NGearD: Mandobird is the word!

[Winston Psmith]

A little while back, I saw a listing for an Epiphone Mandobird IV at my FLUMS, and I'd been watching it, expecting it to go away any before I could take a day to go out there. If you haven't ever seen one, it's a solid-body Electric Mandolin, with a Firebird-style body. This one came in the classic Firebird Vintage Sunburst finish.

 

I wanted one when they first came out, but they weren't widely available, and they weren't available for long. Like so many other things, once they were off the market, used prices got absurd. I've seen them going recently for over $500!?! This one was in excellent shape, and reasonably priced, and I had some gear I wanted to trade in anyhow.

 

I'd done my research beforehand, and while the 8-string models seem to suffer from serious issues with intonation - the bridge saddle is one metal bar extending under all 8 strings - the 4-string model has individual bridge saddles, much like a Strat or Tele. Still, if the bridge is in the wrong place, adjusting the bridge saddles can only help so much.

 

I'd brought a Tuner and a small screwdriver with me, and checked the playability before I even plugged it in. The intonation was good, and everything on it looked very clean. There's no fret wear, no scrape marks from picking, it still has the various inspection & set-up stickers on the back of the headstock, and it still has the protective plastic film over the back plate. My wife thinks someone bought it and barely played it, then finally sold it when they realized they probably weren't going to play it?

 

The one SC PU is nothing special, but processed through my MFX, it can sound pretty impressive. If I were playing in a modern Newgrass band, the clean sound probably isn't enough to stand out in a mix, but for what I wanted from it, it'll more than do.

 

 First up this morning, I have an eye doctor's appointment, but when I get home, and when the eye drops wear off, I'll raise the action just a bit, and add a set of Schaller Strap Locks, my usual for all of my solid-body or semi-hollow Instruments. It needs a case, or at least some kind of padded Gig Bag, and at some point in the future I could see getting a new Nut cut, and maybe swapping the Bridge Saddles.

 

It's not the kind of thing I'd put a lot more $$$ into, but it's worth putting a little money and effort into, because I expect to hang on to it for a while. If nothing else, it's likely to hold its value, if I do decide to sell or trade it later on.

 

I didn't need another Guitar, and I probably didn't NEED an Electric Mandolin, but this was different enough that I could really see having it, and, like I said, I'd wanted one for a long time. In the process, I got rid of a couple of things I didn't need, and got some cash back, as well, so I'm more than happy with it.

[Larryz]

Congrats WP!  Glad you found something you have been wanting for quite some time.  Sounds like you are very happy so far and have future plans for improvement.  Have fun with it!  😎👍

[desertbluesman]

Looks cool in pictures. Have fun with it amigo.

 

[KuruPrionz]

Awesome!!! Enjoy! You could tune it the high strings of a guitar or in fifths and it will be fun either way. 😬

When I use strap locks, they are always Schaller, great stuff. 

Quite of few of my bar beaters have the strap screwed on with washers, the cheapest and most reliable strap system available if you don' need to take the strap off. 

[Winston Psmith]

14 hours ago, KuruPrionz said:

Quite of few of my bar beaters have the strap screwed on with washers, the cheapest and most reliable strap system available if you don' need to take the strap off. 

Wasn't that part of Zakk Wylde's method for attaching chains to his Les Pauls? A more industrial take on the Grolsch beer bottle gasket.

 

Just never liked the design of the Dunlop Straplocks for some reason? I'd also noticed that some brands of Guitars, like Godin, come from the factory outfitted with Schaller strap pegs, for Schaller strap locks.

 

My preferred tuning for Mandolin is G-D-A-D, low to high. Don't remember where or when I first encountered it, probably working among Irish Musicians, but it always made sense to me?

 

Got a none-too-good report from my eye doctor yesterday, so I think I'm going to just have a day to myself, do some tweaking on the Mandobird, and hang out with my dogs. Small victories, you know?

[Larryz]

Winston, Sending you best wishes regarding your eye doctors' report and hoping the problem can be fixed...

[desertbluesman]

Ditto on Larryz's post above, good luck with the ophthalmologist (or optometrist) I hope the eye problem is fixable.

