Just wondering if there are many whistlers out there who also play mandolin? I’ve been working on tunes and what I’ve been doing lately is playing the tune on whistle and then picking up the mandolin and playing it on that. Actually I’ll also play it on the fiddle then too. I feel like I’m learning the tune on all three of these instruments at the same time. This way I can gain proficiency and speed on all three together. It also seems to help with really getting the tune down in general. – If you’ve thought about getting into mandolin, or fiddle, it’s not that tough to learn and it’s much easier to pick out single notes, like whistle music, than it is on guitar. --mike
i’m one. i think there are a few others here too.
I don’t play mandolin, but my friend just got one. So now we’re going about looking for tunes to play. It’s a lovely instrument. I might have to save my nickels and dimes.
Little John
I play mostly guitar these days, but also play mandolin. At the moment, I’m also keeping a fiddle close to my computer desk in an open case, although I don’t have much hope of ever getting good at it.
I find that whatever I learn on whistle goes to the other instruments almost without thought–just find the first note, work through it a couple of times if there are any tricky spots, and that’s it.
Slow guitar stuff transfers back to the whistle the same way. I still can’t play anything fast on the whistle, but then I seldom even try.
I play mandolin (and 'zouk.) Guitar is my first instrument.
I’m just starting to learn mandolin, so I can’t really say that I play it… but I’m slowly making progress. 
I"m just starting to relearn fiddle (I had the misfortune of being classically trained and being not particularly good at that, so I’m hoping I might have better luck with music I actually enjoy), but until I get the bow rehaired, it’s getting treated as a mandolin anyway. I’d like to learn mandolin, but I don’t think that’ll be happening any time in the near future.
Since I"m a newbie with the whistle too, for the most part, it’s being quite the adventure indeed. I’m glad to find I’m not the only one out there trying something like this ^_^;
L
Guilty as charged. In fact, there is a guy on the mandolin cafe that has a user name very similar to Wombat’s. hmmmm 
I can whistle while playing the bodhran 
MarkB
If you’re looking for tunes the nice thing is you can play whistle tunes on it. For instance the 121 session tune book by McCullough works nicely for whistle , mandolin, fiddle… -I had bought a cheap Epiphone, less than $200, on somewhat of a lark but it’s not a bad mandolin for the price. -There was a book I’d gotten when I bought the mandolin that is pretty good for learning bluegrass tunes. It sort of teaches a strum and pick out the melody technique but I shouldn’t say teach because it’s very easy to pick up. It’s called Bluegrass Mandolin Method by Ray Valla. It has a cd with the tunes and it’s in Tab as well as standard notation. Mel Bay is the publisher. -a good book if you’re just starting out. With a little perserverance though you can teach yourself to read music for it and just go for whistle or session tunes.
I play a bit of Mando. I really like it, but don’t do it all that often. When I go to sessions, I usually bring it along for a change between flute or whistle playing.
I play mandolin and whistle! Have to have something to play on all those Reavey tunes…
I play a little mandolin and I’m finally taking lessons and at last making some significant progress…and having fun too.
I’ve been seeing someone using the name “Glauber” over on the message board at Mandolin Cafe. Could that be our Gluaber?
take care
jim d
I started playing mandolin many many years ago with my Dad (on guitar) and brother(on fiddle or banjo or mandolin or whatever). Dad had his mother’s mandolin,and old Gibson from the early 20s so I picked it up. We’ve still got it and even though it’s tone is not much now because the front split and warped over time, it is still the easiest one to play I’ve ever tried. This could have been partly because it has been played so much there are little indentions on the neck where many, many fingers have pressed.
I have learned a few ITM and STM tunes on it but mostly I only play old time on mandolin.
Not me, honest. I’d better check that out actually; it might be one of my cousins.
Very likely. He just outed himself as a mando player on the ITM board during a discussion of button boxes.
I had read that the Gibson F style mandolin was popular early in the 20th century because of mandolin orchestras. If I’m not mistaken they were playing classical music or at least that was the aim in marketing these instruments. The popularity of these orchestras waned and in the 1940s Bill Monroe saw one of these unwanted F styles in the window of a pawn shop and thought he’d give it a shot.-- I’ve thought of getting the epiphone version of this f style. It’s only $500 --compared to over $2000 for the Gibson. I’ve heard that some people prefer the Epiphone. This sounds unbeleiveable yet the Epiphone Les Paul guitars are supposed to be put together better than their Gibson counterparts as well. Same materials, epiphones made overseas.
I have been playing both mandolin and fiddle on a daily basis, as well as whistles. I like the mandolin, but I LOVE the fiddle. It can do almost anything a mandolin can do, but it can also play vibrato and long sustained tones. And the strings last for 6 months and are much easier to change. They’re also easier to tune.
As for Gibson mandolins, I haven’t seen a new one for under $3500.
JP
Erased a dulicate post.
street price on the Gibson A9 is around $1500 and F9 is around $3k.
re: Epiphone solid-body guitars vs carved top mandolins, you’re talking about a big difference in quality. I’d stay away from mass-produced mandolins, you’re better off getting a bottom-of-the-line Weber than a top-of-the-line Epiphone, IMO. There’s a lot of Michael Kelly devotees, that might be the exception in terms of Pac Rim mandos.
These days, your best bet is buying used off Mandolin Cafe classifieds. The market now is such that (depending on the model) you can get a nearly new mandolin for a little over half the street price of a brand new one. A lot of times the warranty cards aren’t even filled out. If you want to upgrade, you can sell it for the same price or very near to it.
I’ve bought and sold a few times on the MC classifieds and never been burned – the site owner, Scott Tichenor, is really vigilant about that.