What I think I've learned

[Br1ck]

From the first time I picked up a mandolin around a year ago, I kind of realized the instrument is pretty dependent on precision in both the build and the playing of it. Pretty unforgiving of both aspects.

As far as the playing, there is pretty much the one perfect place to fret, one perfect place to pick, one perfect pick grip tension, pretty much everything. The learning of this thing is a process of working toward these perfect techniques, and the closer you get toward this, the more your lack of perfection stands out, oh, but when you do something right, it's so very rewarding.

As for the instrument, I've been taking my MK from an unplayable monster, to a satisfying experience, a painful 2% at a time, but those 2 percents do add up. After my last bridge fitting, things looked and sounded pretty good, but there was a tiny bit of daylight on the bass end. As much as not quite getting a tremolo even, it was bugging me, so off it came for another go. Looks perfect now, and the G string lack of richness for wont of a better description, that is my primary tonal gripe on sub $1000 mandolins is 90% gone. It seems like every little improvement has had an effect, each subtle, but each contributing to the whole. I can very well see now the merit of something like the mandovoodoo process.

Time to ditch the plastic nut, and work on my D flat scale.

[jtv]

It's really interesting that I'm always hearing that the G string tends to lack richness. My new low-ish end (MD614) mandolin has a beautiful and rich low end, but is somewhat lacking on volume/clarity on the higher strings. Should try to figure that out one of these days.

Great to hear some thoughts from someone just a little farther on the mando journey than me.

[Bob Buckingham]

Isn't the 614 an oval hole mandolin? They tend to have that rich low end but lack the projection of an F hole. Just like flattop guitars sound different than an arch top with F holes.

[Mandoplumb]

It's really interesting that I'm always hearing that the G string tends to lack richness. My new low-ish end (MD614) mandolin has a beautiful and rich low end, but is somewhat lacking on volume/clarity on the higher strings. Should try to figure that out one of these days.Great to hear some thoughts from someone just a little farther on the mando journey than me.

It has been my experience that lower priced and some fairly higher priced mandolins seem to excel on bass or treble. If you find a balanced, across the board, instrument you have found a good one. That's the way I judge a mandolin, tone is opinion, balance makes the mandolin IMHO

[Don Grieser]

There's more than one perfect place to pick--there's a whole range of tones from picking back by the bridge to up by the fretboard end. You're losing that if you only pick in one place. Granted, there may be one place where you enjoy the tone most sitting around at home. But you might need to try some other tones in a group setting to cut through.

[MediumMando5722]

Pretty unforgiving...

I couldn't agree more. Coincidentally, I also picked up mandolin about a year ago. After almost 25 years on electric guitar, this is also my first serious foray into acoustic music. The year prior to that, I went from heavily distorted heavy metal to a Stratocaster into an old Fender tube amp with just a hint of dirt. I thought the tube amp and lack of distortion was revealing...

[Br1ck]

There's more than one perfect place to pick--there's a whole range of tones from picking back by the bridge to up by the fretboard end. You're losing that if you only pick in one place. Granted, there may be one place where you enjoy the tone most sitting around at home. But you might need to try some other tones in a group setting to cut through.

Yes, I'll amend the statement to the one perfect place for that which you are trying to achieve. I tend to drift toward the bridge when I don't want to. One thing's for sure, I don't know where I'd be if I wasn't already a flat picker on guitar. And yes, mandolin has improved my guitar playing.

[Mike Scott]

I find it commendable that with only a year under your belt, you did all that work on the MK. I have done some rudimentary work from time to time on my stuff but nothing like you have described in the 199 thread. Nice! Now you can go into the set up business if you want. I for one am impressed.

[Br1ck]

I couldn't agree more. Coincidentally, I also picked up mandolin about a year ago. After almost 25 years on electric guitar, this is also my first serious foray into acoustic music. The year prior to that, I went from heavily distorted heavy metal to a Stratocaster into an old Fender tube amp with just a hint of dirt. I thought the tube amp and lack of distortion was revealing...

Hah. Distortion will cover up a bunch of technical sloppiness. Playing clean on a Tele will be humbling too.

[fatt-dad]

. . . on the journey to excellence, enjoy mediocre!

f-d

[MediumMando5722]

Hah. Distortion will cover up a bunch of technical sloppiness. Playing clean on a Tele will be humbling too.

That's for sure. There's something about that combination of a bridge position single coil and an old Fender amp that takes like 20 years of practice off

I rarely touch my electrics anymore, so I recently "gave" my oldest son (14) my Epiphone Les Paul and USA Peavey Strat copy. He's recently gotten into metal and hard rock, so it's been fun showing him Metallica riffs and the like. After a year on the acoustic instruments, my left hand flies on an electric neck, but it's gonna take some work getting back up to the 200+ bpm downstroke only picking. Once he's got a few songs down, I'm gonna give him all my pedals so the real fun can begin.

[Denny Gies]

Br1k....pretty thoughtful and insightful post. Keep at it.

[Br1ck]

I find it commendable that with only a year under your belt, you did all that work on the MK. I have done some rudimentary work from time to time on my stuff but nothing like you have described in the 199 thread. Nice! Now you can go into the set up business if you want. I for one am impressed.

Thanks for the comment. I really bought the MK just to try to work on. By being too conservative, I prolonged the process considerably. Without the work, the MK was firewood. I've made a point of playing mandolins at broad line music stores, since I usually go into two really top shops. When I played a Km 150, an Eastman 615, and some cheaper mandos at another store, it was an eye opener. No wonder the same five instruments have been hanging there for eons.

That the MK turned out to be very nice was just a huge bonus. It's nice enough I find my lazy a** playing it most of the time instead of getting the SIlverangel out of its case as it sits there in front of me on my computer desk.

And I am enjoying my mediocrity for hours each day, playing with a metronome, trying to learn the fretboard, playing scales, delving into the Mandolin Heals the World website, etc. That I am taking a more focused approach, and playing three hours a day has excellerated my progress beyond the time gone by. I've even taken my mandolin to open mic nights both to play fiddle tunes and to sing behind. Obsession the wife calls it. Obsession it has been. My 3000 records are getting ignored.

The only downside to the MK project is the dozen or so e strings I've busted going back up to pitch. That is another reason the project dragged on, I need to get a month out of them at least.

One other event made the mandolin journey even more important to me. That was the heart bypass surgery I had last summer. Two weeks after, I decided to try to play some and I found out I could. the joy of being able to angle the mando away from my chest and play some got me over the hump. Music is a healing power.

[JeffD]

I am not a tinkerer. I am not very good with hand tools. Just not how I grew up. I can do basic things around the house, but I generally don't care for it. Every project takes me three trips to Home Depot, to get the tools and materials, to get the right tools and materials, to replace tools and materials I destroyed.

When it comes to mandolin, I do nothing on my own, other than changing the strings.

I observe that guitar player culture seems to include a lot more customizing and optimizing and fiddling with the guitar build.
So do you think that the urge to customize our mandolins is more prevalent among those who came from guitar?

I wonder if most of us would rather get a bargain mandolin that we can upgrade and get into shape, eventually costing roughly the same as getting the mandolin that is already in the shape we want.

I dunno.

In this department nobody seems to beat the banjo players. They are like hotrodders, cobbling together their banjo from the parts of seven others, and then re-cobbling when they get bored.

I could be totally wrong. It just might be the perspective of someone with ten thumbs.

[Br1ck]

I know a few engineers in the electronics industry. Their very nature is they love to solve problems, the tougher the better.

I love a project that involves building something, like a picnic table or a planter box. Good tools to me are wonderful. I have a crosscut and a rip saw from around 1900 that I use all the time.

I've built many parts guitars (electric). For $700 you can build a guitar equal to Fender custom shop. Fun projects.

I'm thinking of building a pancake mandolin with hand tools, so yes, some of us do enjoy the process.

I actually weed my garden by sitting on the ground and meticulously picking individual weeds. Kind of a Zen process. Many song ideas come from a blank mind.

To do any guitar or mandolin work, you need a good machinist's straight edge. Tools are the key to much instrument work.

It's perfectly OK to be a brain surgeon. Different strokes.

[dhergert]

... In this department nobody seems to beat the banjo players. They are like hotrodders, cobbling together their banjo from the parts of seven others, and then re-cobbling when they get bored. ...

Having come from the banjo environment, I was going to mention that. Although I did spend about 7 years starting in the late '70s repairing fretted instruments, and I still have the tools and know how to use them.

And yes, the first thing I did when I got my $199 MK was a rather thorough setup. That was followed shortly after by adding a pick guard, armrest and tone guard, which of course doubled my investment.

But for the tone that these instruments produce, I'm happy with the investment in both time and money. And the experience.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Isn't the 614 an oval hole mandolin? They tend to have that rich low end but lack the projection of an F hole. Just like flattop guitars sound different than an arch top with F holes.

Yep. Though I sort of suspect that a flattop guitar with f-holes would still sound like a flattop.