[Winston Psmith]

Thank you both. I have a good eye doctor, and very good insurance coverage. Still, yesterday, my doctor seemed as surprised, and disappointed, as I was. Going back in 2 weeks, and if there's no improvement, surgery is probably next.

 

FWIW, my right eye is in great shape, rolled right across the 20/20 line on the eye chart as if I were reading off a big billboard. My left eye couldn't even make out the 20/50 line on the same chart, whereas a little over a month ago, it could also read the 20/20 line.

 

Reading, and doing any kind of detailed work is . . . interesting. I've got one good channel and one blown channel going to the same place. Both signals get summed to Mono in my brain, where the "noise" from the blown channel messes with the clean signal. I leave it to you to try to picture the result, but it's much like having one eye that's falling-down drunk . . .

 

Yes, if I close my left eye, the world looks just fine, and I'm right-eye dominant, so it wouldn't hurt to wear an eyepatch until this clears up.

 

The good news, such as it is, is that the problem is purely within my eye: it's not a sign of stroke, or diabetic eye, or anything of the sort. Not great news, but I'll take it over the alternatives, thanks.

 

[surfergirl]

That seems like a really cool instrument, I'm sure you will have fun with it.

 

Best of luck with your eye problem.  

[Winston Psmith]

2 hours ago, surfergirl said:

That seems like a really cool instrument, I'm sure you will have fun with it.

 

Best of luck with your eye problem.  

Thanks, surfergirl!

 

Funny thing, my bandmate has an Epiphone Les Paul Ukulele, also in Vintage Sunburst. We may have to do a show with the Mandobird and the LP Uke!

[Caevan O’Shite]

 

On 2/18/2022 at 2:13 PM, Winston Psmith said:

   ...if I close my left eye, the world looks just fine, and I'm right-eye dominant, so it wouldn't hurt to wear an eyepatch until this clears up.

 

The good news, such as it is, is that the problem is purely within my eye: it's not a sign of stroke, or diabetic eye, or anything of the sort. Not great news, but I'll take it over the alternatives, thanks.

Be well and good, Winston!! Hoping and wishing for the best for you. I can relate.

Enjoy that Mandobird!

GHS makes some Pure Nickel (as opposed to nickel-plated steel) Mandolin string sets, that would warm up that stock pickup's tone. Likewise, DR Pure Blues guitar strings in custom mixed-gauge sets of gauges to suit your Mandobird would do you very well, perhaps even better than those GHS strings. (I understand that DR Pure Blues are a popular choice among electric mandolin players.) For your G-D-A-D Lo-to-Hi tuning, I'd recommend going with a .012" gauge string for the high-D, or no less than .011" gauge; I've read that too light a string there on a magnetic-pickup equipped electric mandolin can be lacking in output, balance, fullness and presence.

If you get eight-string mandolin sets, it's like two four-string sets, the courses being pairs of the same gauge strings.

Flat-wound strings seem to be well liked among electric mandolin players, for their warmer, rounder tones and smooth, squeak-free playing.

I strongly suspect that you'll get up to shenanigans like deploying a DigiTech Freqout or an Ebow or the like, perhaps while playing with a slide, emulating or thumbing your nose at bowed violin-family instruments... Bad Comrade and Infinite Jets, perhaps? 🤪🥴

 

3 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

Funny thing, my bandmate has an Epiphone Les Paul Ukulele, also in Vintage Sunburst. We may have to do a show with the Mandobird and the LP Uke!

That sounds like a great idea!

[Winston Psmith]

I'd already considered that every set of Mandolin strings will really amount to 2 sets for the 4-string 'Bird. Also, with only half the tension on the neck, I was definitely planning on going with a .011 or .012 for the 1st String.

 

I've used my E-Bow with Acoustic Mandolin, and even Electric Bass in the past, but I suspect it will work much better with the Mandobird, because of the single strings and magnetic PU.

 

Long-term, I'm wondering about giving the Mandobird its own dedicated MFX unit, with all the patches written specifically for the 'Bird? While that may sound like over-indulgence, I'm also thinking ahead; a MFX unit set up for a 4-string Electric Mandolin would be easy to tweak for Electric Violin, as well. Yes, I'm still looking to make that move . . . Think of a sound somewhere between Jean-Luc Ponty and Nash the Slash, and that's where I'm heading.

