Re: A likely contentious opinion on electric mandolins
Originally Posted by
mandos&turtles
I don’t get the point of electric mandolins. They don’t sound like mandolins to me. If I didn’t know someone was playing one I’d just assume I’m hearing an electric guitar. I’d like to hear others thoughts on the subject
I'm not sure how I missed this - probably being somewhat off the Café until the covid shutdown freed up time and got me increasingly spending more time on the interweb had something to do with it - but I'm glad it's come back even if for a different reason. Reading through the thread, my eyes started glazing over, with so many posts extolling the virtues of electrics, many of which echoed my own insights. But truly, enough on-point answers appeared soon after the OP, including:
Originally Posted by
OneChordTrick
Why do I play electric mandolin? Like any other instrument. Because I can.
This is the first answer, and it says pretty much all that needs to be said, other than "Because I want to."
Originally Posted by
multidon
You could say exactly the same thing about guitars. Just substitute “guitar” for “mandolin” in your post. And yet the popularity of electric guitars far outpaces acoustic guitars in terms of units sold. And does anyone think an electric guitar sounds like an acoustic? Of course not.
Very true. The construction and configuration of electric mandolins is as transformative as that of electric guitars. It's creating a whole other type of instrument with its own sound and capabilities. I think electric guitars were developed in order for them to be heard on a par with the other elements in brass-based combos and orchestras, and they weren't intended to be used the way rock 'n' rollers realized they could be in the 1950s. But people soon figured out there was more there there than originally intended, and the instrument took off and took over. Electric mandolins are not starting out from that far back in the evolution of amplified instruments; indeed, they are building on what has come before. Also, they are being heard in the context of a culture in which the sound(s) of electric guitars are so prevalent they are taken for granted. They're not only so varied, they're everywhere, and function as a standard against which other instruments are measured.
Originally Posted by
Greg P. Stone
My main reason was to have the same scale and tuning in an instrument that sounds very different.
This relates to what I was saying and leading up to, that playing an electric instrument which is set up the same way as an acoustic instrument one already knows how to play, opens up a whole new world of possibilities instantly. You don't have to learn how to play an electric guitar in order to gain access to this sonic universe. I think the best example of this is how Bela Fleck's electric banjo transformed what the instrument could do. Does it sound like an amplified banjo? Sometimes, if he wants, but it can do so much more. Does it sound like an electric guitar? Sometimes, but it's different, and he can play it the way he plays banjo (which is pretty innovative in its own right) and have it sound like - well, rock, or jazz, or swing, or whatever he wants.
It's just that way for electric mandolins. They enable mandolinists to explore musical possibilities, to express musical ideas that they can't with acoustic mandolins, to realize the sounds they imagine in their minds. If they sound like electric guitars to some ears, that shouldn't be surprising, as those sounds are familiar to listeners since that instrument has been such a big part of our culture for so long. But not only are electric mandolins different, so are the people who play them, and these instruments make it possible for them to make their music heard. Welcome to the show! Vive la difference!
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
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