New stuff

[jakeisjake]

I got a mandolin in 2001. It's a Y2K (remember that???) model by Weber mandolins. It's a stellar instrument...the fact that there is no binding or inlays or anything fancy made it very affordable. I played it hot and heavy for a few years, at the time, a guy I was playing with was really into blue grass. H e moved away and I didn't play it nearly as much. My oldest son was taking violin lessons at the time and I would go to his lesson with him and learn scales and stuff.

Our church band has gotten quite guitar heavy...and I've been itching to switch things up a little. I play a XII a lot and just give those big, sweeping chords that sound so great...

But, somehow I got interested in the rest of the mandolin family. I started watching vids about octave mandolins, mandolas, and mandocellos...they looked like they were a lot of fun!

I was doing a funeral and a guy came and sang and played a bouzouki. I was chatting him up about it and he said he had an octave mandolin...I ended up buying it. It's a cheap one, but it sounds and plays pretty well. He has it strung up like a mandola (CGDA). It's been fun and I've played it a lot at home and a few times out. These aren't my pics, but it is identical:







. I started looking into mandocellos and, on a whim, contacted a guy over in Burlington who has lots of acoustic stuff. He ended up having an old arch top that he was just finishing converting to a mandocello! It's ugly...but it's a pretty cool instrument. Since the octave mandolin is strung CGDA, I figured I'd have him string this like an octave mandolin (one octave lower than a mandolin (GDAE). He had to cut the neck to make the scale correct...

[DrQuasar]

Whoah! That is cool. Would love to hear it.

[fuzzjunkie]

That’s pretty cool to get a one of a kind instrument like that.

Austin had a thriving bluegrass/folk scene when I lived there. It’s why The Dixie Chicks and Robert Plant were drawn there. I knew a number of excellent fiddlers and mandolin players that were touring musicians.

I definitely had an interest in the Celtic octave mandolin which is more A-style than the bluegrass F style. Just coming from playing guitar and bass, the longer scale is easier to work with, and it sits almost like 12 string guitar would. All the 4-course instruments are cool though.

[jakeisjake]

It is a pretty cool, one of a kind instrument. However, I get terrible hand/arm pain after playing for more than ten minutes or so. That's a drag. I've contacted the guy who made it...we will work out a return/exchange for something in his shop. Hopefully, I can keep it in the same family.

But here's a quick vid of it:

https://youtu.be/nRFA8Dd4MeA

[jakeisjake]

I returned that octave a while ago. I felt bad because it was just a small, local shop...the guy was probably stoked he had a sale. So I said I'd take store credit for it...but he really doesn't have anything in the shop that I want/need. There were a couple of mandolins that I liked, but I have a mandolin that I love...so, I'm not looking for a replacement. I don't know how long the store credit will last...or if he would close up shop one day...

His shop was in downtown Burlington for years (and at that time he had some really great stuff)...but he relocated to his home/shop nearby. I just had a sinking feeling about the whole situation.

I finally asked him to order a mandoguitar. It's a 12 string that is one octave higher than a guitar. It's a pretty cool concept and would be great for a guitar who just has a need to play mandolin on one song and doesn't want to learn new shapes/scales. It actually sounds like a mandolin. So, in a way, it's pretty cool.

I felt like I was getting screwed the whole time...and, tbh, I think I did. I just couldn't bring myself to bust his chops to get the best deal...I kind of wrote the $750 off a few months ago.

First off, I see many new ones cheaper than the $750 he has of mine. Further...I'm not convinced this is even new.

Hopefully it will sit in the mix for a song here or there and it will be worth it. Here's a few pics:





In unrelated news...the Christmas Cactus in the pics was given to us by a neighbor. We bought our house from his mom about 20 years ago and she moved across the road. She died not long after and he rented it all these years. He sold the house and asked if I wanted the plant. It was his mom's when she lived here in our house...so, it's back home and doing fine...I think it's kind of cool that it is.