Solid Body Solidbody Electric Mandolin Questions & Answers

Subject: questions on solid body electric mandos
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 16:46:46 -0500

Hello Mickey,

Greetings Karen,

You have given great responses to many, many questions on your page and I was wondering if you could help me with this one.

Be glad to assist:

I have only been learning mandolin for a year, and like playing jazz and enjoy the funk mandolin music. I have been looking at electric mandolins and have seen the solid body styles. These look awesome, but do they still sound like a mandolin?

I haven't heard a solid body electric mandolin that sounded like a traditional mandolin to date...every solid body electric I've seen comes with single strings as opposed to the double-strings traditionally found on acoustic mandolins. Some electrics are 4-string mandos while others are 5-strings ala Tiny Moore of Bob Wills...The only tonal characteristic similar to a traditional mandolin would be the pitch range is the same....because of the single string configuration, they sound more like a guitar being played above the 12th fret...pick up some old Tiny Moore records...

There appearance is like a mini electric guitar, and I'm wondering if they sound like a guitar or do they still have the basic "music box, twang" sound of a mandolin?

Nope...to me, they have more of a guitar sound than anything else...if you're looking for an electric sound, while still retaining the traditional mandolin tonal character, my recommendation would be to have a Transducer pick-up system installed in an acoustic model of your choice...with this system, you can alter the tone in any way you wish through your amplification system...you can make it sound as electric as you wish...or give it more of a natural acoustic tonal color...all dependent on your settings and the features of your sound reinforcement system.

Hope this helps, Mickey

Or do they sound like something altogether different?

Kindest Thanks,
Karen S.