Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 25 of 27

Thread: My new Airline Electric Mandola

  1. #1
    Like A Fine Box Of Wine Big Rig's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Pensacola, Fl
    Posts
    84

    Default My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Broke down and ordered one of those Eastwood Airline Electric Mandolas last week. For such an inexpensive instrument I'm quite impressed with it. If you're curious here's what mine sounds like.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPybke0h1NY

  2. The following members say thank you to Big Rig for this post:


  3. #2
    Registered User Richard Singleton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Putnam County, New York
    Posts
    223

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Great video! Nicely played. Did you get the black finish or the seafoam green? I have been lusting after the Airline mandola since Eastwood brought them out. Recent ebay acquisition of a black finish Mandobird iv, has only whetted my interest in getting an electric mandola as well. I suppose I had better concentrate on getting an amp first before I get a second electric instrument! link below to gearwire review/demo of the Airline mandola - I like this video even better than the myrareguitar demo.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ncz7...eature=related
    Richard Singleton

  4. #3
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Humboldt County, CA
    Posts
    626

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Sounds great!

  5. #4
    Registered User TonyEarth's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Posts
    318
    Blog Entries
    4

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    woah, that is a cool video.
    Diego

    Eastman MD315
    Kentucky KM505
    JBovier ELS
    ---
    Ivan Dunov VL402 Violin

  6. #5
    Like A Fine Box Of Wine Big Rig's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Pensacola, Fl
    Posts
    84

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    I went with the seafoam green one. I made the mistake of getting an amp earlier this year, thus becoming powerless to EMAS.

  7. #6
    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    13,086

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    What string gauges are you using?
    Emando.com: More than you wanted to know about electric mandolins.

    Notorious: My Celtic CD--listen & buy!

    Lyon & Healy • Wood • Thormahlen • Andersen • Bacorn • Yanuziello • Fender • National • Gibson • Franke • Fuchs • Aceto • Three Hungry Pit Bulls

  8. #7
    Registered User Jim MacDaniel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Rotten City
    Posts
    3,915

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by Big Rig View Post
    I went with the seafoam green one. I made the mistake of getting an amp earlier this year, thus becoming powerless to EMAS.
    lol - so what's next on the shopping list, the Eastwood eTenor, or an emando of some sort?
    "The problem with quotes on the internet, is everybody has one, and most of them are wrong."
    ~ Mark Twain


    Mandolin shirts, hats, case stickers, & more at my Zazzle storefront

  9. #8
    Like A Fine Box Of Wine Big Rig's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Pensacola, Fl
    Posts
    84

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    The strings that came on it had to be replaced. I had a set of JazzMando flatwound strings, so I tried them. That really helped, as the C and G strings originally were bronze wound. Next down the line I think I'll look into either a 5-string mando or a lap steel.

  10. #9
    Registered User mando.player's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Detroit, MI
    Posts
    997

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    With an 18" scale, has anyone tried tuning it as an octave mandolin?
    Charlie Jones

    Clark 2-point #39
    Rigel A Natural

  11. #10

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by mando.player View Post
    With an 18" scale, has anyone tried tuning it as an octave mandolin?
    That's my plan. Not sure when I'll get it, but with a change of strings, it should be possible; Jon Mann uses an 18" scale on his 5-string octave mandos tuned GDAEB.

  12. #11
    Registered User Jim MacDaniel's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Rotten City
    Posts
    3,915

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Any idea on the gauges Mann uses for that tuning at 18"?
    "The problem with quotes on the internet, is everybody has one, and most of them are wrong."
    ~ Mark Twain


    Mandolin shirts, hats, case stickers, & more at my Zazzle storefront

  13. #12
    Mandol'Aisne Daniel Nestlerode's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Picardy
    Posts
    2,176
    Blog Entries
    81

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Jon and I had a brief email discussion about it. I don't recall the results (it was more than a year ago). But if you email Jon, he'll cheerfully tell you. http://www.manndolins.com/contact.htm

    Daniel

  14. #13

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    I use .010p, .014p, .026w, .038w and .052w with my 18" and 19" scale lengths (GDAEB) which are actually about 18.25" and 19.25"

  15. #14
    Registered User Mandobart's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Location
    Washington State
    Posts
    3,651

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Sounds great! I've been considering an Airline Electric Mandola as a father's day gift/reward for working 70 hrs per week for the past 2 months....I recently got a Mandobird VIII which I love, and the Eastwood sounds like a neat electric expnasion. The 'bird has some known issues which I corrected right away; weak e on the pickup, non-intonable bridge. Are there any issues with the Eastwood a guy should know up front and plan on changing, such as pickup, nut, etc.? Thanks

  16. #15

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Mine needs some serious nut work on the C courses -- the intonation is super duper sharp on the first four frets and then in fine the rest of the way up the neck, so my tech guy is going to work on that, otherwise it's great for the money.

  17. #16

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    mine needed help all so , i put some work in on the nut to lower the strings and stuck some paper under the neck to give it some back angle . fairly standard stuff when purchasing low end instruments . mind you i routed the neck cavity on my ryder to get more back angle on it too (among other mods)and its not a low end instrument .back to the mandola -i love the shape colour and look of it but going to sell mine someday, i never use it really , going to ask for what i paid for it and see if any one local bites . i did get free shipping on it and there was no duty. sure is pretty on the wall though and did not cost much .i have paid more for just pick ups .
    Last edited by rico mando; May-14-2011 at 1:07am.

