Where did all the mandocello guys go ?

[NotMelloCello]

Depending on how I am feeling that day, I use either yellow or green Tortex picks - modified by using an Exacto blade to crosshatch both sides of the pick. Makes it easier to hold onto, so it doesn't rotate while I strum.

[Charlieshafer]

Real mandocello players don't give a hoot about wimpy things like picks. We have thick strings, long fretboard reaches and strong fingers. Our cases are big and heavy. We can use rocks for picks if we want. Some will even use tombstones if nothing else is available.

That some here have even mentioned their pick is somewhat embarrassing. Do not, under any circumstances, discuss what smaller people call a "warm-up." If you're not ready to play, you're not ready to play...

Bernie, I'll see about doing a youtube thing. The whole huge fiddle group is playing at an antiques fair in a week or two, and maybe I can talk one of the family members into filming it, and then, of course, editing out all the bad parts, leaving you with perhaps a8 seconds out of a one hour show..

[Bernie Daniel]

Real mandocello players don't give a hoot about wimpy things like picks. We have thick strings, long fretboard reaches and strong fingers. Our cases are big and heavy. We can use rocks for picks if we want. Some will even use tombstones if nothing else is available.

That some here have even mentioned their pick is somewhat embarrassing. Do not, under any circumstances, discuss what smaller people call a "warm-up." If you're not ready to play, you're not ready to play...

Bernie, I'll see about doing a youtube thing. The whole huge fiddle group is playing at an antiques fair in a week or two, and maybe I can talk one of the family members into filming it, and then, of course, editing out all the bad parts, leaving you with perhaps a8 seconds out of a one hour show..

Great idea and these days you can post 1 hour video to YouTube!

[Barry Wilson]

I am not much of a player but I own one.... so busy the last while I haven't played mine much though am using it on an original song I am recording... it has taken over a few songs for the bass... I joined a band friday. gonna be a tough weekend. I have a solo gig east of here saturday night then sunday morning playing the street festival with completely different equipment... when they asked if I knew a keyboard player I said me... stupid stupid lol.. I got up with them for a set this friday and played mandolin blues. never get to be the solo guy. too fun

well there's my weekly ramble... now to find me a tombstone (still giggling over that post haha)

[Colin Lindsay]

Great idea and these days you can post 1 hour video to YouTube!

Handy for a Japanese traditional tune I once heard… the second note was at about 59 minutes…

[Patrick Melly]

Here's a simple but elegant Gypsy mandocello by Walt Kuhlman.


I bought it secondhand from Cafe member Jeff, aka jjh, who ordered it from Walt.

[Ken Olmstead]

Have not spent much time on my Eastman since getting it properly set-up. Great sounding instrument. I don't know how much effort it will get but I do need to find some time to bond with it more!!

[clobflute]

Just passing through, but I'm sure this needs some revision/updating to reflect what is in the market for 2014.

What would you consider a good starter mandocello?

For us in the UK, the only real quality investment seems to start with Paul Hathway mandocellos (A style). The Flyde and Ashbury mid-price ones are so so.
In the USA, there seems to be a huge choice, but the cost of a decent Weber A style is still double that of a Hathway.
In Europe, the Carvahlo and Portuguese ones seem to abound, but sound very much like the Ashburys.

I guess it's hard to compare UK and USA luthier based mandocellos, and perhaps the cost of mandocellos make it impossible, other than fix us regionally into which ever luthiers live where.

The Weber Gallatin F mandocello seems to be a work of art to me: I have the baby Gallatin A mandolin, and although I don't particularly like F mandolines, the F mandocello with its massive size seems to make the F look appropriate? Optical illusion perhaps. In the meantime, I guess I'm just in the fantasising stage. I need another year on the mandolin to work out my pick-up rate, before thinking about owning every single mando-body I come across

[Phil Vinyard]

I got my Freshwater Mandocello from the Cafe Classifieds about 9 months ago.

Totally cool instrument. But I'm a little stumped about what to play on it.

Does anybody just play these in a jam? Playing on the beat as opposed to chop chords?

I played the regular 'cello for years, but most 'cello music is boring even on a mandocello. Except for the Bach unaccompanied suites. But that takes you just so far.

Any suggestions for good solo literature?

[Charlieshafer]

Phil, if you're looking for written material, I got nuthin. I do play mine in jams all the time, and probably half the time take the equivalent of fast bass runs, and then jump in on the melody when it's a pace where the fiddlers aren't burning. Essentially, I treat it as a low-voiced old time fiddle, where I'll hit open strings frequently (assuming they fit with the key and the tune, of course) and build up lots of sustain and noise. You can come up with a lot of interesting counter-melodies this way.

It's one of those instruments where you really need to experiment. Just to get an idea of what it can do, I recommend you play along with Ru. That makes no sense, I know, but Rushad Eggleston is one of the real innovators in the way a cello is played, and his early recordings with Crooked Still (he was on only the first two cd's) are a real eye-opener if you want to experiment. Download two songs to get an idea: Lulu Gal from the first album, Hop High, and Ain't No Grave from the "Shaken By A Low Sound" cd. Keep up with the pace, hit open strings, and have at it. You'll soon see what the possibilities for the instrument are, even as a solo instrument. Both cd's are worth having, being a former cellist, as these are the two that really launched the revival for the cello in old-time or "alternative" strings music. Walking around the halls at the New England Conservatory a few years back, all the cellists wanted to play just like Rushad. Now, many of them do.

One thing I rarely do is use it for chords and chordal accompaniment. Every now and then, sure, but not often. I don't try to chop with it. There's just way too much resonance and sustain to get a true hard chop; they always sort of end with an echo, and that ain't right. Anyway, get used to experimenting, as there are too few great mandocello-specific pieces out there. Well, there's always Mike Marshall and Darol Anger's "Borealis", but there aren't many at all that are that good.

