Just acquired a TC Octave...

[Gregory Tidwell]

...Man oh man, I should have gotten one of these years ago. I am a man-mountain of a human. I love the mandolin, but this thing is just so much easier to play for me. I am in the honeymoon phase right now, but I am actually thinking "I can't go back now!"

Playing an open F chord is a bit of a PITA, but I'll get there!

[tmsweeney]

Congratulations ! I know what you mean.

for F on octave I do

E -1-(f)
A -3-(c)
D -3-(f)
G -2-(a)

you can leave the A open too for a rougher chord.

[JH Murray]

I found the factory strings on my TC octave to have intonation problems. I bought D'addario J80 phosphor bronze which gave it a much more powerful richer tone. Well worth the change.

[Gregory Tidwell]

Thanks JH. I bought mine used. It came with some old and skunky strings, but the seller included some new ones. I swapped them out right away. Made a big, big difference.

I brought it to work to show a co-worker. Now I am just sitting here, staring at the case, praying for quittin' time.

[luthierseye]

[QUOTE=JH Murray;1318158]I found the factory strings on my TC octave to have intonation problems. I bought D'addario J80 phosphor bronze which gave it a much more powerful richer tone. Well worth the change.[/QUO

I sympathize. Similarly, I recently bought a Breedlove Mahogany 12 fret Parlor guitar that came with D'Addario PB coated and they were terrible! I switched to Martin Marquis Silk & Steels and it was night & day. Ya gotta find what works on your particular instrument and I lucked out on the 2nd try.

[Caleb]

Greg, glad to see you're enjoying the OM.

[Gregory Tidwell]

Any you the Breedlove, Caleb.

[bigskygirl]

The OM's are fun. A friend of mine is building a few and he let me go home with one of them in the white last weekend. Sure was different playing on the larger scale, I will have my pick of the three he's building, a Koa/cedar, black walnut/cedar, BW/spruce. Last weekend was the Koa this weekend one of the BW.

[Troy H]

I found the factory strings on my TC octave to have intonation problems. I bought D'addario J80 phosphor bronze which gave it a much more powerful richer tone. Well worth the change.

Same, same & agreed!

[Bernie Daniel]

...Man oh man, I should have gotten one of these years ago. I am a man-mountain of a human. I love the mandolin, but this thing is just so much easier to play for me. I am in the honeymoon phase right now, but I am actually thinking "I can't go back now!"

Playing an open F chord is a bit of a PITA, but I'll get there!

Congratulations on joining the big boy's club! What kind of an octave did you get and can you post a pic?

As mentioned 2331 is a nice F-chord on the octave and of course you can get more or less the same sound out of 233X because the first formation has two F's in it.

I also like D'Addario J80's -- nice strings and just the right gauges I think.

[Gerry Cassidy]

2-3-3-5 is attainable on a TC and it sounds even better.

[Martin Jonas]

Playing an open F chord is a bit of a PITA, but I'll get there!

Lots of chord shapes here already. I play 5305, for what it's worth.

Martin