The acoustic music discussion thread - The Bear and Badger

Brooks

krs wrote:

Those Gibson-style mandolins, like the one they're not playing in that toilet video, are beautiful-looking things. Not that I'd have much use for one; Losing My Religion would get boring after a while.

I think these were also a weapon in a Final Fantasy game. I mean that must have happened at least once.

metascrawl

krs wrote:

Those Gibson-style mandolins, like the one they're not playing in that toilet video, are beautiful-looking things. Not that I'd have much use for one; Losing My Religion would get boring after a while.

Once you got bored of the REM riff you could start working on this:

Yossarian

As impressive as that is, I cannot get over my instinctive and visceral dislike of mandolins.

Tempy

My ex cheated on me with a guy who played mandolin, specifically with a violin bow, in a post-rock style band.

Neva 4get

krs

Actually, since they're tuned the same as violins, anything I can fiddle I can logically mandle too. Still, $18,000 ... nah.

Yossarian

Oh god, not only a mandolin player but one who uses a bow? If you're planning on beating him up, I'd be more than happy to help.

Edit: @Temps, obvs.

Yossarian

krs wrote:

Actually, since they're tuned the same as violins, anything I can fiddle I can logically mandle too. Still, $18,000 ... nah.

I didn't know you fiddled. After something like seven or eight years of sharing forums with you I believe I know now ten whole facts about you.

Tempy

It's alright, he was a cunt and undermined her already dire self esteem.

Yossarian

Tempy wrote:

he was a cunt

I'll say, he played a fucking mandolin with a fucking violin bow.

g.man

Hahaha

Tempy

Solidarity

krs

But he passes the bowed mando through an old Copicat and an E-H Pog into a tan tolex Vibrolux and it's like SYR meets Füxa meets first line-up Carter Family and they did an secret show in an abandoned van this one time and it was totally, like, you know, you know?

g.man

You don't say?

metascrawl

krs wrote:

Actually, since they're tuned the same as violins, anything I can fiddle I can logically mandle too. Still, $18,000 ... nah.

True, I know a fiddle player who has a mandolin banjo and he says he just transfers his fiddle repertoire directly across. I'm sure you could get a decent mandolin for a hell of a lot less than that - maybe not actually made by Gibson but there must be affordable instruments in that style.

This stuff about playing a mandolin with a bow - considering how the mandolin is basically a fretted violin that you pluck, you do wonder what the point would be. Apart from being a poser.

krs wrote:

But he passes the bowed mando through an old Copicat and an E-H Pog into a tan tolex Vibrolux and it's like SYR meets Füxa meets first line-up Carter Family and they did an secret show in an abandoned van this one time and it was totally, like, you know, you know?

The dream of the 90's is alive in Portland.

Moot_Geeza

I can't add anything to the banjo playing discussion, so I'll post a performance instead:

Props to Chet for recommending this extremely talented lass a few months ago. This is the title track of the album I picked up, which is great.

metascrawl

Very nice. Clawhammer style too. Earle Scruggs, as seen above, was a genius and the bluegrass banjo style he practically speaking invented is incredible, but the older clawhammer style is what really attracts me to the instrument.

See how the fret board is cut away where the highest frets would be on her banjo? That's a frailing scoop, it allows you to play over the neck for a mellower sound that doesn't involve your thumb pounding the head. I wish my banjo had that feature, I might see about getting it modified.

Of course, you don't have to frail, and you don't have to play flash Scruggs licks either - you can just sit on a fence in a big straw hat and strum the damn thing.

Yossarian

I'll do it for you when I sort out your Dreamcast.

Yossarian

I'll need an actual claw hammer.

metascrawl

You ani't going near mah banj'r wit dat hammer boy!

Tempy

where do we stand on the uke as an instrument, bearing in mind I'd like you to divorce it from twee, insufferable Internet bollocks before you comment

Yossarian

The ukelele can be great, as long as you're not playing it with a violin bow.

Jacuzzi_Jackson

I've got a mandolin.

Yeah fuck you Yoss!

metascrawl

Tempy wrote:

where do we stand on the uke as an instrument, bearing in mind I'd like you to divorce it from twee, insufferable Internet bollocks before you comment

I have two - a £20 Mahalo and a more expensive, solid top Lakia with a built-tuner. I enjoy playing them both - I tune to Mahalo to standard uke tuning and the Lakia to something of my own invention based on five-sting banjo tuning. I play them both quite a bit and really enjoy it. They'll be coming down the park with me this summer no question.

I don't feel they have to be twee, but it's hard to avoid the fact that they kind of lend themselves too it. Just the child-size look of them can seem pretty twee before you even play a note. The larger ones, like my Dad's tenor size Lakia avoid this problem somewhat, as well as having the advantage of more than one octave per string. That's what the guy's playing in the awesome clip Yoss posted.

Yossarian

Fuck you too, Jackie.

metascrawl

I'm trying to think if there's any instrument I really dislike in the way Yossarian hates mandolins.

Oh I know! The recorder.

Tempy

I've got one, dunno the specifics but it's ok, a bit dull sounding, doesn't quite 'pop' the way the pricier ones do. I'm a serial muffler though, I really need to actually get sat down and learn theory, otherwise these things are a waste.

krs

Harmonicas ought to be outlawed. And sitars.

Yossarian

I don't know, they can have their moments:

This was actually the first time I saw Beck live, with Scrawl as it happens, at Glastobury '97.

metascrawl

@tempy

That 'pop' is the difference between solid and composite wood. The nice thing about uke's though is that the cheaper ones, although they don't sound as good, are usually very playable - unlike cheap examples of other instruments. So at least you're not having to make extra effort to hold down strings as you do with a lot of cheap guitars.

In terms of theory, it depends on what kind of music you want to play. Theory has almost no bearing on learning old time banjo stuff for example, but if you want to play jazz chord progressions on the uke (which lends itself very well to that) then theory will definitely be your friend.

metascrawl

@Yossarian - Oh mate, what are you doing to me? I'm going to spend the rest of the night in a haze of nostalgia now. We saw Radiohead that weekend, just two weeks after the release of OK Computer. Who else? The Smashing Pumpkins - god they looked bored didn't they?. And the Prodigy, because the Prodigy headlined one night at each major festival between the years 1997 and... well maybe they're still doing it.

I like harmonicas! And I have no particular ill-feeling toward sitars, except perhaps potential associations with new-agey, crystal-thrumbing claptrap.

Oh and on the subject of ukes, I saw a concert-sized (second smallest) Martin in the window of a guitar shop the other day for £895! How much Ukelele could anyone need fer christ's sake!

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories