Dando's Mondo Mando

by **Heraclitus Akimbo** » Tue Dec 20, 2022 9:47 am

Meant to post this, so timely thread bump...

A few weeks back, went ahead and bought me the cheapest mandolin money can buy. Black Friday special from Donner, it was $120 (Canadian) all-in, including shipping.

For that kind of money you don't get a pickup, which is fine. I have no idea what one would even look for to indicate quality, but the construction seems good enough, the chamber sustains quite nicely. The only "cheap" feeling thing is the machine heads, but it's staying in tune enough for me.

It's fun! Looked up some chord charts online and got going. The way the G-C-D chords fall is quite natural, definitely easy to start playing though I'll never be more than lousy at it, I'm sure.

by **Chankgeez** » Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:57 pm

Alter the headstock to read "Donair" and it's a real winner. :lol:

by **Dandolin** » Tue Dec 20, 2022 2:59 pm

Nice! Once you get the "chord shape logic", you're off to the races. :snax:

For myself, I've found that, where I'm not the only instrument providing harmonic accompaniment (which has been true almost always) it is as effective to just play 3rd or 6th intervals in the relevant key and move them around as seems fit as it is to overlay the mandos jangle on whatever else is going on. It's both a nice way to highlight some complementary voice-leading moves in the upper register, and a good move to avoid some sonic muddiness contributed by ringing lower strings (one reason I suspect for the prevalent "chop" style staccato stabs favored by bluegrass players). But as we all know, when there's space for it, even the simplest chords sound pretty nifty ringing out :love:

Nice score, btw - I don't doubt it will serve you for a while. Just, you know, keep it well humidified and don't be the idiot that leaves it where another idiot can step on it (not that the resultant crack kept me from playing mine for more than half my total hours logged on mando, or prevented more than a few tone compliments crack and all...).

by **Heraclitus Akimbo** » Tue Dec 20, 2022 6:46 pm

If I get ambitious, I do have a pal who hosts a weekly bluegrass jam, and there's one week a month especially for beginners. And I'm a big fan of "Fox on the Run".

But I also have a tough time playing past dirge speed right now. (Though dirge speed is fun! I was, to repeat, just so, so happy when the G-C-D thing came together!)

by **Velcro Bottom** » Wed Dec 21, 2022 10:52 am

Cool! Mandolin's fun. Eager to hear how you add its sounds to your palette.

by **Dandolin** » Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:26 pm

This is stretching things a bit, merhumblegrumble, but also :love:

https://reverb.com/item/64234384-5-stri ... tele-style

by **Chankgeez** » Thu Jan 12, 2023 9:23 am

by **Chankgeez** » Wed Mar 08, 2023 7:41 pm

What kind of music gets made on one of these things?

https://reverb.com/item/66687198-krunk- ... lin-soviet

:idk:

by **Blackened Soul** » Sat Mar 11, 2023 4:30 pm

Here is a fun recording from a party... like at 1:00am with my old band N@MELESS backing up Mudcat and Old Cro:
https://soundcloud.com/chilledorangerec ... dcat-olcro

Dan [Mudcat] makes mandolins out of cedar blocks, sometimes he carve narwal tusks on them :thumb:

https://www.danielmckinstry.com

by **Dandolin** » Mon Mar 13, 2023 10:42 pm

cool cool! :love:

luvvit

Is that a unicorn carved mando on his site? :snax:

Also:

Chankgeez wrote:What kind of music gets made on one of these things?

https://reverb.com/item/66687198-krunk- ... lin-soviet

i wanna know - i dated a Ukrainian woman for a while and heard a fair amount of Ukrainian music (mostly kobza/bandura and some domra) - but i never heard anything like that :idk:

also love me some Emanuil Sheynkman (*not* Ukrainian) and i would love to have heard him tear it up on one o'them, but i suspect he woulda turnt up his nose :snax:

that's all i gots :lol: