Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

So who here plays mandolin? I'd like to hear your thoughts on the technique and about any difficulty switching from guitar to mandolin and vice versa.

"Play" isn't what I'd call what I do with a mandolin (or octave mando), although I'm trying to learn my way around it (slowly). I find it not that different than playing a 360/12, trying to cram my fingers in there and hold those strings down, especially when barring. My technique is nontraditional due to lack of training, so I approach it from my own angle.

I once tried my hand at mandolin. Boy, you think 360/12 necks are slim, try a mandolin. I didn't last two minutes on it. Strings were just way too close together.

Someday I'd like to try out a mandola.

Think of mandolin as an upside down bass or if you removed your high E and B strings and then played upside down.

Of course the string pitch is reversed.

A mandolin is a fretted violin.

Here's a great site for beginners.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/tuning.html

Has anyone else tried playing the mandolin parts with their 12 string?

J, I kind of use it like a guitar. I learned as many chords as I could, and kind of just used it for accompaniment/textural purposes. Sometimes you just need something brighter and janglier than a Rick 12er!

I don't use much of the traditional "tremolo picking", Italian-folk music style of playing. Just kind of mess around on the thing, but to good affect.

You have REALLY got me wanting a 5002. I'm really considering taking the plunge...

John, plunge??? Well, DUNK!!! I put money down on an AFG 5002 today. So we'll see how bad I can make this thing sound! It can't be worse than my banjo skillz. Or lack thereof.

Richard - I have often tried to play a RIC 12 like a mandolin, but the action is too low and I end up resting my right hand (your left!) on the bass strings between the pickups and scraping the pick against the fretboard.

"A mandolin is a fretted violin."

So, Karl, is a violin a fretless mandolin? ha!

I started playing mandolin about four years ago (been playing bass for around 25). I really like it. The big revelation for me was tuning in 5ths. Having played guitar and bass for so long, to suddenly play an instrument in a different tuning just opened up whole new worlds melodically. In fact, I've retuned one of my basses to an octave below cello tuning: CGDA.

Of course, the string spacing is narrower, and those teensy little strings dig into your fingers at first if you're a bassist, but with such a small scale length you can really get around on single-note lines.

Oh, and if any of you folks that are getting a 5002 decide that you don't like it, let me know! I would love one of those - right now I've got a weird custom built 4-string and an Epiphone 8-string.