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Greetings,

After sorting through a ton of family photos I located this image of my paternal grandmother Jessie Howell playing her mandolin, while she was a student at Oberlin College. She no...

Tom's a super-musical guy -- player of many instruments, fine singer, fine graphic artist, and a thoughtful person. I'm glad to see him get the well-deserved attention.

Part of the neck length issue for electric mandolins is related to pickup placement, as discussed above. To my mind, I also don't want to hear a fretted electric instrument playing super high notes....

Regarding the relationship between neck length, pickup placement, and tone: some of us have been very aware of this for years. Please witness the attached image of my personal 5-string electric...

On the contrary, around these parts there is no clown shortage. In fact I often feel as though I'm surrounded by nothing but clowns. I'll keep my eyes open for their valuable barf!

Paul

Here’s a chord chart to Over and Out.185272

Here’s a fiairly new tune I wrote called Over and Out. It basically a blues with a bridge, in the key of F. I made a simple iPhone video of myself playing the melody and the very talented Aaron...

Jazz guitar legend Jim Hall (to an overactive drummer), "Don't just do something. Sit there."

To my ears, pretty much all of the teens and twenties-built Gibson mandolins have intonation problems. None of them play in tune like a quality CNC-cut modern fingerboard mandolin can play in tune. ...

Leland Skar has a hobby: photographing famous people sticking a middle finger out at the photographer. I believe he would appreciate being photographed doing the same.

Not a whole album and it’s been posted before but go to about 3:37 on this YouTube clip and hear what I regard as the greatest electric mandolin solo in recorded history, by the legendary Johnny...

Not to hijack this thread but I liked Scott's comment "I like what they're doing since they moved to Austin, the new mandolin capital of the world."

I agree that it's remarkable how much...

You can always do what the late Danny Gatton did: use cubic zirconia as side dots. He let the facets stick up a bit -- so even a neon beer sign at 100 yards will make the side position markers...

I would add that finding someone you trust who's really good at fret work is, I think, hugely important. A good fret job can help the instrument play more in tune, as well as help make the mandolin...

I'm not familiar with the particular Thomastik strings you mentioned.

Will the strings I mentioned be good for jazz? Absolutely. That's the bulk of what I play on electric mandolin.

Here's why...

Yes, I do know what strings Tiny Moore used but I wouldn't recommend his solution.

Tiny used Black Diamond silver plate mandolin strings for the GDAE portion of his 5-string electric. For his low...

I wish they had a tenor guitar case!

Many folks have had great results for arthritis, muscle pain, etc with Ridiculous Paste. It's made of plants, and is completely free of synthetics. You rub it into your skin in the area that's...

Greetings,

Who’s making the nicest 1/4” end pin jack these days? Extra points if it’s stereo.

Thank you so much!!!

Paul

I play the second Wednesday of every month at Evangeline Cafe, on Brodie Lane, in South Austin. Music is 7-9 PM, always a duo with someone really good. The food is great and the people are really...

Joel, thanks for posting this. I still maintain that Johnny Gimble’s solo on Rose City Chimes is the single greatest electric mandolin solo that’s ever been played. What a mister he was.

You've got a good range of opinions here. I'll add some more.

I believe that it's really worth finding a luthier who's great at what he or she does and really taking their advise and letting them...

Beautiful music and playing. He's scooped his Florida.

Hi Neal,

I can't say that I have a real suggestion for you but can tell you my experience with with both your pickup and pre-amp.

I use both the K&K Twin Internal pickup and the Red-Eye pre-amp...

I assume, but do not know for sure, that the mandolin Tiny played on the show was a loaner from David Grisman (who was also on that same ACL taping -- and is known to love a great acoustic mandolin)....