not the same shape as a Gibson H5 mandola. Instead it looks like a scaled-up F5 shape. The few modern Gibson F-syle mandolas I have seen seem to follow this...
I always use Parcelforce (part of Royal Mail, I think) for posting instruments in the UK, the most reliable and least damage-prone in my experience. Like other UK shippers they won't provide full...
Frederick Winslow was a mandoline player and teacher who lived in Swindon, south of England near London. Before forming the Serenaders Mandolin Orchestra he led a mandolin 'quartette' that promoted J...
For those who can receive it (and on the BBC Sounds app thereafter) on Saturday February 26th, 13.00 - 15.00, two hours of Chris Thile on the Inside Music show:
"Mandolinist Chris Thile travels...
Nice playing, as ever, Kevin. I see Rory is making another batch of Springwells right now after announcing a pause a few months ago. I guess there must have been an outcry!
Thanks Michael for posting this nice arrangement of the Finnish tune. I have started exploring your mandoisland website and your youtube videos - a varied and interesting selection of pieces, all...
Scottische is the German for Scottish and is pronounced SHOTisher.
Well I have a blond A Jr. The back and sides show evidence of refinishing but not the top, which is unusually, for an A Jr, tight and straight grained. The serial number is 86444.
Very nice playing of a beautiful plangent tune. When is your Mel Bay 'Erik Satie for Mandolin' coming out?
Whilst I am grateful to the poster for drawing public attention to this new service, which he terms 'playing in' but might be more accurately termed 'extreme distressing', I wish to point out the...
The Wegens do come thinner but they are not advertised and you have to order them direct from Wegen. I have a couple of 0.85 Wegen black large triangles which I got second hand. They are my go-to...
Both sets of tunes are common traditional tunes and can be found in notation form on the.session.org website
It looks pretty unique and probably a one-off experiment, so hard to identify the origin. If I had to guess, going by the shape, the woods, the tuners and that you bought it in the UK, I would...
It will take longer, be more complicated and cost you more than at present. You will also need a time machine as the EEC has not existed since 1993!
The Italians may have got there first! Roman mandolins from about 1890, often had radiused fingerboards. They were a feature which helped make Embergher mandolins successful amongst professional...