After seeing some beautiful Emberghers on youtube I am interested in finding a classical mandolin but it has to suit my limited student budget. Any suggestions?
Ps I am in Italy.
After seeing some beautiful Emberghers on youtube I am interested in finding a classical mandolin but it has to suit my limited student budget. Any suggestions?
Ps I am in Italy.
Well... the Embergher shop is, of course, long closed, but the venerable Calace firm still turns out admirable instruments. I play a 2004 Model Nº 26 myself and, while I would not call it a GREAT instrument, it is certainly a VERY decent one, especially for the price. Just look at the thread, current at the Café, listing all models and prices.
Being in Italy, you should also find an ample selection of vintage instruments. Emberghers are perhaps just as rare in Italy as in the U.S. The greatest concentration of those should be in Belgium, because of the "Ranieri Connection"— or in the hands of well heeled collectors, alas...
One, forceful but friendly advice: BEWARE OF WALL-HANGERS!!!
Otherwise, you should be OK, and find an instrument that's just right for you.
Best of luck!
Victor
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
As I recall from another thread, you are in Norcia, some ways north of Roma? I have two questions:
1) How much can you spend on a mandolin?
2) What are you playing right now?
I think if you don't have much m,oney buty have a playable instrument, you are better off saving your euros for that upgrade in the future than getting a cheap or poorly set up bowlback. Though some of us in the classical section value the bowlback, there is no rule saying that you cannot play classical on any mandolin.
Having said that, I would assume that you are living in a pretty small town and I would head down to Roma and see what is there in the music stores. As Victor noted, I think the Calace factory, if you can get down to Naples or speak to them on the phone, is a good bet. I just received their emailed price list and their simplest model 24 is 700 euro.
If you are pretty savvy, tho, about older instruments than you may be able to do quite well.
I can check in with my friend in Roma and see what he has to say about stores there.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
There must be good music stores with mandolins in Rome, but I suppose you need some information to find those. I remember visiting Rome in 1986 with my girlfriend and future wife. I thought I would be going to a Mandolin Heaven and was pretty disappointed to find the same rock music and boring electric guitars you see in every music store everywhere in the world. I didn´t see a single mandolin. Well, of course I had better things to concentrate on during that trip ##but still...
Arto
Rome (like Athens, like Madrid), is one of those "if you know where to go" kind of towns. Yes, you can find just about ANYthing, but you've got to know where to look.
By way of slight digression: there are HUNDREDS of music shops in Athens. Seek, and ye shall find... electric guitars, amps, generic electronic keyboards, etc. #The near-total "Americanization" of Greek popular culture ran from the 1940s to VERY recently. Perhaps only in the last decade-or-so has there been a renewed interest in indigenous folk, urban/popular culture and music. But that, of course, applies to much of (Western) Europe, and is hardly unique to Greece. Greece was just the official dock-and-station of the U.S. Sixth Fleet for decades, American companies ruled the turf (my father was a chemical engineer at Exxon for 37 years), and imported pop/rock was THE music young Greeks ever heard.
If, however, you know where to dig, there are gems to be found. That means knowing such (often unwieldy #(Depending on taste, one may find the former circumstance more pleasurable than the latter, or vice versa.)
Cheers,
Victor
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
there is one music store near ottaviano station (vatican museum) with some fine instruments. maybe ill check back with them.
your posts are classic Victor.
Sig. Garberini, to answer your question, i would be willing to spend 500e for the right instrument. Right now I am playing (manner of speaking) a mid missouri m2w, with a wide neck at 1.5 inches at the nut. if your friend has ANY insight into the roman scene, id love to hear about it.
the man that hath not music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils. the motions of his spirit are dark as night, and his affections as dull as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.
Shakespeare
"The gods have been unkind to you, my friend..."
Or rather, to be specific on WHICH gods, Diva Inflatio and Quotiens Cambiandi.
