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Thread: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

  1. #1

    Default Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    Hi! I'm new to the forum and haven't purchased a mandolin yet. It will have to be a bigger model as I don't have much cash to spend. Is the Vangoa a good model at about $120US from Amazon or an Ibanez for about $170 that I can get locally. I like the Vangoa because It iis Electo-acoustic and is the lower price and if I don't stick with it I want have lost too much but will have fun learning.

    Thanks,
    Paul

  2. #2
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    Since you're looking at the near-low-end of the acceptable mandolin range, I'd consider looking at the Rover RM-25S which at least has a solid, heat-pressed spruce top. The Vangoa is all-plywood, which is a step down, and the Rover's the same price. Can't tell about the Ibanez, as there are many Ibanez models.

    The pickup on the Vangoa won't help you as a beginner -- and you don't necessarily want to be amplified when you're just learning to play! The other consideration, of course, is that you'll need to have the mandolin properly set up. The movable "floating" bridge most mandolins have, mean you have to make sure it's properly located and height-adjusted. Most dealers don't do this with inexpensive instruments.

    Cafe member Rob Meldrum ("robster") will provide a free e-book on mandolin set-up and adjustment if you message him. He's a major benefactor to all Cafe beginners! If you can get a decently set up, solid-top mandolin for under $150, you're doing well. Don't forget, though, that you might want to acquire [a] a strap, [2] a gig bag, [iii] an electronic tuner, and [D] some picks. Even if you go "budget," probably will add $50+ to the purchase price.
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  4. #3
    My Florida is scooped pheffernan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    The general advice given around here it to purchase from a shop that will set up the instrument comfortably to play. A Vangoa through Amazon is unlikely to have been adjusted. The Ibanez might be depending on where it’s available.
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    My understanding is that electric-acoustic low end mandolins are designed as a come on to attract guitar players, as electric/acoustic instruments are much more common in the guitar world. What might be better is to get the best acoustic mandolin one can afford and then have an electric pick up installed.

    An even better idea would be to borrow or rent a mandolin for a few months and mess with it. See if you fall in love. If you don't you have not even lost the cost of an economy mandolin, and if you do fall in love you can better justify a larger budget and get something that doesn't disappoint.
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  8. #5

    Default Re: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    Ok Thanks! I have another question. For reasons I won't go in to now, I intend to one finger barre all the strings in an open tuning to get all 12 chords. This means barring all the strings and using no other fingers to produce the chords. I have a guitar and a lap steel tuned this way and it works great! Can I get a chart like this for the mandolin? Well I intended to upload a chart of an open tuning showing chords for the guitar as an example but it won't let me.

  9. #6
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    Well -- I'm not sure what you mean by a "chart." What "open tuning" are you planning to use? The chord equivalents would be the same as your guitar "chart": if you tune to an open G chord, first fret would be G#/Ab, second fret A, third fret A#/Bb, and so forth.

    You'd need to do some thinking about how you string the mandolin. Guitars, with their 4th-and-a-3rd tuning intervals, are more easily retuned into open tunings. Mandolins, with 5ths tuning, have wider separations between string pitches; if you slack the 3rd course of strings, for example, down from a 5th to a 3rd to make an open chord with the 4th or "bass" course of strings, you'll find that the 3rd strings are loose and sloppy. And it just gets worse for the 1st and 2nd courses; wouldn't work with standard mandolin strings, IMHO.

    Plus, you're turning the mandolin into a purely chordal instrument, and losing what makes it a brilliant melody instrument. You may be able to jigger the stringing so that you get something of a mandolin sound from the chords, but you'll basically just have a small, thin-sounding guitar.

    If the "reasons you won't go into know" involve some physical limitation that makes it necessary to avoid fingering chords, then using open tuning and barre chords may well work for you to at least get a sort of "mandolin sound." I knew a woman musician who was born without a left hand, and had an attachment made with a steel bar on the end, enabling her to play open-tuned guitar in a "Dobro-like" style. Other than that, I'm a bit "stuck" to offer any other advice. Open-tuned, barre-chorded mandolin is a new one on me.
    Allen Hopkins
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    Natl Triolian Dobro mando
    Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
    H-O mandolinetto
    Stradolin Vega banjolin
    Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
    Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
    Flatiron 3K OM

  10. #7

    Default Re: Vangoa electro acoustic Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    Plus, you're turning the mandolin into a purely chordal instrument, and losing what makes it a brilliant melody instrument. You may be able to jigger the stringing so that you get something of a mandolin sound from the chords, but you'll basically just have a small, thin-sounding guitar.
    Sorry for the long quote Allen and thanks for the info. I think i could handle one note at a time i'd only have to use one finger and it wouldn't matter if i touched another string. Guitars, banjos and ukes are big on chords though and I thought you had to strum chords like they all do and maybe beat the mandolin itself like all the rock stars do! I would really have to take some online or DVD lessons for sure!

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