Mandolin

I was certain I've blogged before about the mandolin, but I see to my surprise that I haven't. The only thing I've written is the following on my "Gear" page:

Ibanez entry-level A-shape mandolin.  So far it's been a lot of fun to play, but I know that if I ever play it more seriously that I'll want to upgrade.  But most of my attention is on guitar at the moment.

I bought my mandolin from an aikido friend a few years ago. He had bought it to see if he liked it, found that he did, and had upgraded to a nicer instrument. I had the same thought - get a cheap one to play around with and see if it's fun.

It is fun - a lot of fun. I played it some when I first got it, then only played it intermittently for a while. But now I'm playing it again regularly. And as I suspected, that means I'd really like to upgrade to a little higher-quality mandolin.

I know what I'd like - but more on that if it happens. The first thing is to come up with the money for it. I've decided that three electric guitars is more than I really need. Even though I like and play them all (but not all at the same time, as ladies under my roof are fond of saying), I would rather have two electric guitars and one nice mandolin. So two of my electrics are now on Craigslist - whichever one sells first, I'll keep the other.

Here's the kind of song that's fun, and not too hard to play, on the mandolin: Soldier's Joy.