I am looking for info on this electric Mando I bought on ebay. The only info I could find was on emando.com. Company was out of Toronto in the '80s and made mostly electric violins.
Anybody know more?
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I am looking for info on this electric Mando I bought on ebay. The only info I could find was on emando.com. Company was out of Toronto in the '80s and made mostly electric violins.
Anybody know more?
Well, there isn't much else to know. The instrument has just a piezo pickup, not a magnetic one. I think the body is the same one Amazing used for its violins, although of course the neck is different. I've seen maybe 2 or 3 of these mandolins over the past 25 years. I presume they made more violins than mandos, although the violins aren't very common either.
How does it sound?
Wow, that is AMAZING :cool:
I have not played it yet. Took it right over to my electric guitar guru for a set up. Very interested to hear it.
Well, I was looking at it too ... I probably would've tried to get a luthier to add a magnetic pickup to it. I think I recall seeing one other one that had been modified in that fashion.
I will try it out with the Piezo first. It will only be for my own enjoyment.
I probably would've tried to get a luthier to add a magnetic pickup to it
I bought a flat humbucker from a Swiss kid on Etsy for a similar project a couple of years ago. It sounds really nice! I'll see if I can dig up his info
That was probably me. I own an Amazing emando -- much the same as the OP has, but in red rather than blue. Same sort of hard case. There's a lot of discussion as to how I modified mine in this old thread:Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmando
Link
In brief, I replaced the original piezo with two new pickups, a rail-type mini humbucker and an undersaddle piezo with on-board pre-amp, each with separate controls and separate jacks. Works fine and can be used to generate a wide range of tones, although I don't play it much these days as I tend towards the acoustic end. I probably should check if the battery for the piezo pre-amp is still OK or whether it has leaked...
I really like the design of these, but they will never become collectables because of the name -- try to find useful information online with the search term "Amazing mandolin"!
Martin
Thanks for the link and nice job on the conversion. I like the red color of the body. You have given me some options to think about. I saw a pic of the violin in the MOMA. Did you ask the maker how many mandolins they made? Mine has 263 on the body.
Sorry, I don't really remember -- that was over ten years ago, and I don't think I saved the emails. I can't remember seeing a serial number, but that doesn't mean there isn't one. On it's own, the number wouldn't tell you whether this is mandolin #263 or Amazing #263. Probably the latter.Quote:
Originally Posted by tildowns
Have fun with yours!
Martin
@tildowns, here's the flat pickup maker, which might be interesting - no routing! :mandosmiley:
https://www.sixtus-pickups.com
NFI, just a cool idea, and he's managing to make a business out of it.
No way are there 263 of these mandolins. That has to be an overall instrument number.
I came across a secondhand Amazing violin a number of years ago at Danny's Music in Everett, Wash., but I didn't buy it. That's the only time I've actually seen one of the instruments.
No polepieces? Which one did you use for the electric mandolin?Quote:
Originally Posted by bbcee
After getting it back from the set up, I think I will keep it stock with the Piezo pickup. I am running it through a small Ibanez acoustic guitar amp.
I used the "Sixtus "6" Mini humbucker". I used it on both my electric & acoustic tenor guitars, didn't try it on my acoustic mandos (and I don't have an electric mandolin). It should fit fine on the OP's Amazing, there would just be overhang on either side. Hm, actually maybe too much.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Garber
He taught me a neat trick - on the acoustic tenor, the unwound A & E strings were shrill compared to the wound G & D's. I put a penny on the high string side, which nicely covered the area of the A & E strings, and balanced them out with the wound ones. The electric sounded fine right off the bat, naturally.