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I have a 504 (oval hole instead of F hole) and I like D'Addario Monel, D'Addario NBs, and Curt Mangan Monels. I switch between light and medium because I'm indecisive.

I know there's several Eastman 305 owners here. What strings do you find work best for you on this instrument? Mine's wearing the usual D'Addario Phosphor Bronze at the moment, but I have a mind to...

PS: Unplucked slurs are much less common to mandolin than to other, longer scaled plucked instruments in "classical" contexts. Plucking each note (even within trill-like ornaments) is the...

I have both 305 (and 604 which is a blinged up 304), and the 604 is my main player due to the music styles I prefer (classical and gospel).
Your description of the 305 sounds just like I would...

Hi Mandolin Players,

I'm posting this review to help others who may be on the fence about buying an Eastman.

I have owned a Collings MT for about 10 years and recently decided to buy a backup...

Having gone from fiddle to mandolin myself, I can say it's a bit of a process. In many ways, the mandolin is easier physically than fiddle, but, despite the similar tuning, you have to learn to use...

This is a PSA. If you don’t want to sound like this, avoid them at all costs!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DYYOak1lE

Full disclosure, I love mine, even if, because of some defect, it doesn’t...

Let me suggest a completely different route, and the one I actually use when I need to bang out a quick recording with no vocals.

For reference I am an amateur sound engineer, own a 2i2, multiple...

Is this where we tell all the Eastman lovers that they have tiny frets and they will play a lot easier if you refret them? Eastman OEM size is 53x31, a medieval torture device for unsuspecting...

I have rarely ever needed to switch position except to reach notes higher on the E strings or if it made it easier to play a particular phrase. I have played L&N Rag on both fiddle and mandolin for...

I have a bunch of friends who use JamKazam. FWIW, to make it work well, there are a few restrictions:

- can’t really handle more than about 4 or 5 people at once
- you need to be wired in...

I think in many cases it comes from what instruments one played before mandolin.

I came from woodwinds. And to a woodwind the world of music is a single note melody. Harmonies and chords are all...

Coming from a violin playing background, I can pick tunes on my mandolin, but I don’t know where to start when it comes to strumming chords and maybe singing along.
It may sound ridiculous to most...

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I was looking through some old posts this morning and ran across a thread about practice tools. A website called www.fbbts.com (Free Bluegrass Backup Tracks) has a good selection of backup tracks in...

The flu is manageable as there are vaccines, medications, and some built up immunity in strong, healthy individuals. Corona is like the flu 100 years ago - unknown impact and duration and until they...

Suggestions and answers given are very good, but I'd like to mention the issue of trying too hard when playing out. One aspect of this I've found is trying to be heard! Playing in your living room...

Uhmm .... Not sure how to say this after almost 6 decades of playing (without, ya know, sounding like a total bufoon) but 4-5 years ago I went thru the same thing myself.

Brief history, that...

Hi Scott (and Dan), thanks for all your work in keeping this forum going and the effort the last few days must have been.
I haven't been a member here for long but have been visiting for at least 10...

Hi Norm, I'm Tom over in Ottumwa. Welcome to the club!
If you go to the top of the Mandolin Cafe page and pull down the Learn/Listen tab on the menu, you can access over 1900 songs in mandolin...

I travelled in Germany last summer and bought a book of sheet music from a second hand bookshop in Munich at first as a souvenir - simple german folksongs and tunes of composers from the romantic era...

original for liuto, but also versions for octave and mandocello.
the liuto and OM versions are mostly 1st position.
the MC version will require shifting from 1st and 4th

the second half (measure...

Maybe this is common knowledge but...

I had an old Fiddler's Fakebook with a plastic spiral binding that was falling apart. Someone told me they had theirs replaced at Kinkos/Fedex so I took it...

As a former rock and 'round-the-campfire (more like 'round-the-6pack?) musician who's lately playing in a mandolin orchestra, I heartily agree. We're all amateurs, and about evenly split between the...

I've been a drummer my whole life. In the 80's, when I told my friend Mike I had bought a guitar, he asked me to start playing a gig with him once a week because he had just lost his guitar partner....