A few questions about electric mandolins

[TheBlindBard]

Hello, all,
was browsing the mandolin store and came across the electric mandolin page and had a few questions:
As far as electric mandolins go, do they come with distortion built in or do you need pedals for that. Can you run them through an "acoustic" brand amp? or is there another amp that would be recomended? I saw this one guy have an amp clipped to his belt, something like that would be cool in the future.
Do they have a standard bridge like an acoustic, or are they different?
Maybe I"ll get one one day, have always loved the fire you can get with distortion on guitars.

[mrmando]

If you have a high-gain magnetic pickup and/or a powerful amp, you can turn up the volume until it starts to feed back, and create distortion that way. But it can be difficult to control. Pedals are more predictable.

Generally, you can use any amp that makes a noise, but an acoustic amp tends to be better suited for the piezo pickup on an acoustic/electric mandolin, whereas electric guitar amps are made for magnetic pickups. There are several different types of bridges, depending on what type of instrument it is.

I have a Web site, Emando.com, with information on hundreds of different brands of electrics. I don't know how useful it would be to someone with low vision, though.

[Ben Milne]

If you what a distorted sound, that will come from an amplifier or indeed a pedal. An acoustic amplifier won't get you a distorted sound since there desiged to amplify as cleanly as possible, usually dealing with active or passive piezo circuits, not magnetic pickups like is found in most electric mandolins. For an amp, start with something simple like a Fender Blues Jr.
The bridge setup will vary from instrument to instrument. I have two hand made electrics that have fixed posts with thumbwheels and a (pretty much) traditional mandolin saddle.
I have one cheap semiacoustic mando that has a mando style bridge, but no arched base as it has a flat body.
My other mass manufactured 8stringed instruments mostly came with a single piece mando-like metal saddle, which can be adjusted at either end. A fusion of mandolin saddle and telecaster style if you will.
There is a replacement bridge available from moongazer for eight string electric mandolins such as the Mandobird which uses jaguar saddles allowing for adjustable intonation of each course.

For fiery distortion generally you need pedals and an amp to supply.

[David Lewis]

I play my jbovier els through a solid state fender and boss pedals. Works beautifully. Have a look at 'laps in seven' by Sam bush in which he plays a wild overdriven wah solo through the end. You'll find it on YouTube.

The emando.com site mentioned above is a magnificent resource.

[TheBlindBard]

Thanks, everybody

[FL Dawg]

It depends what you mean by electric mandolin. There are a few flavors.

Something like a Mandocaster or EM-200 with a solid body and magnetic pickup should be amplified like an electric guitar.

An acoustic mandolin with a piezo or microphone pickup should be amplified like an acoustic guitar.

Then there are acoustic mandolins that have an electric guitar type pickup cut right into the top... amplifly like an electric guitar.

[Raggle Taggle]

My Mandocaster is about the most fun you can have with your clothes on. A warning though, these are a gateway drug to the sickest addiction in all the music world ..... Electric Guitars!!

[chuck3]

I have a different question about electric mandolins - why is it that most of them seem to be single-string (whether 4 or 5) rather than having double string courses like acoustic mandos? Is there some particular thought process behind that?

[TheBlindBard]

I was wanting to know more about the solid-body electrics, that's the type I'd get if I ever get one.

[David Lewis]

I have a different question about electric mandolins - why is it that most of them seem to be single-string (whether 4 or 5) rather than having double string courses like acoustic mandos? Is there some particular thought process behind that?

My understanding is that the courses are for volume, so an amplifier negates that, but also the amplification bring out unwanted harmonics as the strings resonate. Having said that 'unwanted' is highly subjective, and I don't think it's a big issue.

[clobflute]

Have you checked out the Eko mandolins? I think a guy in north London still makes these. I checked one out in a store.

It was really fascinating - the pick ups aren't very avant garde, and I think he uses refurbished vintage parts for the rebuild, so the whole Eko mandolin is made from environmentally friendly previously made parts, instead of chopping down new trees.

Pick-up wise - I listened through a standard Vox Night Train amp (around 50w). You can turn it into Pentode mode and get a very clean acoustic sound, by dropping the gain. If you're wanting distortion, this is easy with the Vox Night Train - getting acoustic purity amplified is harder. For instance, you can insert a Boss Distortion pedal into the loop circuit easily.

I found using electric very helpful for masking my bad technique lol, however I was just messing around.

Interestingly, tremelo was not that interesting! I guess 8 string electric mandolins are possible, but the problem with sound resonance from amplitudes of the same peak and trough causing feedback would be rather horrible.

If you are really interested in the electric sound, have you thought of an electric tenor guitar? I just bought one - it has a short 24" scale and tuned to the tenor CDGA scale, so you find the fifth fret of the soprano mandolin transposing.

