New Mandola Day!

[bigskygirl]

So I just got the Eastman MDA315 this afternoon. After sneaking it into the house past my husband I got it out and tuned up and it’s very nice. I can see right away it’s going to mess with my mind since it’s CGDA rather than the familiar GDAE mando tuning but I dabble in guitar and I find if I just rejigger my thinking to the instrument I’m playing at the time it generally goes well.

Anyway, at first glance it’s well made as most Eastmans are. I’m sure it’s not as nice as the more spendy mandolas but I got it to just mess around with. It feels solid and after a close inspection I couldn’t find any flaws. It has a cast tailpiece which is really nice, my MD315 has a cheaper tailpiece that keeps coming off. The tuners are pretty tight, all in all it’s really nice for the price.

It’s loud and fun as all get out so far. Now I just need to figure out how to play it.

[tmsweeney]

Nice! Been playing my Weber more and more, I'm still pretty shy trying to Jam with it but its a journey.....

[Michael Manley]

Congratulations! Mandola’s are really cool! I bought an old Gibson a while back, without ever playing one. I thought it would be similar to a mandolin, just a little lower pitch. I was completely wrong! It is a completely different instrument to my ears. The sustain and tonal depth has changed my approach. I believe it is our job to get as much out of our instruments as they will give us and for us to learn what they want to do, and what we can do with them. I’m playing more open chords, letting strings ring longer, more double-stop melodies, more Celtic tunes (slow aires or fast droning melodies), and basically for me, it is a completely different instrument! Have fun and explore! p.s. beware. A few hours on a mandola can make a mandolin sound a little wimpy!

[Chuck Leyda]

Congratulations!
I just pulled the trigger on a used Davy Stuart mandola from Carter's and it arrives on Thursday. I had a mandola once but ended up trading it before I got really used to it. I'm going to try a few different tunings on it. Hopefully 2nd time will be the charm!

[Bob Visentin]

Congratulations. The mandola has helped me break out of many ruts.

[Mark Wilson]

Enjoy that mandola! I'm green with envy but my mandola kiddie fund is kinda light green

[bbcee]

Congrats @BSG from another Eastman owner (I have the fancy-schmantzy 815). Michael Manley echoes my experience with it so far, one year in. Plus I love the timbre, and if you're into recording, it's a great acoustic guitar-range texture. Great behind a singer too. I very rarely play full chords when accompanying, but rather use double-stops & partial chords to add tonality.

I bought Nils Hokkanen's little mandola book, "The Mandola Sampler", and that helped me a lot to visualize it as its own instrument, not as a mandolin with a hormone problem. Hope your journey is rewarding!

[William Smith]

Congrats, Mandolas are neat and I'm trying to figure mine out, a bit different than mandolin! Mine is a resurrected 1924 Gibson Tenor Lute converted to a Dola, Its very dark sounding and loud! The open C has me all messed up! I'm sure with practice I'll et something out of it! The bad thing is I can't find a case! No one sells a dola case that I've found?

[BoxCarJoe]

Congrats, Mandolas are neat and I'm trying to figure mine out, a bit different than mandolin! Mine is a resurrected 1924 Gibson Tenor Lute converted to a Dola, Its very dark sounding and loud! The open C has me all messed up! I'm sure with practice I'll et something out of it! The bad thing is I can't find a case! No one sells a dola case that I've found?

I bought a 49 key keyboard bag (lots of choices) and put foam in it.
The foam cost more than the case.

[dulcillini]

Congratulations. I don't play mine nearly often enough, and I don't know why. I have a lovely mandola with a great sound. You will love yours, I am sure. Sometimes, I simply enjoy playing mandolin favorites a little slower and a fifth down. You will be surprised how that changes the songs, often for the better. Most importantly, have fun!

[bigskygirl]

Thank you everyone! I played it a lot this weekend and it sounds very nice. So far just playing familiar tunes a fifth lower but I’ve taken a couple and figured out how the fretboard works...challenging but fun! I looked at some books for tenor banjo/guitar and I’ll check out the Nikes H book too thanks. For a time I just sat and played and listened trying to just play something melodic and stay in the key, it’s something I tend to struggle with on the mando.

I’m hoping to get good enough to take it to my jams, I think it will be a nice addition.

[Jim Cariello]

John Reischman plays mandola in this Live at Empty Sea concert beginning at 18:00, great to watch his rhythm playing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOCCnWYLt9A

[bbcee]

That trio's "Harmonic Tone Revealers" record is one of my favorites. It's a master class in how to intertwine mandolin & mandola. "Midnight on the Water", played at 25:40 in the above video, is on the record, and is just so, so fine.

[Dylan Hatch]

Woot! Congratulations on the new adventure!

I just purchased an octave mando, my first stretch outside standard mandolin, and I am waiting for it to arrive! I think I maybe have the easier path, since it's all the same tuning but an octave lower and a bigger stretch

I am looking forward to hearing what it is like for you, learning to play this familiar and yet strange mandoinstrument, and how your time with each instrument affects the other!

[soliver]

I've been toying with the idea of a 'dola... love to hear more of your thoughts and see some vids of the MDA315, bigsky!!!

[bigskygirl]

Hi Soliver, I’ve been having a lot of fun with this thing. I didn’t play for a few days but then - encouraged to pick it up by my mando teach - I’ve been playing it non-stop. It looks and sounds great, the Eastman 300 series is a real treat at that price point. I can’t find one mark or issue with the build, the neck feels great, and it’s well balanced. Because of the bigger size it feels a bit awkward on the lap but I’ll root around in the closet and find one of the many...many....many straps that I have and that would solve that.

Two people have listened so far and they said it sounds very nice, the strings are new and not really the brand I prefer so when I do a string change I’ll be able to tell a bit more about that but that’s a minor issue IMO.

Sometimes I just play a tune in the same position as mando thus in different key but I’ve been working on getting familiar with the tuning so I can take it out. When playing a tune on the ‘dola I at times run into a decision point to either head up the neck to higher frets or down to the lower strings for the notes. Both are options but it was pointed out to me that if I just move up tot he higher positions I should just play the regular mando, the ‘dola sounds good down in first position so while not a hard, fast rule I’ve been doing that and working out breaks in the lower octave. It’s been a matter of retraining my brain to think in the tuning so playing something in D on the lower strings is playing in A on the regular mando.

I do play the guitar so I’ll just have to get used to switching gears when I play the ‘dola. For now going back and forth is a bit mind boggling so I’ll play it for awhile then take a break before I go back to the regular mando.

Videos...I don’t know about that but I could try, I’m interested to hear what kind of setup is simple and easy to use, edit, upload - I just have iPad/iPhone. I don’t yet have a YT account but maybe it’s time for one.

[HonketyHank]

Hi, bigskygirl. I am the new keeper of an old Gibson mandola. The last several days I have been swapping strings and string sets and have been very surprised at the differences in tone color I get. Not just bright vs warm, but also lively vs dead. I am also doing a lot of plain old technical exercises to get my left hand accustomed to the longer scale. The 16.75" scale makes me really stretch to hit those notes on the sixth fret. It just seems to me that playing the mandola means having to get a lot more familiar with the sixth fret if you play in the key the tune is 'supposed' to be played in.