Hello Mandolin Cafe members,
I just registered with the Cafe and this is my first post. However, I’ve been reading posts on this forum for quite some time and learned a lot from the discussions here. For this reason, I thought I would share my experience in the following topic, and ask other members for theirs.
I’ve been experimenting a lot lately with the use of effects on acoustic mandolins, inspired by musicians like Jason Bailey and Jamie Masefield. I find the sounds one gets with using acoustic mandolins with effect pedals fascinating and under exploited, leaving a lot of room for one to try new things.
My gear includes a Collings MT2-O mandolin, a Jimmy Moon A2 mandolin, and a Morgan Lewis octave mandolin. Both mandolins are fitted with internal K&K twin pickups. I am not sure what pickup the octave mandolin has, could be a Fishman.
For amps, I used a Black Star B.E.A.M. for a while for its versatility, then switched to an Orange Crush amp. Pedals include an L.R. Baggs Venue D.I. preamp, several Electro-Harmonix pedals (Turnips Green for overdrive and reverb, Cock Fight for Fuzz and Wah, Pitch Fork for pitch shifter, Tone Corset for compression, Canyon for delay, Freeze for note sustain), and several Mooer pedals (Funky Monkey for auto wah, Orange 90 for phaser, Elec Lady for flanger, Slow Engine for volume swells). I also have a Boss volume pedal with high impedance.
I’ve used many pedal combinations and changed the order of pedals on the pedal board many times. Here are the main points I noticed:
1-What is recommended for electric guitar might not necessarily work for acoustic mandolin. The classic recommendation is to put dirt after pitch shifter or wah, but I placed the overdrive pedals before the pitch shifter and wah and got fantastic sounds. The trick is to adjust the volume and gain levels to minimize feedback. Additionally, dirt pedals will give the signal coming from the mandolin a great boost, which enhances the effect of the following pedal.
2. If the mandolin signal is going straight into non-dirt effects, a preamp with EQ functions is very helpful, as it boosts the signal and sets the tonal characteristics of the sound that will be manipulated by the effect pedals.
3-A compression pedal is a must, particularly when using the wah effect, as high notes might result in a very unpleasant shriek. The compressor helps tone these down. Compression might also help fattening the tone when using a phaser or a flanger, and tone down the highs with these effects as well. This is crucial if using an oval hole mandolin (with all its overtones). Compression is also absolutely necessary for the cool volume swells, since the mandolin has very short note sustain.
4-With auto wah, keeping the range setting low gives a wonderful vocal quality to the mandolin sound.
5-Sometimes, if compression is unwanted, using the “natural” compression of a dirt pedal can result in really nice sounds. For example, turning the tone knob down on a fuzz pedal while turning the gain knob up makes the mandolin sound like a beast. Best if used with a “cocked wah” (one gets a Frank Zappa-ish sound).
6-If using an F-hole mandolin, one can use simple tricks to minimize feedbacks (I placed socks in the sound hole and pretty much killed all feedback). It might be a bit trickier with an oval hole mandolin. Adjusting the gain level on preamp while isolating frequencies prone to feedback helps. The L.R. Baggs Venue D.I allows to do both of these things; however, the frequency culprits might change depending on the room or venue one is playing at. A simpler trick is to place the amp at an angle where the sound coming out of it does not hit the mandolin in a straight fashion, or even to place the amp behind the player’s body, so the body act as a buffer.
I’ve included links to an album I recorded at home, where I used some most of the effects I mentioned on a few tracks (#3, 4 , 5, 11, 13). If anyone has any comments and suggestions to make, or some advice to give on this topic I would greatly appreciate it.
https://samernassif.bandcamp.com/releases
https://soundcloud.com/samer-nassif-...-well-of-ideas
Cheers
Samer
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