 

[Caevan O’Shite]

I pointed that out about 8 string sets because all I see are 8 and 5 string sets (and I don't know if the latter are 5 singles or 5 pairs/courses).

Just musing; if I had a 5 or 10 string electric mandolin, I'd likely tune it to something akin to Keith Richards' favorite 5-string Open-G, but in the neighborhood of an octave higher than his guitar. Possibly with flat-wounds. I've come to really enjoy my one Jazzbox with heavy flat-wounds tuned to relative tuning Open-A; I gravitate and navigate much more naturally in that tuning than I do the standard Mandolin/Violin/Ukulele tunings.
 

11 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

Think of a sound somewhere between Jean-Luc Ponty and Nash the Slash, and that's where I'm heading.

I think that a slide and Ebow/Freqout/etc. would serve you very well there!

One of those Crelicam West African Ebony (wooden) slides would be great for that!
                

[Mark Schmieder]

I had one a few years back, but it was very problematic as I bought it used and it had issues that even a pro setup couldn't take care of, so I eventually sold it. There simply wasn't enough "give" to get the action where it needed to be, without a complete neck re-do. But I'm quite certain it was just a bad specimen of the breed.

 

I liked the sound, the look, and the feel. I'm not sure how many times Mandobirds have been in either the Gibson or Epiphone catalogues, so I don't know if year of manufacture matters, either in terms of QC or actual specs. Finding proper strings can be tricky too, and I never found a case so had to stick with the bag.

 

I still have some recordings that I did with my Mandobird, so clearly it inspired parts-writing and songwriting, which are what really matter anyway.

 

Oh, and yes I did find it took very well to my e-bow!

[Winston Psmith]

10 hours ago, Mark Schmieder said:

I had one a few years back, but it was very problematic as I bought it used and it had issues that even a pro setup couldn't take care of, so I eventually sold it. There simply wasn't enough "give" to get the action where it needed to be, without a complete neck re-do. But I'm quite certain it was just a bad specimen of the breed.

 

I liked the sound, the look, and the feel. I'm not sure how many times Mandobirds have been in either the Gibson or Epiphone catalogues, so I don't know if year of manufacture matters, either in terms of QC or actual specs. Finding proper strings can be tricky too, and I never found a case so had to stick with the bag.

 

I still have some recordings that I did with my Mandobird, so clearly it inspired parts-writing and songwriting, which are what really matter anyway.

 

Oh, and yes I did find it took very well to my e-bow!

 

Thanks for that, Mark! Sorry yours was one of the bad ones.

 

I'd read enough conflicting reviews, but certainly enough bad reviews, to know that I needed to give any Mandobird a good look-over. I checked out the tuning and the intonation before I even plugged it in, and everything looked good.

 

Luckily, finding Electric Mandolin strings, or single Guitar Strings, is no problem in my area. We have two good independent Music stores right nearby, and a Guitar Center just a little further up the road. For now, I've had to settle for a well-padded bag, but I'm also looking into cases made for sporting gear, just in case something turns up. At one point, someone had made a compact HSC for Steinberger headless Guitars, which would probably be just the thing, if it's not too expensive.

 

[Winston Psmith]

After some minor adjustments to the action, I plugged the Mandobird into my Boss GT-3 MFX last night. I knew that the EQ and Gain levels weren't really set up for the 'Bird - I designed most of them to go with my SG's - but I just wanted to hear it.

 

To get right to the point, it's just too much fun! A little OD adds some punch to an otherwise somewhat anemic SC PU, and some creative use of Chorus & Delay make it sound like an 8-string. With a little time and effort, I can probably craft some EQ curves to balance the highs and lows a bit better.

 

Using it with some of my more extreme Pitch Shift or Ring Mod Patches just takes it into otherworldly territory. You don't expect to hear cascades of thundering lows coming out of a Mandolin body.

 

 OTOH, taming the hum from that little SC is going to take some work. All of my Guitars have HB's, so I don't have to deal with the notorious 60-cycle Hum. Even my Godin has an H-S-H configuration, and I tend to avoid the SC in the middle. Damn, that is obnoxious!

