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Thread: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

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    Registered User LongBlackVeil's Avatar
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    Default Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    I dont know alot of electric mandolin music. Ive listened to Paul Glasse and some of Jethros electric stuff. What else is out there?

    Im actually really trying to find out if i want a single course or double course electric. I cant decide for the life of me, so im trying to figure out what i like
    "When you learn an old time fiddle tune, you make a friend for life"

  2. #2

    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Mike Campbell of The Heartbreakers plays a bit of electric mandolin on some songs. A search here in the forum may yield some more suggestions for listening and information on Mike's Rickenbacker electric.

    Quite frankly, I can see where you really would need one of each type of mandolin, a 4 or 5 string and an 8 string. My first electric mando was a Mann SEM 5 string and it did sound like a small electric guitar which did not thoroughly satisfy me. I should have given it more time but ending up selling it and bought an 8 string cheapo which I do like a lot but the pickups sorta suck. I'll be much happier when I finally upgrade them. I'm also finding that I want that little electric guitar single course sound again. Sellers remorse but...

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    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL

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    Administrator Mandolin Cafe's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Michael Lampert is a fine player on the west coast. Used to host his site long ago and haven't heard from or of him in years. His site here. Think I heard he dove into Eastern European music which keeps him occupied now. These two tracks appear on the Cafe MP3 page. Not many cats can play electric jazz mandolin like this, only a few. Big chops, real jazz. He's playing a custom Schwab mandolin on these tracks.

    Bahiamar


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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Peter Mix, one of our esteemed members, plays a lot of electric these days and has posted a few videos lately of his interesting finger style.





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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Alex Heflin is also another extremely talented musician who also plays acoustic and guitar. Definitely worth exploring, inventive player with lots of good ideas, appears on these pages from time to time.

    Also from the MP3 page:

    Hats Off

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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Tiny Moore is quite popular with lots of folks.

    Len N.
    Clearwater, FL

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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Check out Jim Richter for some four string electric magic:

    https://youtu.be/hjSwQFVzpro

    Last edited by Dave Bradford; Dec-05-2018 at 3:48pm. Reason: Video missing

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    Registered User LongBlackVeil's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Quote Originally Posted by lenf12 View Post
    Mike Campbell of The Heartbreakers plays a bit of electric mandolin on some songs. A search here in the forum may yield some more suggestions for listening and information on Mike's Rickenbacker electric.

    Quite frankly, I can see where you really would need one of each type of mandolin, a 4 or 5 string and an 8 string. My first electric mando was a Mann SEM 5 string and it did sound like a small electric guitar which did not thoroughly satisfy me. I should have given it more time but ending up selling it and bought an 8 string cheapo which I do like a lot but the pickups sorta suck. I'll be much happier when I finally upgrade them. I'm also finding that I want that little electric guitar single course sound again. Sellers remorse but...

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    Len B.
    Clearwater, FL
    Im kind of thinking the same thing. Right now i think ill grab an 8 and just take 4 strings off like Weinstein does
    "When you learn an old time fiddle tune, you make a friend for life"

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    Registered User Tom Wright's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    It’s easier to make doubled courses sound single than the reverse. Bending is not a problem if you use light gauges and also damp one string of the pair — I do this a fair amount, and it did not take long to get reliable at doing it. Tuning carefully and fingering accurately yields a clean single-course sound even with distortion.

    I recommend angling the pickups to tilt away from the bass, so you can roll off tone and still have useful signal from the higher strings.

    I also recommend stringing as a mandola — much more useful music is found down in mandola/guitar range, as opposed to the higher violin range. Personally, I need 10 strings for folk, choro, jazz and pop/rock. 8 is not enough.

    Here’s a custom (Almuse) 10-string with modest overdrive (AnalogMan King of Tone pedal) direct into ProTools interface. Ryder single-coil stacked humbuckers on sapele body:

    https://soundcloud.com/twtunes/tailwind-mando
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Jeff Bird, side man with Cowboy Junkies. He plays an EM-200, but with only 4 strings.


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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Leo Raley played with Cliff Brunner and it’s said he inspired Tiny Moore.

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    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Favorite electric mandolin album is still The Cherry Electric by John Kruth
    https://www.amazon.com/Cherry-Electr...herry+electric

    And there's always Alex Gregory with 13 Jokes
    https://www.amazon.com/13-Jokes-Heav...egory+13+jokes

    And Mark Heard's Satellite Sky
    https://www.amazon.com/Satellite-Sky...+satellite+sky
    Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.

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    Mandol'Aisne Daniel Nestlerode's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Look up Jason Anick.

    https://youtu.be/bVwfkbCMdz4
    The video embed isn't loading for me here. so I've linked it... Jason Anick doing an original composition called Bela.

    Daniel

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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    U Srinivas played a five string electric mandola and although you may not want to play in his style you might like his sound. There are plenty of YouTube videos to watch.

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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Check out "Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys - For the Last Time". It's a two record set (also available on CD and download) - Johnny Gimble's electric mandolin playing is stellar. Also - check out "Billy Jack Wills and his Western Swing Band". A bit harder to find, but absolutely some of THE BEST Western Swing out there and Tiny Moore absolutely kills it. Available on vinyl and CD - not sure about download.... make sure it is the album that includes "Air Mail Special" and "Mr. Cotton Picker" - Killer!

