mandovark
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Post by mandovark on Sept 28, 2015 15:50:37 GMT
Beautiful, Gary. I love 10-string 'cellos - I had a Moon one for a while.
What scale length did you use?
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Post by mandovark on Sept 23, 2015 17:44:04 GMT
You can't go wrong with the Orchid. I've been using one for about 8 years with everything from budget instruments to handmade. It's got a good sound out of everything, and the simple controls make it really easy to tweak your sound mid-set - I like a bit of extra treble for slide, and a bit less bass for fingerstyle than I would use for rhythm.
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Post by mandovark on Aug 27, 2015 21:17:29 GMT
This is my favourite version of The Water is Wide. Might have to dig this CD out for a quick listen tonight.
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Post by mandovark on Aug 26, 2015 16:55:30 GMT
Nice shot of our forumites' combined Brook collection there
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Post by mandovark on Aug 22, 2015 13:56:50 GMT
Really enjoyed this, Phil - thanks for posting. It's a great prize, but like michaelm I could see myself having some serious performance anxiety. I'd think I'd feel like those guitars were judging me I'd love to play that 1920s Martin though. It's in amazingly good condition - it looks like it came out of the workshop yesterday.
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Post by mandovark on Jul 23, 2015 12:30:15 GMT
I'll see Keith's and raise you a
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Post by mandovark on Jul 15, 2015 20:40:14 GMT
I'm really not sure about Tony Iommi as this week's mentor. He seems a nice enough guy, but he didn't really offer much feedback. He seemed to be there just to give the episode a big name rather than because he had much to offer as a teacher.
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Post by mandovark on Jul 13, 2015 18:05:52 GMT
Sounds like a good visit. I'm very happy to hear that the Brook OM was good, as Andy and Simon should be starting work on mine any week now
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Post by mandovark on Jul 13, 2015 12:40:27 GMT
funny, I bought a guitar in order to not sell one! *Applauds* You are an example to us all, sir.
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Post by mandovark on Jul 10, 2015 18:31:55 GMT
I found the same when I played a lot of tennis, to intermediate standards. The difference between most £50 rackets and most £200 ones was huge. After that the law of diminishing returns set in. A £5000 racket still couldn't get me to regularly do a good topspin backhand ... I remember a former editor of Cycling Weekly talking about the tendency to think that if we can just get that next bit of shiny new kit, it will take us to the next level. He said something along the lines of "Every time I think that buying something new is the key to improvement, I remind myself that I couldn't win the Tour de France on Chris Froome's bike, but he could win it on mine". It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if I can just get the guitar and other kit that [insert name of favourite guitarist] uses, I'll be able to sound like him/her. I'm sure this plays at least some part in driving up the prices of some well-known brands and luthiers - which is not by any means to say that those makers are not making excellent guitars. It's just that there can be a kind of quick-fix mentality that creeps in to some players, as if you can become an excellent guitarist just by buying the same instrument used by an excellent guitarist. I've always liked David Oddy's response to a customer who complained that his Oddy mandocello didn't sound like Steve Knightley's: "That's because he's a professional musician, and you're not." None of this is meant as a criticism either of people who buy high-priced instruments or of the people who make and sell them. The way I see it is that musical instruments are luxuries (it's not as if the UN puts mandolins in aid packages), and who am I to say that what I spend on my luxuries is ok, but what someone else spends on theirs is too much? But I do think it's important to know exactly what you are and aren't getting. If you're buying a high-end guitar because it suits your playing style and you'll enjoy playing it and maybe develop as player because of it, good luck to you. But if you're buying that Martin Taylor signature model in the hope that it will make you sound like Martin Taylor, then you're probably going to be disappointed - unless, of course, you are Martin Taylor.
