Mandocasters

roberty · September 2023

What's out there? Anything to look for/avoid?

There's a Harley Benton one, I would 100% expect some work needing done to it. They look like Mustang pickups, would they be easily changed?

Would be for tracking bits and bobs, not for live performance

TIA

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbma500_sb.htm

Image: https://fast-images.static-thomann.de/pics/bdb/_22/220549/14089817_800.jpg

drofluf · September 2023

I had the Harley Benton one; the neck was “shimmed” with some wood slivers, a bit of a business card and some washers.

Pickups were very weak as well. I replaced the pickups and sorted the neck but it was never an instrument I loved. I eventually replaced it with one of these:

https://www.ashburyguitars.com/cat/sales/products/GR31029/ashbury-am240-solid-body-electric-mandolin/

WezV · September 2023

Just had this dropped off to rework.

It's technically an Octave 12 guitar, rather than a mandolin

Originally I went with a 14 1/4" scale, but it's pretty hard to play like that so I'm going to try a longer scale length on it

Keefy · September 2023

@roberty have a look in Hobgoblin on Park Street, they’ll have a good selection that you can try out plugged into an amp. While you’re there you can marvel at the questionable facial hair sported by some of the staff.

mart · September 2023

I love my mandobird.
https://58eca9fdf76150b92bfa-3586c28d09a33a8c605ed79290ca82aa.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/epiphone-mandobird-viii-8-string-mandolin-vintage-sunburst-255712.jpg

roberty · September 2023

Keefy said:

@roberty have a look in Hobgoblin on Park Street, they’ll have a good selection that you can try out plugged into an amp. While you’re there you can marvel at the questionable facial hair spotted by some of the staff.

That's a good shout mate

fretmeister · September 2023

Image: https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-lcGV-f99R0E%2FUKkGKtgnKVI%2FAAAAAAAAAlI%2FzhficKpPu4s%2Fs1600%2FBoba%2BFett%2Bbody.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=2255a0bd641cf3ccf73d00958965908661a21cd9da2a12fc490d921e88b8e6b0&ipo=images

Whitecat · September 2023

Eastwood make a bunch...

thecolourbox · September 2023

I had an Eastwood one, it was OK. Neck needed some truss rod tweaking if i recall correctly, and i am not really qualified to do such things, so it probably could have been better. It looked like the Harley Benton one though so possibly the same thing with a different badge? Which would save you some buttons

guitargeek62 · September 2023

This looks rad:

https://eastwoodguitars.co.uk/collections/custom-projects-list/products/airline-h35-batwing-mandolin

digitalkettle · September 2023

fretmeister said:

This is the way.

maltingsaudio · September 2023

I was going to recommend the Godin A8 but try finding one!
Sold mine because my fingers too big

roberty · September 2023

drofluf said:

I had the Harley Benton one; the neck was “shimmed” with some wood slivers, a bit of a business card and some washers.

Pickups were very weak as well. I replaced the pickups and sorted the neck but it was never an instrument I loved. I eventually replaced it with one of these:

https://www.ashburyguitars.com/cat/sales/products/GR31029/ashbury-am240-solid-body-electric-mandolin/

That looks great but I would prefer to spend less if possible. Did you HB fit regular strat pickups?

drofluf · September 2023

@roberty I put in an Almuse one, but it seems he’s retired.

Depending on the rest of your setup the stock pickups may be fine. I was using a Blackstar Fly but I had to have the gain up too high and was getting a very distorted sound which wasn’t what I wanted. It was also my first foray into the murky world of electric instruments

so ignorance may have played a part

roberty · September 2023

drofluf said:

@roberty I put in an Almuse one, but it seems he’s retired.

Depending on the rest of your setup the stock pickups may be fine. I was using a Blackstar Fly but I had to have the gain up too high and was getting a very distorted sound which wasn’t what I wanted. It was also my first foray into the murky world of electric instruments so ignorance may have played a part

Gotcha, thanks. It would be for production effects so the signal would highly processed anyway. Perhaps trashy pickups would be better in that regard

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