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Thread: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

  1. #26
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    The other advantage of the small instrument is the non-traditional cases they fit in. Provides a bit of privacy.

    There are times when carrying a regular mandolin case is just not right. Besides bulky and awkward for biking and hiking I mean. Going to work for example, is a big one. In my work I very often am packing and traveling with other members of my team, and while I want to bring a mandolin, to play in the hotel room for example, or if I can Google up a good jam in the city I am working, and I don't need them all knowing about it.

    Maybe I am just too compartmentalized.
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  3. #27
    Front Porch & Sweet Tea NursingDaBlues's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    As if the mandolin wasn't small enough as it is.
    I wonder what solutions they come up with at the bass forums
    Tin can, a stick, and a string.

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  5. #28
    Registered User bruce.b's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Check out the travel mandolin. Looks pretty neat.
    http://tinguitar.com/

  6. #29
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!



    The pocket mandolin

  7. #30
    Registered User John Kelly's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    I wouldn't put steel strings on a uke, especially a good one. You could just string it with this Aquila set, meant to be tuned GDAE.
    I have just put a set of the Aquila strings on a cheap Stagg uke and tuned it to GDAE and it is surprisingly good! The uke was one my daughter had so it cost me only the strings.
    I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe

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  8. #31

    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Mini? You want mini? Here you go, my Lanikai banjolele up against my next smallest instrument (Flatiron 1N):

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Strung with Aquila fifths in GDAE. 13.75" scale so I don't even have to adjust my fingering.

    It's heavier than it looks. Decently loud and sounds like you'd expect, i.e. a tiny banjo, which also means it goes out of tune constantly. But it's loads of fun and goes about anywhere in the nice gig bag it came with.

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  9. #32
    en kunnskapssøker James Miller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Travolin is out of touch for the intents & purpose of what I was wanting. It may be the clever size, and looks to have a fairly decent & unique sound to what it is, I'd need an affluent relative to help fund such an endeavor. And since I am still learning, I can hardly justify the cost other than the beginnings of MAS.

    Well, I would use it and probably have lots of fun playing it, however its cost would have one guarding it rather than traveling with it on the back of a recumbent trike. It would make for a fun camping lute-o-lin perhaps, and I'd like to give one a whirl.

    Still... it has its cute factor...
    Click image for larger version. 

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  11. #33
    Registered User Robert Mitchell's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    This is cool enough to inspire me to make one!!
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  12. #34

    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    I can't say this video will wow anyone with my "talent" but here's my strumstick uke tuned in fifths to be a sort of mandolin-like object. Weighs less than a pound if I use a trashbag for a case.


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  14. #35
    en kunnskapssøker James Miller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Is there a learning curve on Strumstick in relation to Mandolin chords/tunes, or is it something that one can pick up on more readily?

    Had looked at the two models they had and the D sounded more like a lute and the G was more dulcimer sounding - but if I had to pick either or that would be tough. Then there was another set that seemed to have a 3rd tuned one.

    Unsure why the fella did not made these in a four stringed option, as in single stringed mandolin. Guess he had to be different.
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  15. #36
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    The McNally strumstick basically is a dulcimer, especially in diatonic fretting. Its main objective is to provide a strumming instrument for absolute beginners with instant satisfaction ("you can't play a wrong note"), and it is indeed fun to play.

    Warning: the sound can faintly resemble a banjo.

    The construction principle of body and neck, however, can theoretically be applied to any number of strings, tunings and frettings, and thus serve other ends, such as portability and even creatability (some people build their own strumsticks, and it's a lot easier than normal luthiery - search YouTube for it).
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  16. #37
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    I found a Leo Pocket mandolin, used, ..made in Denver..
    and a friend , who was the Leather Cutter at Reunion Blues
    (before they got bought out, and moved the company shop, out of San Francisco..)


    Helped me get a well padded gig bag for it, made..
    I brought it on a couple bicycle tours of Europe and the British Isles..

    Sat in at some Pub Jams.. along the way..


    As a Travel Mandolin , camping and being out in the rain, making a Carbon fiber Composite Pocket Mandolin would really be Super..





    Last edited by mandroid; Feb-16-2018 at 6:24pm.
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  17. #38
    en kunnskapssøker James Miller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    No shop here. Used the contact page, asking the maker if the ukulele version could be set up as GDAE.
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  18. #39
    coprolite mandroid's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Martin Back packer mandolins come up for sale occasionally .. well made .. Rugged.. Used to own one.. ..
    There was a Uke version too..

    Fluke Ukes have a Banjo version http://www.magicfluke.com/Firefly-Ba...flysoprano.htm

    I resuscitated an old banjo Uke ,with a spruce 'head' , it was a lot easier to tune with Grover's 4:1 geared Uke tuners ..

    of course worm gear tuners are even lower @ 16:1, etc.


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  19. #40
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    I posted this a while ago on this thread but as long as it was mentioned here it is again.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/MARTIN-CO-M...kAAOSwEyRagRqZ
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  20. #41
    en kunnskapssøker James Miller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Quote Originally Posted by pops1 View Post
    I posted this a while ago on this thread but as long as it was mentioned here it is again.

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/MARTIN-CO-M...kAAOSwEyRagRqZ
    There is one MBP Mandolin on eBay currently. Bidding closes this Sunday: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MARTIN-CO-M....c100039.m2059
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  21. #42
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Yea something went wrong, I had pasted the same one you had on ebay initially, and pasted it from my other post. Just checked and it is a guitar huh??? Oh well you found it anyway.
    THE WORLD IS A BETTER PLACE JUST FOR YOUR SMILE!

  22. #43
    en kunnskapssøker James Miller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Looks like someone's rigged it to sell for at least $200. Went to $175 and stopped. Figured could get a black Rover for that price shipped from Elderly, or will figure something out.
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  23. #44

    Default Re: Wished there was a Mini-Mandolin available!

    Quote Originally Posted by Bertram Henze View Post
    As if the mandolin wasn't small enough as it is.
    I wonder what solutions they come up with at the bass forums
    The Kala UBass is ukele sized and sounds pretty good.

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