Acoustic vs. Electric Mandolin | Hacker News Reader

Acoustic vs. Electric Mandolin

jefftk.com

27 pointsluu14 comments

The electric mandolin tested only has four strings. An eight string electric mandolin would sound much more like the acoustic one.

That's a solid-body electric.

They don't feedback as easily as a hollow-body.

Plus when they do, even the most harsh resonances don't do any physical damage to the wood.

So you plug it straight in to a full stack vacuum tube guitar amp at maximum power.

As commonly enjoyed by 6-string solid-bodies with or without hearing protection.

One of the main reasons they're built this way.

Regardless of how out-of-control it may sound or act, go ahead and make your fingers do the exact same thing they do for an acoustic bluegrass tune.

Those are the tracks I want to hear.

Thanks for the clips. I'm a bassist, so "acoustic vs electric" is a familiar set of tradeoffs.

One minor note: Watch out with the talkbox -- there are rumors that it can cause hearing damage.

In my reading the main thing is to be careful to keep it reasonably quiet? If it is a similar volume to your voice when singing it should be pretty safe.

(I'm lucky enough to perform in a genre where you can generally keep stage volumes pretty low.)

That's probably the case, though I'm no hearing expert. The rumors typically have to do with Peter Frampton volume levels. But who knows what else those guys are doing to their hearing.

I've always wondered about that; seems like a whole lot of acoustic energy right next to the Eustachian tubes.

Note that the acoustic is 3200 and the electric is 500 USD.

Wow, the electric is insanely over-priced!

A hollow body instrument takes a skilled luthier to craft, and it is a work of art. Electric instruments like that electric mandolin and including nearly all solid body electric guitars do not take much skill to create. They are hunks of wood with strings stretched across them with some electronics shoehorned in. Any high schooler that made it through shop class will have the requisite skill to create one. The cost of a $2000 (guessing) reissue Gibson Les Paul has very little to do with craftsmanship, has more to do with supply and demand, and even more to do with cartels and price manipulation.

Hmmm, I don't understand the appeal. The electric version of Clinch Mountain sounded like MIDI from the 90s.

I feel the same way as a I feel about my solid body electric violin, the acoustic sound is what makes the instrument and a solid body mandolin to me just sounds like an electric guitar.

Have you heard other electric mandolins? This one sounds like an electric guitar to me as well, but it lacks the doubled strings which give an ordinary mandolin so much of its characteristic sound. It does not seem like a particularly useful comparison.

I have not, the mando player in my band plays an acoustic with bridge pickup. It sounds fantastic and it's never caused feedback, so again why sacrifice the sound that makes these folk instruments what they are? If you want to shred or heavy warp the sound you can still do so.

Maybe I'm just bitter on how much I spent on my electric fiddle only to never play it.

It's not really fair to be comparing the acoustic to the electric going directly into the board. What does it sound like coming from an amp (and with a mic recording the amp)?

Interesting - I liked both versions, but preferred the less-"brassy" sound of the acoustic instrument.

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