Mandolins

John

I was thinking about getting a mandolin. I want one with a pickup. I haven't looked in town yet but looking at the chris's guitars site I found this for $250. Now I don't know how much is a good price for a mandolin (but this site normally is pretty good for prices) or even what to look for in one. Can anyone help? Is it worth buying in Ireland at all?

Doctor J

There's a traditional music instrument shop on Capel Street and another one on Little Stephen Street (down from Break For The Border) who sell mondolins but I wouldn't think they'd have ones with pickups

But for a guideline price they might be the place to start

Giblet

Definatly check the intonation of the mandolin. They are such a pain in the ass to tune anyway, and to have one that sounds messed up on certain strings will annoy you forever. Also, you'd want quite a low action, as the strings will have lots of tension.

John

thanks, I plan on doing a bit of research into this as I won't be able to buy for a little while, getting a new bass amp first

I'm pretty sure perfect pitch do them too,

dublinario

Mate, I have the Crafter Mandolin, and I think their great. See below:

http://www.guitarsuperstore.com/product.asp?IntID=668&strManufacturer=Crafter%20M70E%20Electro-Acoustic%20Mandolin

They have a Guitar shaped body (in fact, everything about them mimics a Guitar e.g. the Bridge, the Machine heads etc), a Pickup, they sound good, and cost roughly 250 euro. You can get them in Perfect Pitch, which is where I got mine.

It is my first and only Mandolin, so I don't really have anything to compare it too, but I think the sound is absolutely fine. I've even had it plugged in at a couple of gigs, which I really shouldn't have done, because I'm awful on it. But it makes a nice occasional variance from the Guitar.

There is a site called www.mandolincafe.com (I think that is the URL anyway), and I started a thread on it before to ask was this particular Mandolin sacralige, because of it's adoption of a Guitar design, rather than the more traditional standard Mandolin design. I was expecting to get slaughtered, but the feedback was really positive. Most of these Mando-heads replied saying that they actually thought it was a really good Mandolin for the price, and that the design didn't bother them. The only negative comment I received, and it wasn't even that negative, was some guy who said "it's a decent Mandolin, but I wouldn't take it to a Bluegrass festival".

Personally, not only was the Guitar design not a minus factor for me, it was probably the deciding factor in my choice. I thought it was asthetically fantastic looking, and very amusing. I still find it hilarious when a mate sees me playing it and assumes it is just a dwarfish Guitar.