It does sound good , I am weary of a standard guitar neck , how can I play one before I buy it in upstate NY ?
It does sound good , I am weary of a standard guitar neck , how can I play one before I buy it in upstate NY ?
Thanks, IL is a bit of stretch, I guess I have to relate this to my experience with Micheal Kelly F style octave, yes it was a $700 instrument, but it was toneless, had no volume and the action was either too loose or too high.
I'll keep looking around the North East
I will say I played the Northfield Octave, and thought it was great, but it was a 3K instrument.
So even for an F style guitar $900 is pretty low ( not that that is a bad thing).
I have an Ovation mandocello but to me it is very much like an 8 string guitar, so that's really why I want to play one first.
Finally got the tailpiece. As far as I can tell it's identical to the old one. Why did I have to wait 2 months for the new and improved version to be ready again....?
Good news is that it's restrung and sounds lovely again. Saw some ads for Stringjoy (company that makes guitar strings and specialized in custom sets) and decided to give them a try. Had to go to their nickel wound electric strings rather than their bronze acoustic ones due to sizes, but they sound great. Lot brighter sound which is interesting on it, but I quite like.
Also if anyone's in the wisconsin area and wants to give it a try to see what mandocello is like shoot me a message, would be happy to show it off. (Though I make no guarantees that I won't be playing around with it and trying octave pairs or octave mandolin tuning at any given time.)
Has anyone heard whether Gold Tone has had any more available in the states?
I just tuned in to this conversation. As I read the string some things really puzzled me.
First, why on earth does Goldtone stick with the ebony tailpiece -- sounds like in this string alone we have accounts of 5 individual failures of the piece? What more evidence do they need? I built 5 mandocellos -- all from arch top guitars (16" and 17" lower bouts) and in each case I made a trapeze style metal tail piece using a conventional Gibson style mandolin tail piece, some 1/8" brass round stock and silver solder. I've only had one dramatically "let loose" and that was totally due to my lack of experience with silver soldering. Once I learned how to recognize a good bead, no problems. I think I could use one of those tail pieces to tow a trailer behind my Jeep SRT.
Second I am really puzzled to hear these mandocellos being described as "quiet"? No, I say that they should not be "quiet". Not at all.
All of mandocellos I made were loud by any fretted instrument standard except a banjo. They made more "sound" than my Gibson Advance Jumbo (a loud guitar). Played with a mandolin they will not "dominate" because a mandolin pitch range is so different but you will hear the mandocello loud and clear like rolling thunder. It is not the f-holes either --- an arch top guitar is not "quiet" they were made to "cut through" in jazz bands in the '40s. My old Gibson K-1 mandocello (oval hole) was also "louder" than a guitar.
Mandocellos are not retiring instruments usually.
Bernie
____
Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.
Bernie.... where the heck you been, man? I haven't seen you post in a coon's age.
And your latest didn't shed anything new. Gotcha.
https://www.elderly.com/gold-tone-mandocello.htm
Could it possibly be they’re getting the second shipment thru? Right above the listed price it says. “On order, expected arrival date 12/20/17”. That’s today.
That's almost a year between shipments.... Who is to blame, I wonder....
I heard a container of them got hung up in CITES processing.
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
Here's one on eBay, only 5 shopping days left ...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Tone-S...%257Ciid%253A1
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
How exactly would one match the impedances between piezo and mag without a battery, I wonder?
Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.
Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!
Lyon & Healy Wood Thormahlen Andersen Bacorn Yanuziello Fender National Gibson Franke Fuchs Aceto Three Hungry Pit Bulls
"The two pickups are wired in such a way that the impedance is balanced. This essentially allows a similar output between the two pickups and ensures that one does not talk over the other.
However, in this system the pickups are designed either to be blended to taste or work as two independent pickup systems.
Because the output of each pickup can be individually controlled, you can choose the signal that you are sending to any amp, PA or external preamp system."
That doesn't really explain in any technical detail how they accomplished this feat, only that they did so.
Anyone here buy one of the new batch? If so, can you post an image of the tailpiece?
I'm curious if they actually did start putting different ones on, because after they promised me a different one that would require drilling they sent the same old one that had broken twice and, shockingly, it's now started to break again....
Just rechecked mine not good. Local tech used a rod along with the plate when we restrung it with the lighter gauge strings that were not ball ends. Can see where glue line is when we found the first cracks. ( in line with inside G string) Now this... Was wanting to go back to heavier strings. Or maybe tune GDAE. Guess I’ll start hunting for a cast tailpiece.
E-mailed Goldtone. They’re shipping a replacement tailpiece toomario.
Slightly damaged GoldTone Mandocello on Squeebay right now.... Might make a nice axe if someone can get it cheaply enough and had the easy repairs done. I was just outbid....
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