Hi all. I’ve got a Trinity College Octave Mandolin with a Pick Up The World pickup installed, which I originally bought it to be my session instrument. I have since become obsessed with flute and whistles and such, and I’ve barely touched in about 10 months.
My bandmates would like me to use it with the band, but as the guitarist in a fiddle/voice/guitar trio, I’m essentially the bassist and I need something with a deeper sound. So I’d like to see if anyone wants to trade a longer scale bouzouki for it, or, failing that, perhaps a tenor banjo or something. Please PM me if you’re interested.
For what it’s worth, I’d keep it and play it with the band. Zouk works fine with voice and fiddle. Remember, you can play an octave below the fiddle which is plenty low enough to anchor the sound, although a counterpoint with the vocal might be the right idea. Obviously you won’t get the same sound you get on guitar. That’s a good thing. The variety you’d get would be much better than something closer to a guitar. For ideas, just listen to Donal Lunny accompany Frank Harte or Maighread Ni Dhomhnaill on 'zouk.
Well I guess the problem is that they ask me to play it, and then we end up deciding that the guitar sounds better for whatever we’re doing. and I don’t really want to take it to a gig just to play one or two songs.
I’d rather have something with a crisper sound on the low notes (longer scale) or, failing that, a banjo. The octave mandolin thing just isn’t doing it for me.