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Post by mandovark on Jun 26, 2015 16:05:12 GMT
I had a rare clear afternoon today so I took the chance to pop over to Morecambe and spend a very pleasant hour in Promenade Music. One of the staff remembered me from when I brought my Brook Tamar there last summer, so we had a nice chat about how I'd been getting on with it. Then, naturally, it was down to the guitars. The have a few secondhand Northwoods in at the moment. They're Canadian handmade guitars and I've had mixed experiences with them in the past: a sitka/Brazilian rosewood OM of theirs was one of the nicest guitars I've ever played, but I've also tried a few that have left me cold. Anyway, I started with a sitka/rosewood cutaway OOO. My first impression was that fingerboard felt quite narrow - definitely narrower than my Brook, which would have made it a non-starter for me. It was one of the loudest guitars of its size that I've played, and would be a really good strummer or flatpicker, though it was less impressive fingerpicked. Next up was an Engelmann/rosewood OM. I don't know if it was the different kind of spruce - for some reason, I haven't tended to get on with Engelmann guitars that I've tried - but this one didn't impress me as much. It seemed to lose some of the strumming power without really gaining much in fingerpicking tone. The next guitar I tried was the only Brook that they currently have in stock. It was a Teign (their dreadnought model) in sitka and rosewood. The neck profile was identical to my Tamar, so it felt very familiar. My first thought on playing this one was that no dreadnought has any right to sound this good fingerpicked. It's superbly balanced - it has the tone of a big guitar, but without anything overpowering or boomy. Intonation was spot on up the neck, and it sounded great with a capo higher up. The trade-off of all this is that it really doesn't sound like a traditional dreadnought - my guess is that it wouldn't appeal to players looking for a rhythm or flatpicking cannon. But for any fingerpickers who like a larger-bodied guitar, the Teign is well worth a look. I found a Lakewood M-18 (Euro spruce/ovangkol) hidden in a corner and gave it a quick go. Nice guitar, and good value for the money, but it struck me as too similar in character to my Tamar: if I owned both, I don't think the Lakewood would get much use. Moving on from that, I checked out the mandolin section. Not much in at the moment, though I did try a Moon octave mandolin (spruce/maple). I have a soft spot for these thanks to a fondly-remembered 10-string bouzouki that I sold a few years ago. This octave reminded me why I like Moons: it had a nice, sweet tone and really easy playability. Jimmy Moon really knows how to make a fingerboard. At this point I was about to be on my way, when I noticed one more second-hand Northwood that I hadn't tried earlier. It was a 12-fret, slothead OO in sitka and mahogany. This isn't the kind of guitar I normally go for, but I figured at this point it would be rude not to give it a go. The moment I started playing, I wished I hadn't, because I recognised it as a very real threat to my bank balance. The best way I can describe this one is that it's one of those guitars that comes with new tunes already in there. It played like a dream and sounded wonderful: it had all of the good things about smaller guitars without a hint of boxiness or harshness. It would be a superb blues picker, though I'm not a good enough blues player to make the most of it. But it also had a really atmospheric reverby quality - it's the kind of guitar where you want to pick a string just to listen to the note sustain and decay. This one was very hard to put down. It's absolutely not the kind of instrument that I'm in the market for at the moment, but I still spent most of the journey home trying to think of ways to make my bank account say that I can have it. Someone needs to go in and buy this one quickly to put me out of my misery. So, all in all, a very pleasant afternoon. Though I'm afraid I was one of those annoying customers who play about 12k worth of guitars and then leave with only a couple of new instrument cables.
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Post by mandovark on Jun 24, 2015 18:08:56 GMT
I thought this week's episode was the best yet, mostly because of Lee Ritenour as mentor. I wish I could play anything that sounded as good as his warm-up exercises!
It was fascinating to hear his feedback to each of the players. I could sort of tell whether a performance was working or not, but he could dissect exactly what was going wrong and how to put it right. I've enjoyed all the episodes so far, but this was the first one where I felt like I was learning something as well.
It was also interesting to hear Ritenour playing with the contestants. All of them are good players, but it really showed up how big the gap is between talented hopeful and top-class professional.
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Post by mandovark on Jun 5, 2015 8:53:40 GMT
Yes, I can see that GDAE probably makes more sense for folk sessions. I like CGDA (or CGDG) because I've tended to use tenors more for song accompaniment than anything else - it's a nice alternative to the bouzouki/octave mandolin sound and tuning.
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Post by mandovark on Jun 5, 2015 6:29:53 GMT
This sounds great. It must be the fullest-sounding tenor I've heard - hearing it strummed, you'd hardly know it wasn't a six-string.
Have you tried it in CGDA tuning?
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Post by mandovark on May 27, 2015 21:18:28 GMT
I wouldn't be put off either. There are some nice mando-family instruments being made in Asia. My first foray into mandolins was an Asian-made octave sold under the TAMCO brand, and a well-made instrument it was. Just remember that like any factory-made instruments, you're likely to find a few really nice ones and a few real turkeys, so it's always better if you can try it in person before you buy.
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