Newbie goof-ups and ignorant mistakes...

[Ladyfingerpicker]

My first guitar was my father's; I started playing it as a college freshman. Nothing wrong with the guitar itself -- it's a Kalamazoo F-hole archtop, still with its original hardware -- and it was the guitar that both my brother and I made our mistakes on. We both wore belt buckles and scratched up the back. But I made the mistakes of (a) trying to use it as a folk guitar; and (b) not realizing that I was having playability problems because of the nut width and neck shape. Took me quite a while to educate myself about the different measurements and shapes, and which ones were right for me.

I remember my early attempt at restringing the Kalamazoo by taking all the old strings off... and then trying to reposition the floating bridge. I also remember how my father yelled at me for that. Oops.

My first mandolin mistake was at the same age, when I purchased a bowlback and expected to use that for every style of playing. It's a sweet little made-in-Japan knockaround with surprisingly good action, but a bluegrass instrument it ain't!

Another mando mistake was kinda made-for-me: a former boyfriend bought me a Rogue A-model for my birthday (the one after our breakup) and shipped it to me. And yes, we did part on good terms; he actually thought he was doing something nice by sending this gift! My mistake was in ever playing the thing. I can't count the number of times I threatened to smash it because it sounded so awful, but I kept on playing it until the top collapsed. That's when I finally bought myself a Breedlove OF!

But my worst mistake -- dare I tell it? -- was in bringing an autoharp to a bluegrass jam. It was a 15-button model without an A major chord, so the other jammers started playing all their songs in A just to get rid of me. Hey, live and learn, right?

[CES]

That's OK, I've taken a Flatiron pancake to a BG jam before...like taking a knife to a gunfight, metaphorically speaking, of course...

I've yet to take any talent to a BG jam...that's the problem that usually gets me the stink-eye...

[mrmando]

I don't know if this was a newbie mistake or not, but I used to save the old strings I took off the instrument when I changed strings. In fact I had a box full of them.

A professional mandolinist of my acquaintance has one of the walls in his house partially covered with used string sets. I presume he intends to keep going until the wall is covered.