whistling mandolin players?

[Wombat]

I've been seeing someone using the name "Glauber" over on the message board at Mandolin Cafe. Could that be our Gluaber?

Very likely. He just outed himself as a mando player on the ITM board during a discussion of button boxes.

[Miwokhill]

I had read that the Gibson F style mandolin was popular early in the 20th century because of mandolin orchestras. If I'm not mistaken they were playing classical music or at least that was the aim in marketing these instruments. The popularity of these orchestras waned and in the 1940s Bill Monroe saw one of these unwanted F styles in the window of a pawn shop and thought he'd give it a shot.-- I've thought of getting the epiphone version of this f style. It's only $500 --compared to over $2000 for the Gibson. I've heard that some people prefer the Epiphone. This sounds unbeleiveable yet the Epiphone Les Paul guitars are supposed to be put together better than their Gibson counterparts as well. Same materials, epiphones made overseas.

[JohnPalmer]

I have been playing both mandolin and fiddle on a daily basis, as well as whistles. I like the mandolin, but I LOVE the fiddle. It can do almost anything a mandolin can do, but it can also play vibrato and long sustained tones. And the strings last for 6 months and are much easier to change. They're also easier to tune.

As for Gibson mandolins, I haven't seen a new one for under $3500.

JP

[JohnPalmer]

Erased a dulicate post.

[rh]

As for Gibson mandolins, I haven't seen a new one for under $3500.

street price on the Gibson A9 is around $1500 and F9 is around $3k.

re: Epiphone solid-body guitars vs carved top mandolins, you're talking about a big difference in quality. I'd stay away from mass-produced mandolins, you're better off getting a bottom-of-the-line Weber than a top-of-the-line Epiphone, IMO. There's a lot of Michael Kelly devotees, that might be the exception in terms of Pac Rim mandos.

These days, your best bet is buying used off Mandolin Cafe classifieds. The market now is such that (depending on the model) you can get a nearly new mandolin for a little over half the street price of a brand new one. A lot of times the warranty cards aren't even filled out. If you want to upgrade, you can sell it for the same price or very near to it.

I've bought and sold a few times on the MC classifieds and never been burned -- the site owner, Scott Tichenor, is really vigilant about that.

[Miwokhill]

rh-Sounds like good advice-thanks! I'm going to check out Mandolin Cafe as well. ---John, -I play some fiddle too and I hear what you're saying but I guess what I like about the mandolin is that staccato sound you can get. It's a nice compliment to the fiddle with it's voice-like qualities. -mike

[JohnPalmer]

I was only thinking of the F models. I guess A models would be much less.

JP

[rh]

I was only thinking of the F models. I guess A models would be much less.

the F models of course are equipped with the $2000 strap hanger -- er-- scroll...

[Whistling Willie]

I play the mandolin and irish tenor banjo,although not at the same time

[Walden]

I think it's already established that I play mandolin.

[brewerpaul]

Dad had his mother's mandolin,and old Gibson from the early 20s so I picked it up. We've still got it and even though it's tone is not much now because the front split and warped over time, it is still the easiest one to play I've ever tried. .

YOu might want to get those old mandolins checked out and repaired properly. Old Gibsons especially can be VERY valuable. You might be shocked.

[Martin Milner]

I have been playing both mandolin and fiddle on a daily basis, as well as whistles. I like the mandolin, but I LOVE the fiddle. It can do almost anything a mandolin can do, but it can also play vibrato and long sustained tones. And the strings last for 6 months and are much easier to change. They're also easier to tune.

You said it John. I started ITM on the mandolin, after a few years playing song backing on guitar, and then tried whistle as it was even more portable.

I finally took the plunge into fiddling around June last year. I'm played classical as a kid, and like ancatsidhe I figured Brahms, Beethoven, Hayden and the rest were better off without me. The memories where so shuddering that it took 23 years to want to pick up a bow again. Shame, because once I tried fiddling, I found the basic skills I'd developed as a child were still there, and I'm having a much easier time of it than an adult beginner would normally have.

I play ITM and English TM, a bit of Scottish occasionally, and am interested in other styles.

So really these days I'm a fiddler who owns a whistle or two. I should really try some of my favourite fiddle tunes on the whistle, just to see if I have any whistle skills retained.

Oh, I still have a couple of mandolins, but never play them, tuning up is such a pain, and fiddling is so much more versatile.

[Flyingcursor]

Me too.

I need to fix the bridge on mine before I can play it again.

[Ro3b]

I love playing mandolin, but I don't bring it out much. Imho it's the hardest of any instrument to play up to session speed, and it gets buried in all the other instruments. But for spinning out tunes in a mellow front-porchy kind of way, there's nothing like it.

[beowulf573]

I just recently picked up a mandolin, found a <a href="http://www.midmomandolin.com/products_m ... d-Missouri M-3</a> for a steal. I haven't been playing my guitar as much recently and was losing my chops, and I wanted a small portable instrument I could keep near the couch.

It's lots of fun.