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Thread: Mandolin sounded good

  1. #1

    Default Mandolin sounded good

    Ok, lately I've had a few people come up and say the mandolin sounds good. Now it's a complement either way because I made the mandolin, but how, without coming right out and asking, but how would you know what that means?

    Could be:

    You did a great job building that mandolin, now learn how to play it.

    You play that lifeless piece of junk very well.

    I'm so tired of crappy guitar playing, mandolin is refreshing.

    Your playing is so good you make an awesome instrument sound like a choir of singing Angels.


    Thank God you don't play banjo.

    Or, I remember when you were just starting and you've made progress.
    Silverangel A
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    1913 Gibson A-1

  2. #2
    Lurkist dhergert's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Or, with your newly built Arches, perhaps they can hear it now.
    -- Don

    "Music: A minor auditory irritation occasionally characterized as pleasant."
    "It is a lot more fun to make music than it is to argue about it."


    2002 Gibson F-9
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    1975 Suzuki taterbug (plus many other noisemakers)
    [About how I tune my mandolins]
    [Our recent arrival]

  3. #3

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    If you press the issue, they may say “Never mind, I think it sucks.”

    On the other hand, I’d say they find the sound pleasant, and aren’t considering much beyond that.
    Soliver arm rested and Tone-Garded Northfield Model M with D’Addario NB 11.5-41, picked with a Wegen Bluegrass 1.4

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  5. #4
    Registered User Charles E.'s Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Post a sound clip and we will be the judge.
    Charley

    A bunch of stuff with four strings

  6. #5

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    I think you are overthinking this. :-)

    And your sig should say "Br1k original (from Arches F style kit), that sounds AWESOME."

    It's cool it sounds good. :-)
    Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
    Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
    Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
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  7. #6
    Registered User Louise NM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Reminds me of the old, old story about the woman backstage after a concert, telling the legendary violinist Jascha Heifetz how wonderful his Strad had sounded that evening. Heifetz picked up the violin case, held it to his ear, and said, "Funny, I don't hear anything."

    Or maybe they are indeed just glad it's a mandolin and not a banjo.

  8. #7
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Hi Chris - You certainly come up with a good 'un every now & again !!. Yep ! - take the compliment & don't push for any explanation,
    Ivan
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
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  10. #8

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    I am being lighthearted in this thread, fearing folks really don't know, but they kind of do because a friend plays really well with me playing guitar. The one thing I do is try to play within my abilities, and I've learned a few pieces they probably have never heard on mandolin, like Prince's Little Red Corvette, or Don't Let Me Down by the Beatles.

    I am trying to recruit others every chance I get, with imperceptible results.

    And yes, my Arches kit can be heard.
    Silverangel A
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    1913 Gibson A-1

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  12. #9
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Hi Brick - "...like Prince's ''Little Red Corvette''.." A great song - maybe ''Raspberry Beret'' next ?,
    Ivan
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
    Lebeda F-5 "Special".
    Stelling Bellflower BANJO
    Tokai - 'Tele-alike'.
    Ellis DeLuxe "A" style.

  13. #10

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    There are a lot of people who frequent open mics with a five song repertoire. Over and over, the same songs. I guess it's a comfort zone. I'm the anti comfort zone type. At a gig you want to sound somewhat polished, but open mics are fair game. It helps I don't mind a crash and burn once in a while doing something no one else would think of trying. Maybe with good reason sometimes.

    I like the kids doing bluegrass versions of Guns and Roses and Metallica. I always admired Johnny Cash doing songs like Nine Inch Nails' Hurt. I'm 68 this month and trying not to play comfortable music. I play a lot of fiddle tunes, so it's not that I shun tradition. I just have a very broad palate. 1300 records, a third rock, a third jazz, a third classical. Taking up mandolin was a way to broaden even further my musical tastes. For one thing it's fun.
    Silverangel A
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    1913 Gibson A-1

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  15. #11
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Quote Originally Posted by Br1ck View Post
    There are a lot of people who frequent open mics with a five song repertoire. Over and over, the same songs. I guess it's a comfort zone. I'm the anti comfort zone type. At a gig you want to sound somewhat polished, but open mics are fair game. It helps I don't mind a crash and burn once in a while doing something no one else would think of trying. Maybe with good reason sometimes.

