Language to Describe Sound

[Em Tee]

A lot of terms are used to describe the different tones of mandolins and often to describe the general sound of certain builds and brands. I was wondering if y'all could help me find the verbiage to describe that... deep sound in certain mandolins like Collings and Eastman. When I say deep I mean, it almost sounds like the notes are resonating from a larger bodied instrument. What causes that sound in mandolins and what builds and brands besides Collings capture it?

I dunno if I am making any sense language wise. Please feel free to school me for my ignorance. Thank you!

[fscotte]

Hollow? Scooped? Tubby? Big? Boomy? Dry? Woody? Etc..

[pops1]

The best way to describe sound to someone is to play the instrument for them. Words seem to mean different things to different folks and we all have different ears, so all is subjective.

[HonketyHank]

All I know is that virtually every mandolin on ebay sounds "sweet" and/or "woody".

[Tmcmakin]

That sound is not just inherent in quality mandolins, but also in quality guitars, fiddles, banjos (yeah, I said it!), and basses, and probably most other instruments. That quality is different from a descriptive tone, per se. A rosewood instrument may have a lusher tone where a mahogany one may be more fundamental and woody, but both express quality. The best I can do is express that as a deepness of tone. Low quality instruments often express a superficial, boxy tone. Higher quality instruments have a deeper, more expressive tone.

[catmandu2]

It helps to possess florid and emotional language. For example in Asian music song titles are like "moon rising over misty mountain in late autumn," etc

Much, if not vastly most, of our experience involves object relations, but connecting with processes and states beyond the overt yields descriptiors/referents/symbols that assume and evoke much more. Possibly why our descriptions may become hackneyed and cliche. What is The Word for "experience"?

How can we distill Sound to but a word?

[Charlie Bernstein]

Woody - or boxy? What if it sounds like a wooden box? What if it sounds like boxwood?

[catmandu2]

I'm all in for using words, and any and all else, metaphorically and otherwise, btw - only that, as with everything as breadth expands, so must language.

[Phil Goodson]

I remember walking past SOMEONE'S new Rolls Royce auto some years ago. I was struck by its finish. It looked like you'd have to dig about 6 inches through the clear coat before you got to the real colored paint. I was shiny and beautiful!

Good instruments strike me the same way. Bad instruments sound like the thin sound is coming directly off the surface of the instrument and it seems somewhat trite. Good instruments sound like the tone is coming from 'somewhere way down deep' in the instrument and sound complex and interesting.

That's how I hear and say it.

[LadysSolo]

Some of the words I use to describe my mandolins are "complex overtones, resonant, clear, bell-like, crisp." I don't think any of my mandolins sound "woody" or "boxy." I have a Pava, a Weber, and a Collings. And I love all of their sounds, and they all sound different.