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Thread: Professional Mando Names

  1. #1

    Default Professional Mando Names

    I was brainstorming a name for my mandolin and was thinking about what names the pro's have used:

    Sam Bush: Hoss
    Jeff Austin: Heartattack
    CJ Lewandowski: Hulk

    That's about as far as I got off the top of my head....anyone know any?

  2. #2
    still Lefty & French Philippe Bony's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    David Grisman: Crusher.

  3. #3
    Registered User Brad Grafton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Can't forget "Dude". Chris's old ax.

  4. #4
    Distressed Model John Ritchhart's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    I don't know if Bill named his mandolin. Maybe Pokerface.
    We few, we happy few.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Ronnie McCoury's 1981 "S" hole Gilchrist: Ole Red

    #128 Ole Red

  6. #6

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    I don't know of any mandloin names but I think Willie Nelson calls his famous guitar "Trigger".

  7. #7

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    For those who wonder why reading this thread makes you feel vaguely uncomfortable, here's an article about the concept of naming stuff that you own:

    https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/the-p...our-stuff.html

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  9. #8

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    I named my #15 "The Penetrator". You could stand outside one of those tight closed jams and chop and heads would turn.
    Last edited by Jim Hilburn; Feb-12-2020 at 9:47am.

  10. #9
    Registered User seankeegan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Ali Stephens named all her instruments.

    http://www.alisonstephens.com/

    I was always v fond of 'Beast', a beautiful octave mandolin.

  11. #10
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Quote Originally Posted by OldSausage View Post
    For those who wonder why reading this thread makes you feel vaguely uncomfortable, here's an article about the concept of naming stuff that you own:

    https://www.thecut.com/2017/11/the-p...our-stuff.html
    My favorite paragraph:
    So why don’t we name a toilet, considering how important it is? The answer, Peterson said, lies partly in social status: “If you’re going to name something, there’s a chance someone is going to hear the name,” he explained. Since you’re probably not going to be chatting with friends about your porcelain throne, you’re not likely to name it.
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  13. #11

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    My favorite paragraph:
    So why don’t we name a toilet, considering how important it is? The answer, Peterson said, lies partly in social status: “If you’re going to name something, there’s a chance someone is going to hear the name,” he explained. Since you’re probably not going to be chatting with friends about your porcelain throne, you’re not likely to name it.
    I always like to introduce new visitors to my house to "Geoffrey".

  14. #12
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Let's see: over there is Sid "Swingline" Stapler. And there is Bachelor the Spatula. And Fred the Fire Extinguisher. And, of course, Porky the Porcelain Throne™.
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  16. #13
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    My favorite paragraph:

    So why don’t we name a toilet, considering how important it is? The answer, Peterson said, lies partly in social status: “If you’re going to name something, there’s a chance someone is going to hear the name,” he explained. Since you’re probably not going to be chatting with friends about your porcelain throne, you’re not likely to name it.
    I think we name most toilets "John." Or "Jon" -- dunno which.
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  17. #14

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    I think this is a very personal thing.. I've never named any inanimate object, except ironically, but I know people who take it very seriously as part of the bonding process. "Sweet new laptop, what are you going to name it?" "The Dell".

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    Registered User Eric Platt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Robin Bullock's three Gibson A's are - The Feral Cat, Coyote and Black Beastie.

    My Gibson A Jr. is "junior". The Kalamazoo is "Beater" because it is my beater instrument (and a reference to LOTR Glamdring).
    Brentrup Model 23, Boeh A5 #37, Gibson A Jr., Big Muddy M-11, Coombe Classical flattop, Strad-O-Lin
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  19. #16
    Mandolin Player trodgers's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    So far, I've never named an instrument. But, I did notice an interesting acronym could result from my new blue Fender Alternate Reality Tenor. Maybe not so much a name as a title is in order.
    “Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” -- Aldo Leopold

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  21. #17
    Registered User jefflester's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    My girlfriend loved the new Acura so much that "I will name him George, and I will hug him, and pet him, and squeeze him." That led to the older Mercedes becoming "Paul," and the much older banged up Honda Accord with peeling paint becoming "Ringo," the funny looking one.

  22. #18
    Registered User Louise NM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    I had friends—both gone now—that named many objects in their home. The refrigerator was Francine, the kitchen wastebasket Carl, and the wide two-drawer filing cabinet answered to Gomez.

  23. #19
    Registered User John Rosett's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Jethro Burns called his red two point Gibson "Big Red".
    I call my mandolin "Scordato", which is the Italian term for "out of tune".
    "it's not in bad taste, if it's funny" - john waters

  24. #20
    Rush Burkhardt Rush Burkhardt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    And there we have it Louise and all, "and the wide two-drawer filing cabinet answered to Gomez."
    Rush Burkhardt
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  25. #21

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Quote Originally Posted by Marty Jacobson View Post
    I think this is a very personal thing.. I've never named any inanimate object, except ironically, but I know people who take it very seriously as part of the bonding process. "Sweet new laptop, what are you going to name it?" "The Dell".
    I think it may be different for famous mandolin wielders like Grisman and Jethro Burns. I wonder if the reason they do it is more similar to the practical reason people name boats. Performers get interviewed by the press, questioned by the public, and their instrument choices are studied (by us), so they need a way to refer to them.

    For many of us "my mandolin" is good enough, but the more you own the less useful this becomes -- for some even "my Gibson" could cover any of a half dozen instruments. Perhaps that is when naming them becomes linguistically inevitable. And indeed Marty, now I come to think of it, you actually have named many mandolins.

  26. #22
    Registered User gspiess's Avatar
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    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    I call my new to me Eastman the Banjo Killer.
    Being right is overrated. Doing right is what matters.

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  27. #23

    Default Re: Professional Mando Names

    Quote Originally Posted by gspiess View Post
    I call my new to me Eastman the Banjo Killer.
    A fitting name for a chainsaw, but surely an ironic one for a mandolin.

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