A First Mandolin

I've been asked via a DM on Twitter for advice about purchasing a first mandolin for a beginner.  A proper response will need more than 140 characters, so here I am!

Firstly, I should congratulate you on having the good sense to consider learning to play the mandolin!  It is a fabulously versatile instrument, and is relatively easy to learn.

There's a popular saying among mandolin players: "life's too short to play a cheap mandolin."  As a beginner, you won't want to spend too much, of course, but it's definitely worth spending enough to get a real instrument rather than a toy.  My first mandolin was a Tanglewood which cost about £160.  It made a pleasing sound and had decent intonation.  Before  that, I did initially buy an Ozark mandolin for about £70, but it was pretty much unplayable and sounded like a toy - I returned it to the shop.

I can't overstate how important it is to buy a mandolin that will produce a decent tone - it is really motivating!  What constitutes a decent tone is, of course, subjective, so I would recommend that you go into music shops and pluck a few.  If you feel self conscious about doing that, ask someone in the shop to play them for you.

After 18 months learning the mandolin, I invested in an Eastman 515 mandolin.  At the time I felt very uncertain about spending so much on an instrument, but it was SO worth it.  The pleasure I get from it is hard to put into words. You develop a real relationship with a quality instrument as you play it over time.

If you just want a cheap instrument, go for a ukelele instead ;-)

Comments

  1. Tom Hoffman16 November 2009 at 21:00

    I'm pretty happy with my Oxo mandoline. Can you play Brassneck on that thing?

    ReplyDelete
  2. jonesieboy16 November 2009 at 21:37

    Where there's a will there's a way Tom. But I don't have thick enough skin to play the model you recommend.

    ReplyDelete
  3. David Webb13 December 2009 at 16:51

    How long did your walk from Longniddry to North Berwick take?

    David Webb

    sof2finchy@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steve-O24 February 2010 at 20:14

    Jonesie! How goes it? I just came across a celeb playing the madolin!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfHoRGOGY7o

    Hope all is well,

    SJ

    ReplyDelete

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

ActiVote Walkthrough Part 1

Image
At my visit to Musselburgh Grammar this morning, I spoke to some of the maths department about using Activote. They were enthusiastic about the potential of the technology, but said something like "it looks easy as you stand there and explain it, but we'll forget everything you've said by the time we next come to use it". So.... to provide a bit of backup, here's a step by step guide to using Activote with your class. The following assumes that the voting pads have been registered with your PC. If not, chase up IT! Setting up the User Database You'll want your pupil names to be stored in the system, so that their names appear at the top of the screen when you run a vote. Here's how.... In East Lothian, we have a problem - we don't have write-access to the place on the C drive where the user database is stored! To get around this, we need to copy the default user database to somewhere that is writeable, then tell ACTIVStudio that we've done so: I
Read more

Someone is looking for the Catburgers!

I was most surprised today to discover that the top search phrase leading people to this blog over the last few weeks has been "the catburgers." This is the name of the indie band I was in back in the late '80s (I sang and played guitar). I can't imagine who might be looking for my old band, unless it is some kids in North Berwick who heard about the band through my son. Whoever it might be, I'll take advantage of this opportunity to post up some mp3s from the good old days, both recorded in 1987.  I just realised that's 20 years ago!  Time for a reunion tour of the states... anyway here are "Children's TV" and "First Day of Spring" for your entertainment: [audio:childrens-tv.mp3] [audio:first-day-of-spring.mp3] After all, you have to keep your visitors happy don't you?
Read more