Any mandolin players who can give me advice?

D

Don Luigi

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I was wondering if there are any mandolin players here that can advise a first time player.

I've played guitar for 10 years and I've recently revisited my old Peter Rowan albums - This has given me the desire to learn mandolin. I'm not really sure what I should be looking for. I want an instrument on the lower end of the price scale to start with, but not a really shite, dirt cheap intro model.

Any help greatly appreciated <3
 
beg steal or borrow two nickles or a dime and call peter rowan on the phone

and demand lessons

but seriously the only help i can do is wish you luck and hope you find your self a rowdy bluegrass band to play in one day
 
China Rider said:
beg steal or borrow two nickles or a dime and call peter rowan on the phone

and demand lessons

but seriously the only help i can do is wish you luck and hope you find your self a rowdy bluegrass band to play in one day
Click to expand...

It's very rare that I come across anyone who's heard of Rowan, Rice or Grisman in my parts :)

$200 seems very reasonable. I hadn't even thought about whether to get purely acoustic or one I can plug up. Instruments seem to be much cheaper in the USA than over here. One thing I did hear was that Ibanez have shite machine heads. Can't seem to find that model in UK or Ireland either :\

Do you play any other instruments? What I really want to know is whether or not you migrated from guitar. If so, was it difficult to override the guitar playing you've been so used to, or do you think it is useful?
 
Yeah, I'm a guitar player primarily, but I've found that I enjoy playing most stringed instruments so the mandolin seemed like a good addition to my collection. I don't find the mandolin to be particularly difficult to play...I mean, I'm no virtuoso or anything, but I can certainly carry a tune - the only thing that took some getting used to was the small-as-shit frets. Once you learn your major/minor chords you're pretty much good to go. I'm sure that my prior guitar experience probably helped a bit (I'm mostly a rhythm player anyway), but I think if you have at least a basic understanding of musical instruments you'll be able to play just fine.

The mandolin has a lot of sonic potential outside of traditional bluegrass music - you can make some pretty damn cool sounds running one through a pedal board (Wah and Delay are especially fun).
 
I do not own a mandolin but I did shop around last year. For me, the deal breaker was whether or not a mandolin has an adjustable truss rod.

NONE of the lower-end models will have an adjustable truss rod. If you want a mandolin that a tech can work on, then get one with an adjustable truss rod. If you want to buy a mandolin that you throw away if/when the neck needs an adjustment, go ahead and cheap out.

IIRC, the least expensive mandolin with an adjustable truss rod will run you a minimum of around 400-500 USD.

Good luck. I lub me some Garcia/Grisman.
 
I just bought a 600 dollar Maton Ukulele, and I've been a guitar player for 40 years.
 
I had a mandolin when I was young ( jr high) man I wish i still had it... I was playing guitar too. I found I could play both but I figured chicks would like guitar better. Banjo was a major fail for me. Been thinking a "ganjo" might be worth a shot these day though.
A band that play one of the local bars here does "copperhead road" with the frontman playing a mandolin... It`s a killer cover...

Good luck on your search man...
 
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