Best in Studio, Two Surprises

[red7flag]

The last two days have been in the studio and two instruments really stood out that I might not have expected: the Nyberg large body short neck mandola was awesome. Tone was clean and round. Perfect for the Irish tunes I had written. Second was the Mowry guitar shaped octave mandolin. Played a very slow waltz that memorialized my wonderful father in law. The sustain and tone was off the charts. The walnut sound just fit. I have to say, at this point those two out performed the Ellis and Hester, to my great surprise. This is not an indication of how the Ellis and Hester sounded, but more to the tone of those two instruments.
In an unrelated comment from the studio, I noticed that playing bass in our church's Praise Band has influenced by playing especially on slow tunes. My fingers are remaining longer on the fret board making the transition from note to note smoother. Did not change the timing, just the smoothness of note transition. Very cool.

[Mark Gunter]

My fingers are remaining longer on the fret board making the transition from note to note smoother.

Cool technique, and something I've been working on in my own playing.

[Billy Packard]

As I understand it the Brazilian mandolinists are looking for every opportunity to sustain a note.

Me too...which sometimes ends up with a yoga-like pose just to squeeze a bit more time from a note.


Billy

[Denman John]

Hey Tony,

Glad to hear that you're still really enjoying your Nyberg. Aren't they amazing?! During the summer I don't play as much as I would like, but in the fall, winter and early spring i get most of my picking in. I've been back on the Nyberg OM for the last month or so and it feels so good after being away from it for a bit. I love the sustain and it works really well on the slower pieces I play. I've also been playing Bach quite a bit lately and it lends itself quite nicely. Before I ordered the OM from Lawrence, he lent me a 17" Koa mandola for a couple of weeks and it was really hard to give it back to him. One day I would like to get a mandola and Lawrence is definitely on the short list.

Enjoy it in good health.
John

[red7flag]

Back in the studio yesterday. Was doing a Gypsy tune that I wrote and thought the Mowry octave would sound great. There is a guick note change from the A string 5 fret to the E string 5 fret and I could not get it smooth on the octave. The octave sounded great as far as tone, but I just could not get that transition smooth. After about 5 takes, I switched to the Ellis and that transition, while not perfect was much better. I knew going in that that that tune was going to be tough, especially recording which can be so unforgiving. BTW, never got that to a place where Adam, the tracking engineer, or I felt comfortable to we tabled it until Wednesday. This morning that transition was very smooth. Take the pressure out and bam zoom to the moon.