Having said that, it's more to practice on 4 strings silently .... !

[Ben Milne]

I have a different question about electric mandolins - why is it that most of them seem to be single-string (whether 4 or 5) rather than having double string courses like acoustic mandos? Is there some particular thought process behind that?

Some folk like to bend strings, and prefer the sound and feel of a mini-electric guitar.
If you bend strings on a double strung course, each string they stretch a different amount, and the resulting slight different pitch creates beats which don't sound all that great through a magnetic pickup. Very different to the chorusing effect that happens on an acoustic instrument.
Other folk (myself included) prefer the feel and sound of an eight string electric over the mini-guitar kind, as they feel the single string course instruments too far removed from the mandolin.

I guess 8 string electric mandolins are possible, but the problem with sound resonance from amplitudes of the same peak and trough causing feedback would be rather horrible.

Your guess makes absolutely no sense and in no way correlates with reality.

[Tom Wright]

Doubled courses through distortion could be cool, or it could be awful, depending on how cleanly you fret, that is, whether the unisons are sweet or harshly out of tune. I sometimes prefer to go through chorus before distortion when I want a certain tone, and chorus is exactly what you get with unisons that are just slightly out of tune.

I spent a lot of time with my 5-string, but am trending towards preferring doubled courses now. They are trickier but the payoff in rich tone and different attack seems worth it, now. I have been playing jazz on my flat top 10-string with magnetic pickup, which acts like a big-box guitar if I want.

I don't mind sounding like a guitar, since that is a great sound the whole world loves, including me. The reason I play mandolin is 1) I know where the notes are in an intuitive way from playing violin forever, and 2) there are so many great guitar players I need a niche. The different layout and easy access to a large pitch range means I can do different musical things.

What most of us consider electric guitars are nothing like acoustic instruments, so there is no reason to expect an electric mandolin to try and sound like an acoustic mandolin.

Here is my 5-string with analog outboard distortion:


Here is my acoustic 10-string with magnetic soundhole pickup:

[eadg145]

Well, I'm not completely sure of the intention of the original question, particularly with the phrase "'acoustic' brand amplifiers" in the question, with the quotation marks. Most of the responses seem to be referring to amplifiers designed specifically for acoustic instruments. Those are indeed designed to provide a clean, undistorted sound. However, if TheBlindBard was asking about the Acoustic brand amplifiers from the 1970's, those would most assuredly provide plenty of distortion when pushed.

[mandroid]

why is it that most of them seem to be single-string (whether 4 or 5) rather than having double string courses like acoustic mandos? Is there some particular thought process behind that?

both are made, its do what the customer wants, pretty much .

the somewhat out of phase not quite in unison pairs have their fans .

but as most-all EFX pedals are made for guitars they sound as anticipated more with single strings.

[FL Dawg]

I was wanting to know more about the solid-body electrics, that's the type I'd get if I ever get one.

Here is all you need to know. F-5 mandolin meets 1950's Les Paul. With all 8 strings, so it really is a mandolin

[Ben Milne]

Here is all you need to know. F-5 mandolin meets 1950's Les Paul. With all 8 strings, so it really is a mandolin

For the benefit of our vision impaired OP, this post contains a picture of a Gibson EM-200, a solid body 2point mandolin made by Gibson circa late fifties or early sixties.

[TheBlindBard]

Ah, thank you. That does sound very interesting. Definetly will buy one one of these days. I've put myself to a limit, no more instruments for a year. Give myself time to focus and really play.

[Wupeide]

I made this video a while back. Just to be clear "I have no professional training"



I used a Jon Mann 4 String, Boss CS-3, Boss DS-2 and a very cheap amp made by Success called a MGD-40.

[Terry Allan Hall]

Some folk like to bend strings, and prefer the sound and feel of a mini-electric guitar.
If you bend strings on a double strung course, each string they stretch a different amount, and the resulting slight different pitch creates beats which don't sound all that great through a magnetic pickup. Very different to the chorusing effect that happens on an acoustic instrument.
Other folk (myself included) prefer the feel and sound of an eight string electric over the mini-guitar kind, as they feel the single string course instruments too far removed from the mandolin.

Well stated!

[CES]

I really enjoy playing around with my Mandobird 4 string. I have a Roland cube 30 watt and a Fender mini-mustang 5 or 10 watt practice amp, both with preset effects. The 'bird can get pretty nasty on the heavier "metal" settings. No pedals needed for just playing around at home, though for playing out they would offer more versatility. Got the 'bird for 129 bucks used, and the amps were both inexpensive (can't remember the prices, but think the Roland was < 300, and the Mini-Mustang was like 100 bucks)...