I don't think it's so much that the music made by electric mandolinists tends to sound like electric guitars, it's that it sounds like rock music - which for decades has been chiefly made by electric guitars. It's still rock music, but it's being made on another instrument. If the music is being played on a single-string mandolin - which is preferred by many in the field, as it's a lot easier to bend notes - it's going to sound like a guitar. There's no getting around it. The musician is replicating the music he or she has heard, which was played on guitar. Conversely, if someone plays electric 12-string, would it be fair to say the music being played sounds like an electric mandolin? Because that is this same assumption turned around.
One of the things I heard back in my formative years that really got my mind going was Eric Clapton's work on the Cream song, "Dance The Night Away." This is the only time Eric has ever recorded using an electric 12-string. It blew my mind then; it continues to blow my mind now. That is the sound I wanted to be able to produce, if I only could. That is what an electric mandolin should be able to sound like. Not only does his guitar have that ringing sound, he's using massive amounts of tremolo masterfully.
The song starts with a figure played on 6-string. In the third bar the 12-string is overlaid upon that. Is that ever a magical sound! The solos are on the 12-string. The final one, in particular, beginning at 2:45, really moves me. If that doesn't sound like an electric mandolin, then I don't know what we're talking about.
And I'm not saying, nor do I mean to imply, that playing a single-string electric mandolin is somehow falling short of such a worthy goal. It's not. It's still rock and roll. Saying it sounds like an electric guitar is sort of missing the point. Well, now that I think about it, it's rather obvious. Metal strings stretched over magnetic pickups through an amp - that's rock and roll. But for decades, that sound has been produced by guitars. If it's produced by an electric mandolin, it's still rock and roll, it's just being played on a different instrument. I've heard Bela Fleck put his electric banjo through a similar process. Does that sound like electric banjo, electric guitar, or rock and roll? What would it sound like if an electric violin were played with a pick instead of a bow? Rock and roll!
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