  18. #17

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Well, work needed or not, I'm in the A.E.M. club now. Just scored a B-stock on Ebay for $225. Nice discount for a dent. Review to follow once it arrives and I've had a chance to beat it up a little bit.

  19. #18
    Like A Fine Box Of Wine Big Rig's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Pensacola, Fl
    Posts
    84

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Welcome to the club, still digging mine.

  20. #19
    Registered User Richard Singleton's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Putnam County, New York
    Posts
    223

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Congrats on the Airline! I bid on that towards the middle of the auction, though I really want a black one rather than the seafoam, and will probably succumb and buy one sooner rather than later. Please let us know what you think of it!
    Richard Singleton

  21. #20

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Just received it today, and am 100% almost satisfied. To explain, my one "grievance" came when I went to pull the tone knob off (for no good reason) and the shaft came out with the pot. This is likely a one-in-a-million fluke and I'm not even sure if it has affected it's playability plugged in, as I don't have my amp at home at the moment. This, however, doesn't really affect me, as I found the position of the volume knob more problematic right from the get-go, and my plan even before this happened was to remove the tone knob altogether and move the volume knob to that position.

    Aside from that however, I'm very happy. Looks-wise, I love it. Intonation was set well right out of the box, and though mine will need nut work, this is due to the fact that I immediately swapped the strings for 13-30w-42w-52w to accommodate my AEae tuning (low to high) and my favouring high string tension. The mandola took this like a champ and even without nut work, was playing almost perfectly with no change of saddle position or truss rod.

    Day 1 and I'm a very happy customer, and on a side note, Mike from Eastwood could write the book on customer service. Super quick and easy to deal with. More info (plus perhaps video, etc) when possible.

  22. #21
    Registered User BoxCarJoe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    Brooklyn, NY
    Posts
    248

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    I hate to revive a zombie thread but there isn't much talk about these mandolas here.

    I just purchased an Airline Mandola and I'm having a terrible problem with the sound.
    I'm getting a very obvious chorus effect or chiming effect.

    I've tried lowering the pickup and it had no effect.

    I raised the strings. They were a good height already, but I tried it anyway. No effect.

    I adjusted the truss rod. It was flat under tension and now I have a very small bow. No effect.

    I'm thinking now the strings are bad and I've ordered a new set. The C and G strings are the worst.

    Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

    thanks

  23. #22
    Mandol'Aisne Daniel Nestlerode's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2004
    Location
    Picardy
    Posts
    2,176
    Blog Entries
    81

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Hi Joe,

    You've done what I would have done to start: get a new set of strings. Old strings can be a source of a lot of weirdness.

    Have you had the instrument set up?
    Have you determined if the sound you're hearing is a buzz in the instrument or a noise in the electric output?
    - Any good electric guitar set-up guy should be able to do a good job for you. He (or she) should just be aware that the shorter scale length makes the instrument more sensitive to adjustments.

    I love the look of the Eastwood Airline mandolas and have been drooling over the 'map' guitars ever since 1983 when I saw Graham Nash play one in concert in Hershey, PA.

    Keep us posted!
    Daniel

  24. The following members say thank you to Daniel Nestlerode for this post:


  25. #23
    Registered User BoxCarJoe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    Brooklyn, NY
    Posts
    248

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Daniel

    I setup my own instruments and this is a pretty conservative setup.

    In my opinion it's not a fret buzzing thing.

    So it's either bad strings or bad pickup I guess.

    Strings are in the mail. So I can test that theory.

    My past experience with Eastwood is that QC is very lax but instruments are very good.

  26. #24
    Registered User BoxCarJoe's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2018
    Location
    Brooklyn, NY
    Posts
    248

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    FWIW

    I strung it up with GHS Guitar Boomers as an experiment.
    Using the E ,D,G,E strings.
    Due to the change in scale it tuned to C,G,D,A very easily.

    The sound is thick and clear. None of that chiming sound I was getting.
    Really a classic E mando sound.

    I may keep these on. Not sure if I should go to two courses though.

  27. #25
    Registered User Toni Schula's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Vienna, Europe
    Posts
    545

    Default Re: My new Airline Electric Mandola

    Quote Originally Posted by BoxCarJoe View Post
    I hate to revive a zombie thread but there isn't much talk about these mandolas here.

    I just purchased an Airline Mandola and I'm having a terrible problem with the sound.
    I'm getting a very obvious chorus effect or chiming effect.

    I've tried lowering the pickup and it had no effect.

    I raised the strings. They were a good height already, but I tried it anyway. No effect.

    I adjusted the truss rod. It was flat under tension and now I have a very small bow. No effect.

    I'm thinking now the strings are bad and I've ordered a new set. The C and G strings are the worst.

    Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

    thanks
    If the issue persists with new strings, you could check whether the strings in each pair is exactly at the same height at the bridge and nut. I have a slight issue at the lowest course with my Airline mandola. When fretting one string goes a little bit sharp compared to the other. But it is so subtle that I decided to accept it.

    I use rather heavy electric guitar strings and tuned it like an octave mandolin. I also upgraded the PU with an Almuse. The original PU produced very annoying clicky noise when I accidentially hit it with the pick.

  28. The following members say thank you to Toni Schula for this post:


Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •