General Emando Info

[darthpenguin92]

Hey,
I'm currently learning how to play mandolin and I think I want to get an electric, or maybe an acoustic-electric mandolin once I get better. So, I have some questions regarding emandos: first of all, what would be a good beginning/intermediate one that I could get for fairly cheap? I was looking at the Mandobird and the Laurel A-style...does anyone know if those are any good? Also, what kind of an amp would I want to get? Can you use any guitar amp, or are there certain amps that are better for mandolins?

Thanks in advance,
Bart

[mandroid]

Good time to Scroll your way down to the specific, electric 4,5,& 8 string mandolin portion
of this site ... archives to read back thru there..

[Ted Eschliman]

Get thee to Emando.com.

[darthpenguin92]

Well, I already looked through emando.com, and it seemed to be more aimed at people who already are familiar with the basics of electric mandolins. I also looked through the electric section of this forum, but again, there wasn't anything that specifically answered my questions. Can anybody help me out?

[JEStanek]

I'm going to move this question to the E mando section of the Café with a referring link left here. The folks there will certainly have good info to share.

Jamie

[mrmando]

darthpenguin92 -- what mandolin are you playing now? What kind of music are you interested in? What do you think you'd use an emando for?

I'd take the Mandobird over the Laurel any day ... but the average Mandobird will still benefit from a setup job after you buy it.

[darthpenguin92]

Well, right now I have an unidentified bowlback. I like it, but I'm not really interested in learning classical mandolin; I'm just learning to play on that for lack of any other mandolin. The styles that I'm most interested in are jazz and folk. As for what I'd use it for...playing music? :P Do you mean what style I'd use it for? I was kind of assuming the mandobird would be better too...what do you mean by a setup job? And would any guitar amp work okay with an emando, or do you have to have some kind of mandolin amp?

Thanks,
Bart

[mrmando]

Setup job: I have a Mandobird sitting here. It could do with a new nut, or at least having the nut reslotted to get the strings spaced a bit farther apart. The action's a little high, and the neck might benefit from being shimmed. The bridge is a wee bit crooked, if you look with a critical eye. The frets could stand to be leveled and dressed.

That's a setup job.

There is no such thing as a mandolin amp. You take your emando to the guitar shop, try some amps and pick one you like. Polytone amps seem to get good reviews from emando players, particularly those who play jazz. I like the Fender Blues Deluxe but couldn't afford it, so I got the Blues Jr.

Use the Search function -- from the menu in the light gray bar near the top of your screen. Search on "amp" and "mandobird" and you should find plenty of old threads.