Nobody strings up an octave mandolin in octaves. You need to put matched pairs on there. How's the workmanship? Semi-hollow with a block down the middle? Fretwork? How's the action? Is the neck straight and true? What size frets? Can you play some modal Irish/Celtic stuff? What does bridge pickup sound like? Or both pickups. Can you crank up the Princeton and run through some Keith Richards rock & roll vamps? 5ths tuning is great for that.
Just ordered one in walnut with plans to restring it with matched strings and tune it to open G (GDGB). I currently play a four-string custom resonator tuned to the same and love the sound of double course instruments.
That's a great idea to use matched pairs. It'll be easier to intonate and still have the beautiful jangle of double courses, and with an open tuning. sounds awesome. I've got to try that..thanks, Geoff
I am intrigued by this instrument, but your commentary regarding the intonation makes me nervous; however, I suspect that I would use this with unison tuning. I’m not someone who would likely set up this instrument by myself, so am wondering who you purchased from with the idea of making sure that they set it up after purchase. Also, how crazy would it be to have a piezo installed, something perhaps like a L.R. Baggs Anthem, with the idea of being able to potentially mix the humbuckers in….
Hi Kenny, Yes, unison stringing would solve the problem. In fact, that's a good idea that I might switch to. I'm looking for 12-saddle replacement bridges that might fit-hard to find. About the set up, I am lucky to have a top-notch guitar repair friend that lives nearby. I take every instrument to him right away to get them all perfectly set up. But, it has nothing to do with the company that sold me the guitars. Thought it looks it, the octave Mando is not really for acoustic playing. You can hear it a little unplugged, but not like an acoustic guitar. Maybe a piezo could be mixed in though!?
I have their mandocello, exact same bridge, but the problem is less noticeable, because the tolerances on lower strings is far higher. The mandocello gets a little "rich" higher up the neck, but I'm sure the octave mandolin would be fairly unusable up in the stratosphere. You could steal the saddles off a compensated 12 string guitar bridge, and mount them to that baseplate (filing down if necessary to get the width correct...).
Yes, I had the mandocello too and never really had too much of a problem with the intonation. But, you are right, filing a custom bridge, or even buying a 12-saddle Rickenbacker might have to be tried. I have to make it perfect if I can, or closer to perfect. I am also fiddling with the gauges on that D-string hoping maybe to find a combo that will allow closer intonation for both strings....?
Thanks for this info. I have a limited run margarita green warren Ellis 2P with 2 p-90s like your OM here and it has been a royal pain. I had it set up and strings changed to GDAE when I bought it and it was fun but the sustain has always just dropped off (literally) and it has a grounding issue (that buzz). I got it set up for mandocello tuning and they couldn't get the A string to not die on the third fret, turns out this hunk of junk has a back bow and that's why it was hard to string up to begin with. I threw a bunch of money into this thing for it to sit on a hanger unusable for years.
Hello, is your tenor the model with the maple neck? Those look cool! For me, that model's problem was the width at the high end of the neck. I hope you have found a good tech to set up your tenor better!
@@tenorguitartime it has a maple fretboard, not sure what wood the neck actually is. When I say it has "a back bow" I'm not referring to normal back bow in the neck that can be adjusted with the truss rod, it is a back bow up by the headstock that can not be adjusted out. The only way to fix it would be using directed heat lamps and trying to straighten it out, but this is not guaranteed to work. I got it like this from Eastwood and I didn't know this was a thing until a couple years of owning it. It's a very disappointing instrument, especially considering I bought a Cozart tenor for like 130 bucks and it is much, much better.
@@SoulSecureOfficial Thanks for telling me about Cozart tenors. I have never heard of them before. I just saw one for sale for $175 at reverb! It looks better balanced in design than my Fender tenor tele. Is the body the same size as a regular guitar or smaller?
@@tenorguitartime it's a regular sized body. They need a set up like any cheap guitar and can have any number of small cheap guitar issues, but the string spacing on it is just so much better than the spacing on the Warren Ellis. It also has a sustain that lasts unlike my warren Ellis that inexplicably just drops off into silence. It's the price I wish I paid for my Eastwood.
Do you mean greek or irish Bouzouki? I have two irish style bouzoukis, both tuned A D G C ( from thinnest to tickest) , the strings A and D are 13/13 and 22/22 , the G strings are coupled 32/ 17 , and , the C strings 50 / 24 . The scale lenght of both instruments is 66,2 centimeters. Regards, Patrick from Italy
You get it close, and hope for the best. Thats how you do it.
I finally surrendered to the gods of intonation and play it with only 4 strings. Now it's my favorite instrument!
