I need help. (O.K. Everyone who know me agrees. Ha, ha).
So here is the situation and it seems a lot like a bad case of MAS, or what ever you call interest in Tenor guitars and Octave Mandolins.
Recently, after an extensive search I bought a nice guitar. I had quit guitar in favor of fiddle nearly 25 years ago. The mandolin came about 8 years ago followed by my favorite instrument (or nearly as loved as the violin) a Collings Mandola.
I bought the guitar because I missed the big rich sound in that lower range. And the mandola was a step in that direction.
Accompanying two fiddles in our band I needed a lower pitched instrument,. Mandolin works really well in driving rhythm but without the bass, or cello, or accordion, or even the hammered dulcimer, it is the same pitch as the fiddles and sounded too much the same.
The guitar seemed like a good idea. But yikes, it's been a long time since I played a guitar. And my wrist and thumb are not the same anymore. Both broken at different times, the thumb being the most receint. Playing chords again, and on this D shaped neck profile, hurts. It does not seem to be a problem with the Collings V profile on the mandola.
So. As much as I really love this guitar, I think a tenor guitar with a V profile like the Collings Tenor seems to make sense. But there is another option driving me nuts and you may already guess, an Octave Mandolin.
How to decide? What is your opinion / experience with these instruments?
And how hard is it to sell an instrument in order to buy another?
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