Collings MT2- Two Weeks in

[Kevin Briggs]

Hi, Everyone:

Tone galore over here in State College, PA. I’ve put many hours in on this MT2 and it is an infinite source of evolving tone, not to mention it is incredibly easy to play. This is just done jamming I did to highlight the emerging sound this mandolin is producing. What an awesome journey!

[Demetrius]

Awesome!
Congrats on a gorgeous new mandolin!


Dem

[prairieschooner]

Nice! Love my MT2 even though I am still on that learning journey

[Kevin Briggs]

Thanks! I’m still learning too, and it’s an awesome mandolin to learn on. It’s sounding amazing!

[anon-rickf]

Guess it must be 15 years now and still seems better every time I pick her up!

[Kevin Briggs]

I know what you mean about it sounding new and/or somehow different each time you pick it up. Certainly, the shelf life of the strings has something to do with that, along with the end of summer and beginning of Fall, but I keep my music room pretty well temperature and humidity controlled, and I try to change the strings when the start sounding "Dead." I've changed them one in the past three weeks, although I sense the thud coming.

Lately, as in the past few days, it has gotten extremely crisp, practically crispy, if that makes sense. The highs and mids are very pronounced. The low end is humming right along as well, although not as "stiff," so to speak. I can push this mandolin as hard as I want to and it barks, but if I lay back on the chop I've noticed a very sonorous, chamber-like sound. It's like the mandolin is doing the work for me. When I adjust my playing in that way, the bass response comes out in a way that I can feel the mandolin humming on my leg and in my mid-section, from the back, and it's a very smooth woofiness. I like it a whole lot. I also really like that chamber-esaque sound I can hear coming from inside the body. It's remarkable.

Of course, I've been playing it a whole lot, a few hours per day, and I can't emphasize enough how much of a difference that seems to make the more I play it, the bigger it sounds and gets. I'm definitely feeling my way around it quite well, but it's a growing, symbiotic relationship. We like each other, haha.