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Here is an example of Max and Lauri's talents -- red cedar top (over 100 years old) and big leaf maple back/sides. Plus Lauri made the horse inlay in the headstock. It sounds as good as it looks,...

Can't speak for the F's, but the custom A oval hole that Max and Lauri made for me is superb. Excellent tone, beautiful handwork. It's in my avatar photo.

Has anyone used a Tascam DR-05 in workshops? I saw it on sale for $79, just wondering if it is good enough for workshop recording, since it is so much less $$ than the other Tascam models.

If you have the melody line in your head, but don't want to compete with the fiddles or do just chords, you might try some simple harmony with the fiddles. Easily done in G and D after a few tries...

I'm so disappointed that the server is too busy to play the CD preview song.....But actually I would rather hear "Don't Cry For Me Alabama" anyway. I just might have to work on that one myself.
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And the "scarier stuff" would include Caterina Lichtenberg's music. Her "Basic Techniques of Classical Mandolin" DVD is pretty mind blowing, and I played classical violin for a long time (OK, it was...

It can't hurt to try....

Thanks for posting the link to these Canaries, Dagger. I have come across quite a few tunes from the Straloch and Skene manuscripts, and find they are among my favorites of all types of music. Wish...

I am so glad to hear that the A5 is so great -- partly for you, and partly because it is making me salivate in anticipation of the oval hole A they are going to make for me. I've already picked out...

Try here:

http://www.musicscotland.com/cd/Dagger-Gordon.html

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/daggerandcolingordon

Love his music. The Scottish Mandolin Tutor book/CD set is great, too.

Go figure. I love the tone of my old Gibson A, but after a few years of overstretching my small hand around that deeper/slightly wider neck, I finally have reached the decision to sell it and move to...

Simply beautiful. I'm probably going with the same stain Lauri concocted for the back and sides, for the entire body of the A oval hole she and Max are going to build for me over the next few months....

Hmmmm. And I'm just guessing that there are lots more male hands than female hands here, too? In the sausage world, my fingers are more like Vienna Sausages than kielbasa-sized. :)

Has anyone ever done a thread on too-big hands?? When my mandolinist friend John, whose hands are probably twice my size, tried out my Newell A5 (with 13" scale and skinny neck), he looked puzzled...

Glad this old thread has reemerged. I've been exploring Scottish music for the past year or so but had overlooked it. Thanks, Geisenbury.

And I especially enjoyed the "Loch Ruan" video. I...

Lucky you -- I have been watching its progress, and it is truly beautiful. I'm probably "borrowing" the red mahogany stain Lauri used on its back and sides for my mandolin.

Good guess, yes it is!

I recently joined the queue to have Max and Lauri Girouard make me one of their works of art, and have to share this great news. Some time this summer, I will have in my eager hands an A mandolin...

Hi Misty,

My hands also are small, and I've had to make some adjustments with mandolin playing (I played violin a million years ago). Lots of early 20th century mandolins had shorter scales (13",...

I went to Swannanoa for the first time last summer -- Mando/Banjo Week. It was a superb experience. The staff and teachers are great, the food is great, and lots of folks had been there several times...

There's another recent discussion in this part of the Forum, "Are Lessons Really Worth It?", that addressed similar issues. FYI, here's what I had to say there:

"Several years ago, I took...

I also use a triple tennis racquet bag, thanks to a previous discussion on the forum. Mine is an Adidas, also about $30 a couple of years ago. It can easily hold my A mandolin hard case, not sure...

Seversl years ago, I took beginning mandolin lessons from a wonderful musician whose main instruments were guitar and (gasp) banjo. She was great at keeping me going through that time and gave me a...

Are you telling me that having to learn what I called the "Seven Deadly Positions" on violin those many years ago was just my teacher's method of torturing his teenaged students??

And now I just...

Great video, thanks! Nuala Kennedy is supposed to teach at the Swannanoa Gathering's Celtic Week in NC this July, and I can't wait to hear her in person.