@@tenorguitartime that's like stripping the bark off a tree. It won't last long. Haha
Nobody strings up an octave mandolin in octaves. You need to put matched pairs on there. How's the workmanship? Semi-hollow with a block down the middle? Fretwork? How's the action? Is the neck straight and true? What size frets? Can you play some modal Irish/Celtic stuff? What does bridge pickup sound like? Or both pickups. Can you crank up the Princeton and run through some Keith Richards rock & roll vamps? 5ths tuning is great for that.
Just ordered one in walnut with plans to restring it with matched strings and tune it to open G (GDGB). I currently play a four-string custom resonator tuned to the same and love the sound of double course instruments.
That's a great idea to use matched pairs. It'll be easier to intonate and still have the beautiful jangle of double courses, and with an open tuning. sounds awesome. I've got to try that..thanks, Geoff
I am intrigued by this instrument, but your commentary regarding the intonation makes me nervous; however, I suspect that I would use this with unison tuning. I’m not someone who would likely set up this instrument by myself, so am wondering who you purchased from with the idea of making sure that they set it up after purchase. Also, how crazy would it be to have a piezo installed, something perhaps like a L.R. Baggs Anthem, with the idea of being able to potentially mix the humbuckers in….
Hi Kenny,
Yes, unison stringing would solve the problem. In fact, that's a good idea that I might switch to. I'm looking for 12-saddle replacement bridges that might fit-hard to find.
About the set up, I am lucky to have a top-notch guitar repair friend that lives nearby. I take every instrument to him right away to get them all perfectly set up. But, it has nothing to do with the company that sold me the guitars.
Thought it looks it, the octave Mando is not really for acoustic playing. You can hear it a little unplugged, but not like an acoustic guitar. Maybe a piezo could be mixed in though!?
I have their mandocello, exact same bridge, but the problem is less noticeable, because the tolerances on lower strings is far higher. The mandocello gets a little "rich" higher up the neck, but I'm sure the octave mandolin would be fairly unusable up in the stratosphere. You could steal the saddles off a compensated 12 string guitar bridge, and mount them to that baseplate (filing down if necessary to get the width correct...).
Yes, I had the mandocello too and never really had too much of a problem with the intonation. But, you are right, filing a custom bridge, or even buying a 12-saddle Rickenbacker might have to be tried. I have to make it perfect if I can, or closer to perfect. I am also fiddling with the gauges on that D-string hoping maybe to find a combo that will allow closer intonation for both strings....?
Thanks for this info. I have a limited run margarita green warren Ellis 2P with 2 p-90s like your OM here and it has been a royal pain. I had it set up and strings changed to GDAE when I bought it and it was fun but the sustain has always just dropped off (literally) and it has a grounding issue (that buzz). I got it set up for mandocello tuning and they couldn't get the A string to not die on the third fret, turns out this hunk of junk has a back bow and that's why it was hard to string up to begin with. I threw a bunch of money into this thing for it to sit on a hanger unusable for years.
Hello, is your tenor the model with the maple neck? Those look cool! For me, that model's problem was the width at the high end of the neck. I hope you have found a good tech to set up your tenor better!
@@tenorguitartime it has a maple fretboard, not sure what wood the neck actually is. When I say it has "a back bow" I'm not referring to normal back bow in the neck that can be adjusted with the truss rod, it is a back bow up by the headstock that can not be adjusted out. The only way to fix it would be using directed heat lamps and trying to straighten it out, but this is not guaranteed to work. I got it like this from Eastwood and I didn't know this was a thing until a couple years of owning it. It's a very disappointing instrument, especially considering I bought a Cozart tenor for like 130 bucks and it is much, much better.
@@SoulSecureOfficial Thanks for telling me about Cozart tenors. I have never heard of them before. I just saw one for sale for $175 at reverb! It looks better balanced in design than my Fender tenor tele. Is the body the same size as a regular guitar or smaller?
@@tenorguitartime it's a regular sized body. They need a set up like any cheap guitar and can have any number of small cheap guitar issues, but the string spacing on it is just so much better than the spacing on the Warren Ellis. It also has a sustain that lasts unlike my warren Ellis that inexplicably just drops off into silence. It's the price I wish I paid for my Eastwood.
I hate to tell you, it's strung up like a bouzouki. It should be 46-46-34-34-24-24-13-13. It will then sound like an octave mandolin.
Do you mean greek or irish Bouzouki? I have two irish style bouzoukis, both tuned A D G C ( from thinnest to tickest) , the strings A and D are 13/13 and 22/22 , the G strings are coupled 32/ 17 , and , the C strings 50 / 24 . The scale lenght of both instruments is 66,2 centimeters. Regards, Patrick from Italy