I just bought meself a new mando Saturday to take on camping trips and such (so if something happens to it, I’m only out $300 instead of $3000!), and I got to thinking yesterday, “I wonder if there are any Chiffers who play mando too…”
don’t play it, but I own one - it was my dad’s. Really tacky thing that he had put a pick up on, etc. - but there have been some good players at the house that say it sound really good for what it is.
One of the earliest pictures I have of my dad is him playing a mando when he was in the Civil Conservation Corps.
do you know who might have made your father’s mando? Just out of personal interest.
there’s no label in it, and it’s painted a gosh awful black enamel. It could be something he cobbled together from other instruments, he was always doing something like that.
I’ll see about getting a picture of it and posting on our site…
I have one I was given for my 50th birthday last Feb. Any day now I’m gonna do some serious practice on it. Honest.
Let me know when you post them and I’ll go check it out! 
Do you know how old it might be?
Mandolin is on the list of instruments I’d love to learn to play. (The list currently includes guitar, fiddle, and mandolin. I have a guitar and a fiddle, but I need to take lessons.) My dad plays mandolin (and guitar), and has had two (and F-style and an A-style) custom made by Audey Ratliff.
Perhaps when I retire, I’ll finally have time for all my hobbies. In the meantime, I content myself with playing the whistle (and singing in the shower). :roll:
I’m learning mando and tenor banjo and I love them both. Picking patterns for jigs are a bit random at the moment, as are my triplets. I keep playing the note following the triplet with an upstroke, and doing the same with the fourth beat of the 6/8. Grrr.
My mando is a very cheap one indeed, so much so that it was just about unplayable out of the box - but after taking a file to the string slots in the nut it is remarkably playable and addictive. And soooo portable!
It’s great being able to use the same fingering on the mando and the banjo. If the sound of one isn’t what you’re in the mood for you just pick up the other and play it much the same.
I’ve just about got The Swallows Tail (the reel) down to a passable standard, and the same for Chief O’Neil’s. I’m currently working out the neat mandolin parts from one of the Dubs’ versions of Leaving of Liverpool (the one with Ronnie and Bobby on vocals).
Also working on The High Reel, The Fermoy Lasses and Kitty Come Down from Limerick. Finding all of those hard. In Fermoy Lasses I have a blind spot and keep forgetting where i am in the tune, and Kitty buggers me up because I’m a dunce with my picking patterns and slip jigs are obviously a bit of a test in that respect…
The whistle is suffering a wee bit from neglect.
What brand is your mando Buddhu? (It’s not a Rogue is it?)
My first mandolin was a round back that I bought from Ted Furey about thirty odd years ago.It cost me twelve quid.I have no idea where or with who it ended up.
I play a Kentucky flat back these days.Being primarily a fiddle player,I have always enjoyed the mando and find it very enjoyable for quieter moments.
Sometimes I drop the E and the G down a tone for song accompaniment.
It is worth the effort Tyler, stick with it 
Slan,
D.
I have a 70s Kentucky A style that I love. It’s so pretty I have it hanging on the wall. Mandolin is a LOT of fun to play. I don’t know many chords-- I generally pick out tunes. I love bringing it to sessions for when I get tired of playing whistle, or if there are already a lot of whistle’s playing.
Also, the fingering is a good intro to fiddle fingering if you ever decide to go that route.
I play a Fylde. It’s really delicate and has beautiful tone but would not be heard in a bluegrass setting. It’s perfect for my needs.
I play a Flatiron A style mando. I’ve played mandolin quite a bit longer than I’ve played whistle (23 years on mandolin and a 4 years on whistle). I like bringing my mandolin to sessions for tunes that go below the reach of a whistle. Also, playing rhythm is just such fun on some songs.
BD
I have an old regal two-point mandolin and several no-name tenor banjos.
For all mando heads everywhere
Don’t get lost now , we have had one celebrated chiffer defect over here already and there may be more…
Slan,
D.
That reminds me, I joined that group about three years ago but I’ve forgotten the name I registered under. 
I have a Alverez A style mandolin. I haven’t played in a long time since the bridge is messed up. Someday I’ll fix it.
Glauber plays mandolin too but he hasn’t been here in awhile.
It’s so low-end that I had to go and look before I remembered the name! It’s the most basic Blue Moon model that Hobgoblin offer. My wife bought it for me when I mentioned that I’d like to play mando. She knows me well enough to know that it would be foolish to spend on a ‘real’ instrument until I’ve had a go to see how I get on.
As I said, out of the box the action was like a cheese-grater and all but unplayable. However, now I’ve set it up I have to say I’m actually very fond of it. I’ve tried other ‘better’ mandos, but my cheapie has a nice chunky neck that I find more comfy then the very slim necks on just about every other I’ve checked out.
I’m happy to stick with it for now, and I’m playing it every day.
Same with my cheap banjo. OK so it is ‘better’ quality than the mando, but still a cheapie. It’s a Gold Tone short-scale tenor from Andybanjo.com and is also getting played every day. Only prob with the banjo is that I daren’t mess with the set up as it looks so complicated with those rods and brackets and stuff! Like a freakin’ machine…
Not really a problem, as the set up as it arrived from Andy is fine, but as a confirmed inverted snob and fan of cheap instruments I am used to having to do quite a bit of DIY to get the best out of them, and I really would like to learn my way around the tenor well enough to set it up and maintain it myself.
I have a couple of reasonably nice mandos in the house, and a couple of clunkers.
I used to love slobbing in an armchair picking a mando, and my mando years definitely helped when I switched over to fiddle.
My problem, and part of the reason for the switch, as that my Mando was waaaay to quiet to be heard in a group or a noisy outdoor setting, the sound just didn’t carry, sometime I couldn’t even hear myself. I discovered later that you can get louder mandos, but by that time I was a fiddler.