Good tip on an affordable, good quality Mandolin

[jpfeifer]

Hi Everyone,

Since I just started picking up the mandolin as a second instrument I thought that I would share a tip on where to find a really good quality, affordable one.

I didn't know anything about mandolins prior to getting this one.
The one I have is made buy a company called Morgan Monroe I have the model called MAM-200.
I paid about $380 for this one brand new. It comes with a hardshell case that's almost nicer than the mandolin.

I've taken it to an instrument shop to have a pickup installed into it and and a few frets leveled out for low action and it plays like a dream. It has a really great tone! I played a few other entry level mandolins out there and honestly most of them are junk in this price range, however this one is definitely a keeper.

I didn't realize that "pro" mandolins were so expensive. The real ones from Gibson are in the $4000-$6000 range, which sounds insane to me (this is what an archtop might cost, but I don't know why mandolins fetch this kind of price)

I've played some of their other models by Morgan Monroe and they're all quite good. I will probably upgrade to a better model if I start using it a lot in the future, but for now it suits me just fine.

I highly recommend this brand if you're ever considering picking up the mandolin someday.

-- Jim

 

[Algonquin]

Thanks for the tip Jim.

The shop I like to visit in Toronto has many of the pro mandolins, but I see on the Morgan website that this shop also carries the Morgan line.

I'll have to have a look next time I stop in.

Much appreciated,
David

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

I've always wondered how anyone can play such a teeny-tiny fretboard. Is it hard to get used to?

 

[lurcher]

Mandolin isn't so different from playing guitar up around the 12th fret. Also there's less need for chords as it's primarily a lead and jangly background instrument. Dave Pegg of Fairport Convention and, for a while, Jethro Tull, is a giant bass player with hands like bunches of bananas, but he doubles on mandolin pretty good.

 

[wingsdad]

I've always wondered how anyone can play such a teeny-tiny fretboard. Is it hard to get used to?

It's good practice for playing a Rick 12, with 12 strings crammed across a span best suited for 6

Seriously, you need to be diligent with getting up on your fingertips to get cleanly picked notes on a mando, so it really is good practice to break lazy habits and play your guitar better.

Besides, it's a cousin of the violin. Tunes the same, and no narrower in the neck than one. So, in a way, learn mando and you're 1/2 way to playing another blew-grass instro, fiddle.

 

[jpfeifer]

Yes, at first the neck was tough to get used to. I'm finding that the mando has it's own feel that you have to get accustomed to. Once you do, the tone just opens up and it's really fun to play.

For starters, your picking hand encounters more resistance from the strings since you're picking 2-strings-at-a-time and the string tension is much higher than guitar (they're really stiff). So your right hand gets quite a workout which I think would have some benefits that carry over to your guitar playing.

Chords are an entirely different beast on the mando since its not as common to have your root note in the lowest note as you would on guitar. You have to get used to a few common chord forms that are movable and then visualize where the root is.

Coming to this instrument as a guitar player, I tend to visualize the notes on the top two strings since these are A and E (just like a guitar neck flipped upside down). So I'm memorizing chord forms based off of these two strings and that really helps to get my bearings.

I picked up some basic mandolin starter books and have taught myself to read music on the mando. It's acutally somewhat easier to sight read on mando than on guitar since you only have 4 strings and one position covers a lot of range (you don't have to shift around as much).

The other thing that I'm discovering on the mando is the use of drone notes where you play a melody on one string while hitting an adjacent open string. These make some licks sound really cool. You can see where a lot of bluegrass and Irish music gets their sound from an instrument that has the strings tuned in this way (it is the same tuning that a violin uses).

The only drawback so far is that I start to get used to sight reading on the mando then I have to adjust when I sight read on the guitar. It takes a few minutes for my brain to switch gears and start putting my fingers in the right place if I'm trying to sight read and not watch my hands on the guitar neck. But after a minute or two I can usually adjust.

-- Jim

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Very cool Jim. Good luck!

Seriously, you need to be diligent with getting up on your fingertips to get cleanly picked notes on a mando, so it really is good practice to break lazy habits and play your guitar better.

I already play right on the tips of my fingers. It just seemed like the right thing to do when I started as it made it easier not to mute the higher strings.

 

[Brian Johnston]

I just got the Mandocaster from EastwoodGuitars.com (about $350 with case). Extremely well made and solid... it has the body of a Tele with two pickups, pickup switch selector, volume and tone control. Very cool instrument that seems to handle some drive/distortion and other effects rather well, although it sound very nice clean.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Cool! I have heard that brand is decent.

 

[Brian Johnston]

I have the Eastwood Airline '59 Custom (3 pickup)... the review is elsewhere on this site. It's a very versatile guitar. Not good for heavy metal (unless you really pump the pedals through it), but can play anything from jazz to traditional rock... plenty of tonal variations (each pickup has a separate volume knob and tone knob, besides the master volume knob), and the action is very good, but not super low like some Ibanez models. Overall though, a nice guitar for the price.

 

[bcdon]

Very cool, Brian. Post a picture when you get a chance. :dude

 

[Brian Johnston]

For some reason I can't post photos, but here is a link to it:

http://eastwoodguitars.com/Other/mandocaster/images/mandocaster-big/3285mandocastersunburstFIN.jpg

 

[markb]

A friend used to play a solid mandolin that was a perfect miniature repro of a 50s blackguard Esquire even down to the bridge assembly and pickup. I can't for the life of me remember who made it but we are going back a bit here so they're probably not still in production.

 

[markb]

A friend used to play a solid mandolin that was a perfect miniature repro of a 50s blackguard Esquire even down to the bridge assembly and pickup. I can't for the life of me remember who made it but we are going back a bit here so they're probably not still in production.