[Phil Vinyard]

Wow! Ru is something else! http://youtu.be/XpJNWNgtsuE?list=PL3C95FD59017BE7E8

[bratsche]

I never heard of this guy Ru before, but he's downright crazy! His "Bach vs. Eggleston" has me absolutely ROFL cracking up, here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mv3eFcGK-A

bratsche

[Charlieshafer]

Here, play this on your mandocello. It's fun and a great exercise in strangeness. Rushad had all our kids playing this and his number one hit, "I Peed On A Bird" where they had to sing also. Pretty hysterical.

[Bernie Daniel]

Wow! Ru is something else! http://youtu.be/XpJNWNgtsuE?list=PL3C95FD59017BE7E8

Yes he is a character - -he has a lot of videos on YT - find some or them where he plays the cello standing up -- he has a sling that goes around his neck -- usually he wears a medieval sock cap though.

[GKWilson]

Rushad is a nice guy. You can find him with his Cello strapped over his shoulder wandering through Wintergrass talking
and jamming with everyone. Then several bands will have him join in on their sets.

[GKWilson]

More Cello fun.
Mando content: Darol on Octave, Sharon Gilchrist on Bass.
There are at least a dozen Furies. You never know who you'll
see. But, they're always a great show.

[GKWilson]

And finally.
I guess what I'm trying to say is if and when I get a Mandocello I would be
watching these three [Ru, Mila, and Nat] for ideas and inspiration.
Right now I'd like to play Octave like Sarah.
Here's Ole Smitty on Cello.

[Mandomonte]

Saw Rushed a few years ago at Grey Fox. He was in the Jam tent with another cellist, a mandolin player and Mike Bibb, on bass. Blew me away. One cello bowed, one plucked. Rhythms, sounds I had never heard Things I had never imagined. I love that throaty sound. Then later on the Midway, saw an Eastman mandocello in the Eastman tent. Took me several years, but ,I finally got one three months ago. Have Bradley let a day go by without spending several hours on it. Left it in a shop for a few tweaks today and am in deep withdrawal. Not very many places where I jam with and still need lots of work on my playing, but.....?

[Mandomonte]

Saw Rushed a few years ago at Grey Fox. He was in the Jam tent with another cellist, a mandolin player and Mike Bubb, on bass. Blew me away. One cello bowed, one plucked. Rhythms, sounds I had never heard Things I had never imagined. I love that throaty sound. Then later on the Midway, saw an Eastman mandocello in the Eastman tent. Took me several years, but ,I finally got one three months ago. Have Bradley let a day go by without spending several hours on it. Left it in a shop for a few tweaks today and am in deep withdrawal. Not very many places where I jam with and still need lots of work on my playing, but.....?

[Bernie Daniel]

And finally.
I guess what I'm trying to say is if and when I get a Mandocello I would be
watching these three [Ru, Mila, and Nat] for ideas and inspiration.
Right now I'd like to play Octave like Sarah.
Here's Ole Smitty on Cello.

Good thoughts. One thing though in playing a mandocello like a cello, you run into the same problems that you have trying to play a mandolin like a fiddle. There are a lot of things you can do when the duration and volume of the sustain is totally under your control with the bow.

That last video was a good thought provoking piece because he played cello mostly pizzicato style.
The Gawler Sisters from Maine use a cello a lot too. I've seen them several times and always paid special attention to the cello work but most of it would be tricky to do with the mandocello IMO -- you'd have to find a different way to accomplish it perhaps?

Here is one example of the Gawlers. (fast forward a minute if you do not want to hear talk as they often talk a minute or so between numbers)

[Patrick Melly]

Natalie Haas is an inspiring cello player, IMHO, here with her sister Brittany:




Here with her frequent partner, Alasdair Fraser:

[NotMelloCello]

I guess all the mandocello guys left because the cello guys took over.

[Charlieshafer]

Ha! You might think so, but looking to alternative cello players fuels the imagination for the mandocello. As everyone is very aware, there's not much written at all for the mandocello, save for a few obscure arrangements for mandolin orchestra. So, for the mandocello, and only the mandocello, you'd better have a great imagination to work out your own parts and arrangements! Zouk and octave players have it luckier that way, they're a common instrument comparatively.

I routinely run workshops where the cello players are the leaders, as it forces everyone to step up their game, even the fiddlers. You can't just learn a few tunes or a snappy little technique, you have to think how everything fits in. Our cellist workshop leaders have been guys like Rushad (both general and youth symphony workshops, a few times), electric cellist Dana Leong (Grammy-winner, also does a few Hyundai commercial soundtracks), Natalie Haas, above (Britt stops by all the time, too, as she's in Boston now), Mike Block, and a few others. If you're in Connecticut this fall, you can sit down with Ben Sollee for a couple of hours before his show.

Cello rocks, and if you follow those guys, all of a sudden the mandocello takes on a lot of potential.

http://fireinthekitchen.org
http://thefretlessfringes.com

[GKWilson]

Sorry I wasn't trying to chase off the mandocello guy's.
Phil had asked how or what he could play on his.
I tried to show three very talented cellists playing runs, fills and solo's.
Using different finger styles. No bows. Like Charlie says, we can learn
a lot from these cousins of the bow.
Gary

[Bernie Daniel]

Sorry I wasn't trying to chase off the mandocello guy's.
Phil had asked how or what he could play on his.
I tried to show three very talented cellists playing runs, fills and solo's.
Using different finger styles. No bows. Like Charlie says, we can learn
a lot from these cousins of the bow.
Gary

It would be wonderful if one Mike Marshall would happen to weight in on this string..........