Happy Borrowed Mandolin Day!

Happy borrowed mandolin day!

Helping out a friend's girlfriend as she prepares for house for sale. Found this in a case out in her well house. She said her husband, who is deceased, and her son, used to mess around with it in addition to playing guitar together. She let me borrow it for a bit. Never played one, know nothing about the mandolin itself. Does not seem expensive at all. Sounds fine after being tuned up. Needs a new nut. The ridge between the D strings broke, so I think I will grab a tusq one off of amazon. Might as well put strings on too. These ones seem pretty dirty and old. Any string recs?

c7ca266e6af1b6658f61eef319d1b3f2.jpg


Amazon recommends these strings to go along with the nut.

Should be good enough I would think.

51EW1UxCsPL._SX425_.jpg
 
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Happy borrowed mandolin day!

Helping out a friend's girlfriend as she prepares for house for sale. Found this in a case out in her well house. She said her former husband, who is deceased, and her son, used to mess around with it in addition to playing guitar together. She let me borrow it for a bit. Never played one, know nothing about the mandolin itself. Does not seem expensive at all. Sounds fine after being tuned up. Needs a new nut. The ridge between the D strings broke, so I think I will grab a tusq one off of amazon. Might as well put strings on too. These ones seem pretty dirty and old. Any string recs?



Amazon recommends these strings to go along with the nut.

Should be good enough I would think.

View attachment 20303

Those are great strings!!!

As for tuning the Mando, it is tuned G-D-A-E (tuned in 5ths). It is as if you were playing a strung left handed guitar.
 
Yah, I figured out the tuning, and got it tuned up. Despite the little broken part on the nut, it seems to sound just fine. Looked up some simple two finger chords and just started strumming. Just the sound of the instrument makes me think Nickel Creek. Not that my attempts as playing would make anyone think that. :grin:
 
I have to figure out what nut to get. I suppose I just measure, then order a tusq one. Will need to sand it and fit it anyways a bit I suppose. I want to fix it up, get it playing well, play it a little, then see if Becky's son would be interested in playing it in memory of his father. There was also a fiddle in that shed too they messed around with. They were guitarists mostly though.
 
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All I can say is thankyou for keeping a cool instrument alive...
 
Last edited:
Happy borrowed mandolin day!

Helping out a friend's girlfriend as she prepares for house for sale. Found this in a case out in her well house. She said her husband, who is deceased, and her son, used to mess around with it in addition to playing guitar together. She let me borrow it for a bit. Never played one, know nothing about the mandolin itself. Does not seem expensive at all. Sounds fine after being tuned up. Needs a new nut. The ridge between the D strings broke, so I think I will grab a tusq one off of amazon. Might as well put strings on too. These ones seem pretty dirty and old. Any string recs?

c7ca266e6af1b6658f61eef319d1b3f2.jpg


Amazon recommends these strings to go along with the nut.

Should be good enough I would think.

View attachment 20303

BTW, anyone have any idea about who made this Mando? No labels of any kind that I can find.
 
Sorry - don't know. No labels inside of the unit huh?

All I can say is that you have an A-Style Mando with my limited knowledge.
 
I'm thinking that the tailpiece is your best bet for finding a maker... haven't seen one quite like that before. I like the D'Addario EXP strings better than those, but give those a try to start with.
 
In looking into learning about mandos and the difference between A types as this one is, and F types, with the scrolly look, I ran across this vid, which I loved at about 0:50-:60 for his description of "these little elfkin instruments, used for summoning an elf tribe or for looking for Gnomes in your garden."

 
F's are more common in bluegrass. Kind of a cork sniffer thing as the scroll does not really have an effect on the sound of the mando.
 
F's are more common in bluegrass. Kind of a cork sniffer thing as the scroll does not really have an effect on the sound of the mando.

It makes a great strap hook, though... :embarrassed:

Yeah, my former instructor here locally is a really good mando player and has really fancy F types he got from some guy named Lawrence Smart who is a high end builder. He plays a lot of bluegrass, and led the bluegrass and folk jam I was a part of until it fell apart due to schedules. Here Chip is with a few of his favorite things.

chip02.jpg
 
This little A type is fine for me to have some fun with before it hopefully goes back home to the son of its former owner. As I said, it does not seem to be super expensive or anything. I will take Andy's advice and see if I can find any information on the tail piece.
 
Oh, I have a soft spot for F-style mandos; most that I have owned were F-styles.
I like the looks of them. If I had a choice and were buying and all other things equal, I would probably grab an F type. But not because I really notice the difference sonically, even in that vid I posted above.
 
Oh, I have a soft spot for F-style mandos; most that I have owned were F-styles.

I am sure most mando players do, I know I do but the cost of a good one isn't worth it for me. I am happy with my Ovation USA Mando and besides I have the cardinal sin anyway, a pickup built into the Mando.
 
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