I've read several posts here in the past about travel guitars and bringing your guitar on airplanes, etc. I ended up buying a hardcase for my acoustic and try to bring it traveling when I can but it can be a hassle.
I was thinking, how would a mandolin fit the bill as a travel guitar? It's much easier to carry around. It will provide some fun & learning on another instrument and I guess would help maintain fingers and fingertips while away from your guitar(s).
Any thoughts?
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential." - Dr. Evil
Might be fun. Don't think of it as a guitar though; if you tune it like a mando, in fifths, the scales and whatnot won't be the same. That's *if* you tune it that way. You could tune it like the top four strings of a guitar, but in that case you could also get a ukulele.
The doubled strings would get you used to a 12-string more than a standard guitar, even thought they're all doubled and not partially doubled and partially strung in octaves.
You should just get one, tune it like a mando and learn it as-is; great for adding things to your recordings or live performances later on; a great second instrument.
Who knows, it might become your first (primary) instrument :)
Yes, I would keep it tuned as a mandolin. My thought was more about having something easily transportable that allows me to maintain some finger dexterity and my callouses. I figure it beats having nothing to play....
Another complication is that I would need a lefty mandolin.
"The details of my life are quite inconsequential." - Dr. Evil
That sounds like a good idea to me. I like my mandolin, and it sure would be easier to travel with than a guitar.
I have an A style mandolin that I had converted for left-handed play. It's a very difficult instrument to play, for someone with small hands like mine. It does do an excellent job of building callouses. I've been playing it since Christmas and have made very little progress. I haven't had the nerve to use it in a performance yet, where I was playing for an audience two months after starting the guitar. If all you want is something easy to carry and good at making callouses the mandolin is just the ticket.
Tim Madsen
Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.
"What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away you keep forever." -Axel Munthe
Why is a mandolin difficult to play if you have small hands? I would have assumed just the opposite.
Yah, I'd need a lefty also. Dr. Cluck has them sometimes on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10179&item=7331888564&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
(just now).
You know, some guy could make some good side money making lefty mando bridges. The A styles are the ones that would be converted, but everywhere I look there's no lefty mandolin bridges. I remember seeing an eBay ad with a Tyler and the closeup showed it was a righty bridge. I emailed them and they said a 'few got through' with righty bridges. Most people think it's no big deal; you just twist it the other way, but lefties know; 'stairstep to the left" or "stairstep to the right" - the squence of saddle differences can't just be flipped around; you wind up with the same sequence no matter what you do. It has to be mirror-image.
Anyhow, they're available - even more expensive ones, but for travel you want something that you're not scared about scuffing up a little. :)
Why is a mandolin difficult to play if you have small hands? I would have assumed just the opposite.
There are chords where you need to fret four strings on the same fret with the same finger tip. I can fret about 2 1/2 strings with my small fingers. It's a small instrument designed for big hands.
Folk of the Wood sell A styles converted for left-handed play at a reasonable price.
Tim Madsen
Nobody cares how much you know,
until they know how much you care.
"What you keep to yourself you lose, what you give away you keep forever." -Axel Munthe