    I like the kids doing bluegrass versions of Guns and Roses and Metallica. I always admired Johnny Cash doing songs like Nine Inch Nails' Hurt. I'm 68 this month and trying not to play comfortable music. I play a lot of fiddle tunes, so it's not that I shun tradition. I just have a very broad palate. 1300 records, a third rock, a third jazz, a third classical. Taking up mandolin was a way to broaden even further my musical tastes. For one thing it's fun.

    Br1ck welcome to the old geezer club as I myself turned 68 on October 30th. I too enjoy playing different styles of music as well. I am working on some jazz stuff but, with arthritic hands it is a slow process.

  16. #12
    Registered User Bob Visentin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    I too am an old geezer. I love reworking songs. I have turned the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coup" into a folk song with much success, and I play Chuck Berry's Maybeline, and Nadine in minor keys. I put the Sugarfoot Rag and Pepper by the Butthole Surfers together.

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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Accept the compliment, say thank you and, just be happy!
    Don’t be such a pessimist!
    Life is better when taken at face value sometimes!
    I have been lucky and been invited to sit in with some very talented country bands and a tejano band and had an absolute ball. Music does not understand boundaries with respect to being tasteful!
    The country bands the blend was pretty easy, “think like a steel player” the Tejano...well, that was “Free wheelin’” to say the least but,it sure was fun! Great musicians, great guys!

    I started being a geezer at 32! The rest is all catching up thirty years later.
    I actually did just yell at kids on my lawn! I just about fell over after I shut the door I was laughing at myself so hard!
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  18. #14

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Visentin View Post
    I too am an old geezer. I love reworking songs. I have turned the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coup" into a folk song with much success, and I play Chuck Berry's Maybeline, and Nadine in minor keys. I put the Sugarfoot Rag and Pepper by the Butthole Surfers together.
    You are my kind of guy.

    I'm not a pessimist at all, I just like to take shots at myself all the time. Part of the fun. Obviously a compliment is a compliment. Just wonder from what angle it's coming from. Taking in all of humanity, I'm a better mandolin player than 99.999% of them. In a room full of mandolinists, somewhat less. I also am imogi intolerant and the written word is open to interpretation.
    Silverangel A
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    1913 Gibson A-1

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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    In the past 20 years I have had the good fortune to own a number of really spectacular guitars, and have had numerous people approach me after gigs saying; 'I love the sound of your guitar' . . . but I have NEVER had anybody tell me that they loved my playing or my songs. It's not easy having a music career where you are constantly upstaged by a finely crafted 8-pound chunk of wood and wire.

    p.s. - Although I have never performed the song live, I have often regaled friends with my own country version of the Queen song 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. Yeah, I get lots of strange looks when I pull that one out!

  20. #16

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    If someone gives me kind words, I take it with a smile........fully aware that "our" art is performed in beer joints, not art museums, so one must consider the source....

  21. #17
    Registered User Ivan Kelsall's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Mike - It's testament to your playing that your guitars have sounded good enough to elicit a compliment. I've never heard a c**p player make a good guitar sound 'good' - ever !!.

    IMHO - Only a good player can get the very best out of their instrument,
    Ivan
    Weber F-5 'Fern'.
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  22. #18
    Registered User T.D.Nydn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    I accept compliments gracefully,but I never believe them...

  23. #19

    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    This is a really good thread. I get really turned off by the militant purists, so all this talk of Queen and Prince makes me happy.

    My first reworking was “Sympathy For The Devil” some Sam Bush style. I’d love to work up an entire set of Stones in Newgrass fashion.
    Soliver arm rested and Tone-Garded Northfield Model M with D’Addario NB 11.5-41, picked with a Wegen Bluegrass 1.4

  24. #20
    NY Naturalist BradKlein's Avatar
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    Default Re: Mandolin sounded good

    Somewhat to the point, I always remember to say “you sound great on that instrument”, or “I love the tone you get off that instrument.” Never, “ that guitar sounds great. What year is it?” It is a small point but I think players with old or valuable mandolins react noticeably differently when you complement their sound rather then their instrument. I mean, would you say to a stranger “what did you pay for that mandolin? “ you’re basically asking the same question when you say, what year is that Gibson or Martin?

    Even when it’s an unfamiliar or inexpensive instrument common courtesy makes me complement the player for the reasons mentioned above, and then most of them are happy to talk about the instrument itself if that’s where your interest lies.
    BradKlein
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