My Model No. 26 was priced at 550 euro-- a mere FOUR years ago! Now, 750, i.e. a 36% hike. The euro-to-dollar rate has also spiked up another 26% since then, bringing the total, collateral damage to a crushing 72% mark-up, from an American's standpoint, for an essentially IDENTICAL instrument!
Yet considering how much you are willing to spend, you should be able to get a decent vintage instrument-- IF that is you beware those all-too-common ($#$*%&$%#*$%_#*$ wall-hangers, ubiquitous in Italian tourist traps.
That or, as Signor Garberini wisely advises, you can save some more, then go hunting with a few more shekels under your belt. Do not rush, though! NO good money ought to go down the drain, wasted on some nondescript, unplayable mandolin.
Best of luck!
Victor
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
"the man that hath not music in himself, nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, is fit for treasons, strategems, and spoils. the motions of his spirit are dark as night, and his affections as dull as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted.
Shakespeare"
Hey, that was lovely! From what play is the quote?
I believe The Merchant of Venice... I could be wrong, though.
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
My friend does not mention any music stores and he is a long time resident (maybe native) of Rome. He often looks elsewhere, like the US for his instruments.Originally Posted by (eness @ May 27 2008, 12:09)
Personally I would play that MidMo -- there is nothing at all wrong with those for classical music. You prob will not find much of a better instrument in the bowlback world unless you happen on an older or used one. Is there anything wrong with your Mid-Mo?
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
yeah, victor, youre right, its a sublime passage in the Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare was very wise. Its a passage worth thinking about, isnt it?
under the wide and starry sky
Evan
Ps Sig. Garberini, theres nothing wrong with the mid mo. I like it, although the wide neck can be a problem. Thanks for asking your friend.
PPs That passage fits in with the whole theme of the Merchant. It espouses a temperament and attitude that embraces all that is beautiful and good. A very non puritanical ideal.
Now... I'm not sure Shakespeare had the MAS-addict in mind, when he wrote in Julius Caesar
Yon Cassius has a lean, and hungry look.
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.
Or, recounting all the endless lines we all write on this board, THOUSANDS of them for each ONE mandolin we acquire, berating Hamlet (and the rest of us) for
... his cursed habit,
Of thinking too precisely on th' event.
----------
Quite seriously, now: my Calace (and, presumably, similar instruments from that same shop, built today) is 26 mm. wide at the nut-- MUCH narrower than your MidMo. I have gravitated gradually towards narrower necks; YMMV, of course. I left behind (selling at no gain to friends and colleagues) an 1897 De Meglio (28 mm. at the nut), and a post-1881 Ceccherini (27 mm.) My next step, IF ever taken, would be towards a Roman-type instrument, with the appropriately super-narrow neck. The corollary is my playing, which has been "violinized" over the years.
But all that, of course, is de gustibus... As Jim writes, nothing wrong with the MidMo, sound-wise.
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
Dull as Erebus?
Hmm.. I'm not sure whether you are being facetious but, at the risk of eliciting a good laugh at my expense --not a rare occasion for me-- I'll reply in earnest: Erebus, Latinized from the Greek mythological Erebos, meaning "darkness", a place of total lack of light, equivalent to the Latin expression in tenebris. Such is the soul of a man who is not moved by music. I could not agree more completely.
Cheers,
Victor
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
Lorenzo, in The Merchant of Venice, act 5, sc. 1. is responding to Jessica's remark, "I am never merry when I hear sweet music".
"...at the risk of eliciting a good laugh at my expense.."
On the contrary. Thanks for explanation of Erebos, and for the lovely picture of Erebus!
You are most welcome, Arto! The Greek Erebos is, of course, nothing quite like the luminescent, ice-capped landscape our friend posted.
It is not man that lives but his work. (Ioannis Kapodistrias)
in fact i think i misquoted Shakespeare, it should, i believe, read "as dull as night" . . . and "as dark as Erebus." Maybe thats what the picture'er meant?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks