Anyone stop playing guitar for Mandolin?

[Denny Gies]

I still play'em both 'cause I want to be like Mike E.

[Tom Hart]

Just mandolin for me. Got rid of a Gibson ES 330 in 04. I love the mandolin and can't imagine how much time I'd waste on a Guitar Cafe site.
I do have a Kalamazoo tenor from the 30's but I feel that's just a guitar shaped mandola.

[Mike Arakelian]

I’ve played the guitar for over fifty years. Five years ago I bought my first mandolin, and fell in love with it. I have two Martins, a D-1 and a D-35 and still play both, but not nearly as much as I do the mandolin. A typical Saturday jam has anywhere from three to five or six guitars and just one mandolin...mine, so it’s safe to say that the mandolin is now my primary instrument.

[Willem]

If bass guitars count, then yes. Over the last 6 months I have picked up a bass 2 or 3 times. Its shame too, because I have a couple nice ones.

[colorado_al]

Yes. 22 years ago. No complaints from me, but my roommate from 22 years ago might have some.

[Mark Wilson]

Yep. And somewhere in the house I have a pretty nice guitar to prove it.

[LadysSolo]

I still play guitar, started in the 1960s (most of us played in the 1960s that were around then,) never played really well. Put the guitar away after college for kids and work, pulled it out about 6 or 7 years ago, then picked up the mandolin and found it a much better fit size-wise. Then I discovered parlor guitars, and play both again, but more mandolin than guitar. It depends on what I am playing, I am working on classical on both, and also play folk, some things sound better on one instrument than the other. I would say I play mandolin 70% and guitar 30% of the time, but I find them complementary, the more I improve on one the more I improve on the other.

[mee]

I like playing guitar but mandolin is 99.9%

[B381]

Sort of, but I was never a great guitar player. Played a bit a school, then gave up for 35 years, bought another one and then. A mandolin. My mandolin playing is probably better than my guitar, but that’s not saying much!

What he said...

[Mtl Seán]

The past six months i’ve Been playing a lot more mandolin. I feel like when I was a teenager. You just wanna play. I think I really needed a change. I’m hoping strings is strings and one will help the other. I still have a guitar or a uke in my hands when I teach so I guess i’m pretty active. Anyways i’m really grateful for this site. Thank you all for your input it’s interesting.

[Dave Sheets]

Ah, geez, they are all good. Haven't played much bass lately, which is kinda sad. Performance is split between mandolin and guitar, practice mostly fiddle. Playing fiddle seems to change how I play everything else.

[FredK]

I started playing guitar in the early 70's, mostly for rhythm and accompaniment. Never much at lead. It took a back seat when I got married in the 80's and just dabbled with it when I could. Early last year, I had the neck reset and prepped it for sale because I had my mind set on (finally) playing the mandolin. The luthier did such a good job, I couldn't part with it figuring I would switch between the mando and the guitar. Instead, I used $$ from the sale of my flute and ukulele to buy my first mando a year ago. Since then, I've played the mando exclusively with only faint desire to pick up the guitar. The mandolin has stolen my heart. So, it looks like the mandolin has won. Now it's time to considered whether to sell my guitar to upgrade my mandolin or, maybe, invest in an octave mandolin. Mandolin=1, guitar=0, at this point.

[Bren]

Pretty much.

I occasionally pick up a guitar to accompany someone else, or sing a song, and I keep it sparse with plenty of air-space, the way I like it when I'm playing mandolin.

[Dagger Gordon]

For quite a long time I hardly played guitar, but now I play quite a lot.
It's something I find I like to do at home but I don't play it on my gigs. I teach guitar to kids every week with an organisation called Feis Rois, and I do enjoy that. I got a Lowden guitar a few years ago and it definitely made me want to play more.

[DavidKOS]

That's a tough question.

For me, I've been playing the mandolin only a little less time that guitar - and I began guitar about 1970, so mandolin was maybe 1971 at best.

I can't imagine not having both.

[foldedpath]

So, how many people were motivated to go and play a few tunes on your unloved guitars, after reading this thread?


I did -- grabbed the nylon string and stumbled through some fingerstyle arrangements of "Dark Island" and "Farewell to Nig." Now she'll get propped back in the corner for another month.

[Andy Willowbee]

I've been playing guitar for 46 years, and mandolin for the last eleven years. I dabbled with mandolin for the first four years, but decided that there were always guitars at jams and never enough guitars. For the next fourteen months, I took nothing but a mandolin to jams and, near the end of that time, became a mandolin player. I still play mandolin 85-90% at jams and pickup gigs, but split time at home between mandolin, guitar and slide-based instruments.

[fentonjames]

i have a guitar but it's just there to keep chops up as i work in a music store. i've downgraded and downgraded on it. what i now have is some recording king ooo prototype which i got from their reverb store for 118 bucks shipped.

but now i mostly play mandolin. next to that i dabble on clawhammer banjo and fiddle.

[catmandu2]

After 30+ years serious gtr, I haven't played it in 2, 3 or more years. I couldn't now play the repertoire I formerly played, so I don't play at all anymore. Other instruments...

[Caleb]

For quite a long time I hardly played guitar, but now I play quite a lot.
It's something I find I like to do at home but I don't play it on my gigs. I teach guitar to kids every week with an organisation called Feis Rois, and I do enjoy that. I got a Lowden guitar a few years ago and it definitely made me want to play more.

I really like Lowden guitars. Mine is a Larrivee. So many great makers out there...

[Mark Wilson]

So, how many people were motivated to go and play a few tunes on your unloved guitars, after reading this thread? .

Umm? Nah, just the mandolin

My wife wishes I would play guitar more

[chuck3]

Sort of, but only 50%, the other 50% being upright bass.

In phase I of my musical life (age 12-35), I played guitar and bass guitar about 50-50 and was pretty good on both, playing all styles.

I took 20+ years off to raise 3 kids, then made my "comeback" when my youngest left the house. I decided that there are so many guitar players out there, I would quit guitar, stay with bass guitar, and add mandolin and upright bass.

This required lessons on both mandolin and upright bass, but they have been worth it. Now my three instruments are mandolin, bass guitar and upright bass (not necessarily in that order). No shortage of gigs to be had with that toolbox ...

[Don Grieser]

I only play guitar if I have to and only for a song or two. Hurts my left hand.

[pops1]

Actually put the guitar and mandolin down to play harp, played blues for around 15 years then went back to mandolin. Recently been playing some guitar after about 30 years and really enjoying it. Mandolin is still top dog here, tho tonight it was about equal, but gigs are mandolin.

[Drew Egerton]

I picked up mandolin 2 years after guitar. I still play enough guitar to keep my skills from deteriorating too much, and on a rare few songs with the band, but for the most part I'm all in on mandolin. Also trying to play a little bit of bass, but mandolin keeps me from working too hard on that.