Wow, people have been much more receptive of conceptual discourse this time around. Some context: I'm working on a design for an acoustic natural fiber composite mandolin that's headstockless, has a...
Type: Posts; User: Appalachia
Wow, people have been much more receptive of conceptual discourse this time around. Some context: I'm working on a design for an acoustic natural fiber composite mandolin that's headstockless, has a...
I've been brainstorming tuning mechanisms, and I thought about the idea of having a single tuning machine for each course — so 4 tuning machines for an 8 string mandolin. Cursory searches of the web...
Alpaca Guitars recently posted this on their Facebook. Looks like they're trying it out, just with the wood veneer on the inside instead of outside.
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That's all.
Lloyd Loar replicas have been the mainstay of major manufactures for decades now (at least in the US). I would assume that this is because the main demand for mandolins has been in the bluegrass...
Was the refret done in town? Has the weather changed since the refret? Wood moves a lot more than people think, with changes in temperature and humidity. My first guess would be that the problem is...
My general opinion is: great subject matter, not so great film making. I think what really sets this off is that I enjoyed the extra clips that they released before the film came out more than the...
Ebows work on acoustics too, given that they have nickel or steel wound strings. They can even work on mandolin!
Hammered dulcimers are normally double or even triple strung, so that shouldn't...
I'm very much into extended techniques on all instruments!
So there's this cool thing called a Jimbow that was developed by Jim Wells for bowing hammered and mountain dulcimers. It's pretty much just a curved nylon rod with a handle:
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Here's a video...
I don't think it would be possible to keep proper intonation with a setup like that on instruments where you normally depress the string to the fret, though something similar could possibly work on...
I'm not really following. Could you expound?
In response to the past couple of posts: although the original question that started this thread related to having magnets in the fingerboard, this has since been ruled out as causing too much...
That was my thought throughout the whole video. This is an awesome step forward, but I don't think it's a good sign that re-cultivation wasn't even mentioned. This will slow the rate that ebony...
I thought of that, but at this point, I'm confident enough that the magnets will hold the strings down; it's seeing how they interact on an instrument that I want to look into, and I feel as though...
So, I'm starting to formulate a plan for testing, and an ingredient list. I'm looking at trying to get a really cheap mandolin, and then drilling into the side of the fingerboard (parallel to the...
Heck, just bump up the strength of the electromagnets to the max, and you can have a levitating-self-playing mando. :))
I've sent an email off to my old physics of sound and music professor who was head of the physics department at UNCA for some time. He wanted me to do an undergraduate research project with him when...
Anyone have any data on the pressure needed to press a string/course down to the fingerboard or any novel ways of finding out? From what I've found, two 1/8 inch by 1/8 inch cylindrical neodymium...
Nope, but some of you guys have done some pretty crazy awesome things, so you never know. You also don't necessarily need qualified people to get useful input; who knows what things people have...
@MikeEdgerton, I'm not really sure where you're coming from with that statement. I have accepted the information that John has given, and I have replied to his comments with at least hypothetically...
A carbon fiber neck could be used to lower weight and increase stiffness, and/or if neodymium magnets were used, the added mass could be quite small (because of their strength you could use very...
So two or three years ago I came up with the idea of setting magnets into the fingerboard of a fretted instrument so that other magnets could be used as capos for individual strings/courses. I went...
Just thought I'd post an update. I got the Birds of Paradise capo in yesterday, and I've had some time to play with it. First thing, I'll note that unless you practice with this capo quite a bit, it...
Scratch that; he's using his B-Bender (yeah, he has a B-Bender on his banjo) for the wobble effect. I was unaware he had one when I wrote that comment. It's a cool use for it.