 

Next experiment is plugging the 'Bird into my Sonuus G2M Guitar-to-MIDI Converter, and using it to drive some of my Synths. That's going to have to wait until this evening, however. I've got good warm weather for work today, and several projects waiting, so I'm out for a while.

[Larryz]

WP, I wonder if you could swap out the 4string SC pup for an EMG style humbucker or some other brand with the right size consideration? 

[Caevan O’Shite]

7 hours ago, Winston Psmith said:

To get right to the point, it's just too much fun! A little OD adds some punch to an otherwise somewhat anemic SC PU, and some creative use of Chorus & Delay make it sound like an 8-string.

Dude. Clean and bright, going into tape-flavored echo with "Wow & Flutter" type modulation high (and anything akin to "Tape Crinkle" maxed if available), plus plate-style reverb with decay and tone high or maxed, mix low to medium... !!

If you were going to be gigging with this Mandobird, it might be worthwhile to swap the stock pickup for an SJ Ryder Epiphone Mandobird Stacked Humbucker replacement. (No, I haven't tried one, I just searched it up; the world of electric mandolin replacement humbuckers that retrofit an Epiphone Mandobird seems narrow enough that it's likely a decent pickup option.)

I can relate; I do recall that the noise from the P-90 single-coils in my otherwise beloved Les Paul Ruby- said noise being HORRIBLE in some venues with terrible power and wiring issues- was sometimes nearly unbearable; if I still had that guitar, I'd almost certainly have replaced the pickups with, say, Kinman or Fralin noiseless soap-bars... 

[Winston Psmith]

@Larryz - I'd have to look into EMG's, see if they make anything that would fit? There isn't much call for after-market drop-in Mandobird PU's, it seems.

 

@Caevan - Thanks for the thought, but at $140 for the PU, plus the cost of having my favorite local Repair shop do the installation, I'll have to wait a while. At that rate, it might almost be as cost-effective (and possibly more fun) to buy a used MFX and dedicate it to the 'Bird, and I'm not quite there yet.

 

After playing the 'Bird through my GT-3 and GT-1, I can do a lot to contour the sound through my MFX, with some creative application of the Modeling effects and EQ. The Boss MFX have extensive tone-sculpting features, like PU Modeling, and Body Modeling. It'll be worth my while to experiment with those features, before adding other effects.

 

Ah, yes, I did run the 'Bird through the Sonuus, going into my GR-30 Guitar Synth via MIDI, and it works pretty much as well as any of my Electric Guitars. It only tracked up to the "D" at the 12th Fret on the 1st String, but that was more than enough to convince me. I can't wait to try that on an unsuspecting audience, pull out the 'Bird, and start playing sounds like Brian Eno or Tony Banks!

 

Taking the day to go visit with some friends I haven't seen in  . . . IDK how long, but it's been TOO long! Until later . . .

 

[Larryz]

WP, the reason I was thinking EMG's is they use bar magnets so you would not have to worry about lining up the 4 pole pieces.  You might also consider losing the tone pot in favor of an SPC pot (a $79 expensive mod for future consideration).  EMG's look similar to the stock pup in size.  It would be easy to measure or check specs to see if one would fit without any mod to your stock mando...just a thought.  😎

 

ps. EMG makes both passive and active pups, if you want to avoid running a 9v battery.

 

EMG Pickups / EMG Home / Electric Guitar Pickups, Bass Guitar Pickups, Acoustic Guitar Pickups

[Winston Psmith]

@Larryz - Thanks for that thought. Looking at the EMG website, I didn't see anything that would fit the Mandobird. It seems that they did make a narrow SC for Mandolin, but it was more like the PU's on Fender's Electric Mandolins, and wouldn't retrofit the Mandobird.

 

Working up a new bank of MFX Patches for the 'Bird will be good exercise for my poor tired brain, and it will have me spending more time getting used to the 'Bird, both good things.

 

Speaking of good things, I took the day off to go visit with some Musician buddies I hadn't seen in much too long. The weather was good, and it was just nice to sit around with people again. Not a big, boisterous gathering, just half a dozen old guys sitting around, playing old tunes. Felt almost like real life, you know? I hope all of you get to go sit with some friends or family again, soon . . .