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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Check out the Blues mandolin thread for blues players
    Yank Rachel is one name that comes up that way, and also Rich Del Grosso
    They are among the ones I enjoy the most--but there are others too
    Would it save you a lot of time if I just gave up and went mad now?

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    Mandol'Aisne Daniel Nestlerode's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Just dug this up:



    Don Steirnberg in 1991
    In a Sentimental Mood

    Daniel

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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Quote Originally Posted by Daniel Nestlerode View Post
    Just dug this up:



    Don Steirnberg in 1991
    In a Sentimental Mood

    Daniel
    Fantastic, and thanks for posting this. Mr. Stiernberg is THE MAN, for sure. Harmonica player is awesome, too - when I heard the first notes I thought maybe Toots Thielemans was sitting in.
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    thanks all

    I still have the mandolin played by fat Don in 1991 in the above video. It's on 3 tracks of my latest CD "Good Numbers"--'Just Friends', 'Laverne Walk' and 'Come Rain or Come Shine'

    I guess I understand when people say oh it sounds like a guitar. In fact I was drawn to playing it in an attempt to get closer to sounds made by jazz guitar heroes such as Pass, Benson, Montgomery. I started with a Roberts Tiny Moore Model purchased from the great Tiny himself who also inspired my pursuit of the instrument. Years later I met the great Paul Glasse and the great Mike Stevens at the NAMM show here in Chicago and ended up ordering the Paul Glasse model and adding Glasse, Moore, and Gimble to the hero list. Now all these years later it sounds always like a mandolin to me, especially when operated by those guys, allthough I repeat I understand people saying it sounds just like a guitar. I confess to expressing my love of B.B. King on the five-string occasionally..One time I asked Jethro about his electric mando playing and he said "oh if I want to sound like that I'll just play guitar." Easy for him to say! He was a great guitar player. But he did also pioneer the use of the Fender electric four string. I especially dig the tracks on "Jazz From the Hills" where he uses that. And he had Gibson electric 8 strings that turn up here and there too. He, Tiny, and Johnny always sound like mandolin players to my ears even on these varied hybrid type axes(Johnny tuned C-G-D-A)even as when Tiny or Johnny played acoustic mandolins you could always tell it was them. They thought like mandolin players even as their individual concepts and touches and attacks contained traces of everybody from Django to Charlie Christian to George Barnes and even other instrumentalists such as Benny Goodman or Sven Asmussen..

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    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Richard Thompson, when he played/plays one. Sounds just like his awesome electric guitar playing, only an octave up.

    When I play electric, I don't think of it as a mandolin at all. It's a shorter scale 5-string electric guitar in an alternate tuning. I refrain from using the "M" word because that tends to generate what I consider negative stereotyping in the minds of listeners. NO, it's a small "Strat".

    Niles H
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    Mandol'Aisne Daniel Nestlerode's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    I know we have gone off an a tangent...

    I play primarily 5 string emando these days. I don't mind at all that the tones I get are guitar-like. I think I kind of like the ambiguity. (Plus I'm a bit of a frustrated guitar player anyway.) The important thing to me these days is the song itself rather than making sure the song has mandolin sounds in it.

    I do tell people it's a mandolin. But now that Niles mentions it, I'm not at all sure why I care. If some people thin it's a 5 string guitar, why should I worry about it?

    New CD out in the spring. Has 5 string emando all over it.


    Daniel

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    Oval holes are cool David Lewis's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    No back to back, jethro burns and tiny Moore?

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    Registered User Perry's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Quote Originally Posted by mandocrucian View Post
    Richard Thompson, when he played/plays one. Sounds just like his awesome electric guitar playing, only an octave up.

    When I play electric, I don't think of it as a mandolin at all. It's a shorter scale 5-string electric guitar in an alternate tuning. I refrain from using the "M" word because that tends to generate what I consider negative stereotyping in the minds of listeners. NO, it's a small "Strat".

    Niles H
    Yeah....all of what I would think of as the advantages of a acoustic mandolin are out the window with an electric mandolin.....it is just an electric guitar with a limited range in a altered tuning.

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    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Yeah....all of what I would think of as the advantages of a acoustic mandolin are out the window with an electric mandolin.....it is just an electric guitar with a limited range in a altered tuning.
    Not such a "limited range": G,-D,-A,-E-a tuning. Below a C-tuned electric 5-string. Bottom string = the 3rd fret G of a guitar.

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    Aside from the split-string doublestops and chords, what exactly are the "advantages" of an acoustic mandolin when playing rock, blues and other electric music? Aside from not dealing with longer stretches and having to change your RH attack for single strings.

    BTW: Here's my F4 plugged straight into a guitar amp via a Fishman bridge pickup. Between sets jam with a couple 16/17 year-old Finnish kids (bass & drums). Someone happened to have a portable DAT on hand and sent me a tape. (1995)
    https://soundcloud.com/user-643522979/15-purplehazelive

    NH

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    Mandol'Aisne Daniel Nestlerode's Avatar
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    Default Re: Favorite Electric Mandolin Albums or Artists?

    Quote Originally Posted by Perry View Post
    Yeah....all of what I would think of as the advantages of a acoustic mandolin are out the window with an electric mandolin.....it is just an electric guitar with a limited range in a altered tuning.
    I don't think that was Niles's point. It certainly wasn't my point. If I agreed with you I wouldn't play a 5 string electric mandolin.

    Daniel

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