Korgscrew
Group: Super Admins
Posts: 3511
Joined: Dec. 1999 |
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Posted: June 18 2008, 23:05 |
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I'd not recommend tuning a mandolin to EBGD without recalculating the string gauges for it - standard mandolin tuning is GDAE! You can of course tune it to whatever notes you want if you get the right strings - I believe Jimmy Page used a guitar-like tuning for his mandolin - but I think you're in danger of losing some of the mandolin's character if you do that (of course, you may gain something new...that's innovation, after all! ). Though it might be tempting to follow in Mr Page's footsteps, I'd personally say that approaching it as a little guitar isn't really a good idea. I find that the mandolin needs a very different kind of touch to really sound at its best...in a way more delicate, you almost have to bounce off the strings, but like with all acoustic instruments, there needs to be a degree of firmness to the picking to get any volume.
Mandolins divide into three main types (there are some others out there that are less common...). First are the bowlback types, which are mainly used in classical music. They're what a lot of people think of when they think of mandolins, as featured on countless ice cream adverts and flogged to unsuspecting tourists in Italy. They're not particularly popular among non-classical players, and second hand ones can sometimes represent fantastic value because of their lack of desirability...but there's an awful lot of junk out there too. When they're good, they can have a lovely sweet, clear sound. The tops are usually spruce, and the highest quality ones tend to use rosewood for the back. I don't know of any new ones which would be within your price range which would be worth looking at.
Common for Celtic and English folk are the flat backed, flat topped mandolins. They're essentially built in the same manner as a flat topped guitar. They tend to be built to have a louder sound than the bowlback mandolins, often with a bit more going on in the lower mids. It's common for them to be made with a spruce top and maple back and sides for a bright sound, but there are builders using all sorts. A mahogany back will tend to give a mellower sound, as will a cedar top, assuming all other things stay the same. I unfortunately can't think of any of this type which would be within your price range either! For a bit over double your budget, there's the far eastern made Trinity College mandolin (which the acoustic music co is selling for £265) or one of David Freshwater's Accord mandolins (which are available direct from him for £280). Out of those two, I'd definitely spend the extra £15 to have the Freshwater. The Trinity College ones sound respectable, but from what I've heard of David Freshwater's instruments, they have a definite edge, in terms of just feeling more alive. Those are probably already rather too far outside your price range, though.
The last I'm going to mention are the archtop ones, which are the choice of bluegrass musicians. The design goes all the way back to Orville Gibson himself, though it was later refined by Gibson's Lloyd Loar in the 1920s, when he created the F5. The F5 and its less ornate brother the A5 (a basic teardrop shape) are the two most widely copied designs - you can recognise them by their violin-like f-holes, as well as the arched top and back. As well as being the most widely copied, the F5 is perhaps the most desirable to collectors - models signed by Loar himself are considered the mandolin equivalent of the Stradivarius violin, and change hands for prices in the region of £100,000.
The F5 style is more time consuming, and therefore more expensive to produce. Most players feel that the scroll adds nothing to the sound and that an A-style built with the same skill and materials will sound just as good for less money.
The top and back of the best quality examples are carved from solid pieces of wood (the top is traditionally spruce, with flamed maple for the back). Less expensive examples will use a top pressed from a piece either of thin solid wood or of laminated wood.
Archtop mandolins tend to have a more plummy kind of sound, a little more scooped in the mids. They're sometimes voiced quite aggressively, so they cut through in a bluegrass context (they call those banjo killers! ). Don't be put off by the mention of bluegrass if that's not your bag, though - the folk player Simon Mayor uses archtop mandolins, as did a certain Mr Oldfield (his was an oval hole F4 style though).
Of what I can see that's in your price range, I'd start by having a look at the Kentucky mandolins (I have only vague recollections of playing one, but they tend to get mentioned a lot in discussions on what to start off with...obviously, have a try for yourself and see what you think) - the KM140s ought to be worth a look. It costs around £140 and has a solid spruce top (though I'm not certain how it's been shaped...it's not until the £200 KM160 that they advertise 'solid, hand-carved and graduated spruce top'...I believe that the KM140s is machine carved, but I couldn't absolutely guarantee that it's not been pressed), with laminated maple back and sides. Going up to the £160 KM150s gets you a solid back and sides too. Give them a try and see if you like what you hear, really. It's worth giving several of the same model a go, as things in that price bracket aren't always particularly consistent between examples (though of course that applies to instruments in all price ranges to an extent).
The only ones with a pickup I can think of in that price range are the kinds which have an on-board magnetic pickup. The way they're fitted compromises the acoustic sound quite a bit, and to be honest, what I've heard of them plugged in hasn't impressed me much either, but I say that having only heard other people play them. I'd personally suggest avoiding anything with a pickup (unless you can get a really good deal on something second hand), simply because a fair chunk of your money is going to be going towards the electronics rather than the rest of the mandolin, so you'll be ending up amplifying something which doesn't sound too great in the first place.
Of course if you find the mandolin too small and fiddly, it has a whole family of bigger brothers - the mandola, tuned CGDA like a viola, the octave mandola (British name)/octave mandolin (American name), tuned GDAE (an octave down from the mandolin, hence the name) and the mandocello, tuned CGDA (the same as the cello - an octave below the mandola). Gibson also created a mandobass, equivalent to the double bass (they tried to encourage people to form mandolin orchestras, so wanted to build a direct equivalent of every instrument in the violin family...though as I say that, the pedantic side of me reminds me that the double bass isn't strictly from the violin family...and as I say that, the non-pedantic side of me tells me to shut up and get on with it), but they're not at all common nowadays. I find the sound of the lower pitched ones particularly beautiful. Cheap ones are, however, not too commonly seen, because of the low demand for them. In addition to that, the tuning means that playing them involves greater stretches, which some people find too much to handle.
Enough mando-ramblings for the moment, though!
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