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Bought a Mandolin


MorrisrownSal

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I hesitated posting this here, as it is not a Gibson. However, I love it, and the price fit what I was looking to spend. I am not a Grisman. I am a guy who is jazzing up gigs with a mandolin on a few songs. I find mandolin can be highly adaptive and additive to a sound... especially as a break from "two guitars".

 

I will own a Gibson at some point. My plan is later this year to hit Nashville. I am sure something follows me home.

 

While I currently have an Eastman MD304 with k&K pickup and case.... I wanted something warmer, and if it means much, touched me more.

 

This is a Big Muddy Mandolin hand made by a guy in Missouri named Mike Dulak. He makes about three a month. This one is all mahogany, except for a maple fretboard... and is what he calls "primitive" - meaning no binding, cheaper wood for the neck, and uncarved bracing as opposed to carved.

 

It sounds fantastic. I communicated with him throughout the build. He and I have a lot in common... dogs... Yankees fans... and I feel good about one guy making this instrument.

 

Anywho, its a Big Muddy M-11.

 

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....I am a guy who is jazzing up gigs with a mandolin on a few songs. I find mandolin can be highly adaptive and additive to a sound... especially as a break from "two guitars"....

 

Congrats, Sal! Yes, a mandolin really has a unique sonic niche. Though it's kind of back in the mix, I love its addition to this piece....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_baXkdsrb4

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Sal-congrats on getting a mandolin. I like mandolin and it’s sound a lot. I bought one about 12 years ago, but put it aside not long after, although I do bring it out to play every so often. The problem I have with mandolin is It has the potential to fully absorb my playing time and focus so I’d never get around to working on my guitar playing. So, I kinda decided at some point it was either the mandolin or the guitar for me to focus on...and, I chose to keep focusing on guitar. But mandolin is a great instrument and the bluegrass style of picking I was taught by someone on the mandolin, now lives on in my guitar playing (and in my ukulele playing.)

 

Again congrats on the new instrument and best of luck with exploring and delving into it as an instrument.

 

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

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. . .I will own a Gibson at some point. My plan is later this year to hit Nashville. I am sure something follows me home.

 

While I currently have an Eastman MD304 with k&K pickup and case.... (I wanted something warmer, and if it means much, touched me more).

. . . "He and I have a lot in common... dogs... Yankees fans... and I feel good about one guy making this instrument."

Congrats, Sal. Hopefully the G mando that follows you home is an f-style, not just for the tradition and marginal difference in sound, but for how it stays put a little better for the player.

 

Congrats, Sal! Yes, a mandolin really has a unique sonic niche. Though it's kind of back in the mix, I love its addition to this piece....

Coog- not the first time you've referenced Learning to Fly- 'sounds like you've got a good connection with this song, and most likely you can offer up an interesting take on it (just a hint/ we'll be waiting)

 

 

Sal-congrats on getting a mandolin. I like mandolin and it’s sound a lot. I bought one about 12 years ago, but put it aside not long after, although I do bring it out to play every so often. The problem I have with mandolin is It has the potential to fully absorb my playing time and focus so I’d never get around to working on my guitar playing. So, I kinda decided at some point it was either the mandolin or the guitar for me to focus on...and, I chose to keep focusing on guitar. But mandolin is a great instrument and the bluegrass style of picking I was taught by someone on the mandolin, now lives on in my guitar playing (and in my ukulele playing.

Funny how this always seems to be the challenge when branching out to a new instrument- but when the muse strikes. . . any port in a storm.

 

 

What songs you do with it Sal ?

My gig needs broken up too

A tough road to hoe if/when playing solo, but when there're too many guitars. . . just the ticket.

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Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen / Levon HelmAmie - Pure Prairie LeagueMan of Constant Sorrow - Froggy Bottom BoysThe Hobo Song - Old and In The WayInto the Mystic -VanFriend of the Devil -DeadSaturday Night - Eagles Down By The River - Neil

Those are the few Now...

But 62 is right. As a duo, as it is we are always one of us playing first position, and the other capo.... just as to occupy different sonic space and not be muddy. The mandolin breaks it up nicely.

Plus .. folks in Brooklyn are used to The Bee Gees and they see it and say WTF is that? I like that look.

 

 

Also BBG, there is an old Appalachian standard called Ashokan Farewell. I played it at my father in law’s funeral back fiver years... the tune is hauntingly beautiful on Guitar and Mandolin.

 

 

 

 

Edit.....iPads suck. Totally oooofed my spacing

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Congrats!

I went the same route. Got one to see if I like it and gradually stepped up to the F5.

I don't play it a lot but enjoy it when I do.

First two songs I learned were The Louvins' "Cash on the Barrelhead' and Rod Stewarts 'Maggie May'. Then I took a few lessons and bought some more reference material.

May favorite to play is the Beatles 'Here, There and Everywhere'.

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Also BBG, there is an old Appalachian standard called Ashokan Farewell. I played it at my father in law’s funeral back fiver years... the tune is hauntingly beautiful on Guitar and Mandolin.

 

 

'recalled the tune from it's use on PBS, but. . .

 

goodness (first comes great bow technique, then Gibson slope sounds) :

 

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A little off topic (sorry Sal), but Jay Unger wrote Ashoken Farwell as a lament following his second annual Ashoken fiddle camp, held in New York State. He was so melancholy after everyone went home, he sat down and penned this great tune. And, yes it was the theme song for Ken Burns’ Civil War series. Wonderful song.

Love the mando, Sal, and I think a round hole A style is just right for the kind of things you’re playing. F style is great for barking out bluegrass, but....

Roger

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Congrats, Sal!

 

Beautiful mandolin there.

 

One of my favorite songs features a mandolin in the mix, and Steve Earle actually wrote the song on his mandolin.

 

It's 'The Other Kind', a great rocker from the 1990 LP, The Hard Way, by Steve Earle And The Dukes.

 

Check it out.

You can barely hear the mandolin in the mix, for the early part of the song, but it's there.

At sound stamp 1:22 it really comes up in the mix.

 

[tongue]

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzek4_Suups

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Very cool, Sal. My wife bought a fiddle made in Kentucky years ago when her and my daughter were tinkering with the violin. It was built by one man and even has a rattlesnake rattle in it. I can't recall the builder right now.

 

Seems like Gibson got it's start with the mandolin as I recall.

 

I love the sound of a mandolin, and it's also a rhythm instrument to me. Those chops have replaced drums in my mind and I don't miss drums a bit. In fact I prefer music without them now.

 

Congrats.

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Atlantic City - Bruce Springsteen / Levon HelmAmie - Pure Prairie LeagueMan of Constant Sorrow - Froggy Bottom BoysThe Hobo Song - Old and In The WayInto the Mystic -VanFriend of the Devil -DeadSaturday Night - Eagles Down By The River - Neil

Those are the few Now...

But 62 is right. As a duo, as it is we are always one of us playing first position, and the other capo.... just as to occupy different sonic space and not be muddy. The mandolin breaks it up nicely.

Plus .. folks in Brooklyn are used to The Bee Gees and they see it and say WTF is that? I like that look.

 

 

Also BBG, there is an old Appalachian standard called Ashokan Farewell. I played it at my father in law’s funeral back fiver years... the tune is hauntingly beautiful on Guitar and Mandolin.

 

 

 

 

Edit.....iPads suck. Totally oooofed my spacing

 

 

Ah great stuff

 

Was more wondering if you ever did anything alone with it

I don’t have a sidekick

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Congrats!

 

I have three of the little suckers laying around - one of which is a Gibson-made Recording King. My favorite though is a 1920s Supertone which somebody gave me. Has an MOTS board and a good dose of decalcomania. I also have a Dearmond monkey on a stick pickup on hand. If I had to pick out a favorite mandolin piece it would probably be Ry Cooder's "Billy the Kid."

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Wow Sal - Congrats on on the mando, condolences on the yankees symbol. I've got a red sox one up here that's just the right size to cover it up if you want... says 'world series champs on it'.

 

Serious though, awesome buy. I may be slow to the game, but starting to appreciate how to add texture to music with different instruments.

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Sal, and I think a round hole A style is just right for the kind of things you’re playing. F style is great for barking out bluegrass, but....

Roger

 

Hi Roger, anyone - just wondering around this statement. I intuitively would have thought a round hole would put out more volume, but it sounds like the f hole does, or does f hole put volume out in a different fashion so that it cuts through the mix better?

 

Rgds - billroy

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Regarding the F style, a lot has to do with Bill Monroe playing a F style mandolin. Bill Monroe=the father of bluegrass. Also, the holy grail of Gibson F style mandolins are ithe Lloyd Loar era-initialed F style mandolins that he designed, crafted, and made for Gibson way way back in the early 20th century.. The A style mandolins are good mandolins, too, but do not have the mystique and mythology behind them like Bill Monroe and Loar era F style mandolins do to many. The way Martin Dreadnaught model designs revolutionized flattop guitars, Gibson’s Loar designed F style mandolins revolutionized mandolins.

 

Perhaps others can add more info.

 

QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff

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