My grandma plays mandolin, i once played it and it was very, "hmmm", but she loves it.

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riley

I've been playing around with one for several months. It's different, but with a background in guitars it's not foreign. There are several good books to get - "Mandolin Methods Book 1" and "Mandolin Chord Finder" (both Hal Leonard) and "Teach Yourself to Play Mandolin" (Alfred). These books will get you going.

Forum user Airbornestrat plays the mando and I think Chet Feathers plays one as well. I have a lot of fun with mine. It will never replace my Tele, but I'll never get rid of it either!

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Old age and treachery will win every time over youth and enthusiasm.

"You can never have too many Tele's." A quote from my Sweetwater Sales Engineer

Played a few. smallish instrument compared to guitar doesn't feel like you could rocket.

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

I've been playing mandolin about ten or twelve years. I played mostly bluegrass, but for the last three years I've been playing in church doing contemporary P&W. I don't have a problem switching back and forth between guitar and mando, there is a considerable size difference between the two necks but I've been switching so long I dont really think about it. I put a Fishman transducer in mine and play into the sound board, and lately I've been runnig it through a Boss ME-50 board for some added effects and from there into a Sansamp preamp to boost the signal to the board. You will find that do to the short scale you wont get any kind of sustain like a guitar so you will have to adopt a different style with your right hand. Sorry if I got a little long with this, hope this helps.

Sorry GO-ME!!! did'nt know you were a lefty, but I wont hold that against you . Yes I do play unplugged a lot, and a mandolin can hold it's own in an acoustic jam. There are two basic style of mandolin, an "A" style wich is pear shaped and the "F" style. The A types are generally less expensive than the F style, but I prefer the sound of an F myself. Right now there are a lot of decent import mandolins on the market depending on how much money you want to spend. Being a lefty you might want to look at A models as you can remove the pickguard and restring it lefty, there aren'nt a lot of left handed F types out there.

Hi GO_ME, that looks like a good choice, I don't have any hands on experience with that particular model but Kentucky has always had a good reputation, and the good thing is it's already set up for a lefty. Being a guitar player you already have a jump on the learning curve. Have fun and keep us posted.

I have been playing mandolin for roughly 8 years. It is very different from guitar. It is tuned in 7ths instead of 5ths. it does take getting used to. My fingers hurt more after a long mandolin session than guitar. The logic is all there though.

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Live guitars: 2009 LTD Truckster, 1989 Strat Plus, 2001 Am Standard Strat, 1996 MIJ Jaguar, 2007 Gibson Explorer 76 reissue, 1999 Ibanez RG7621, LTD MH-301, LTD FM400, 1999 Jackson Kelly, Mystery Les Paul, Hamer Chaparel, Fender FM 62SCE A/E Mandolin