Chiff and Fipple Forums

Drat I waffle too much.

If I had to pick one example it'd be Kevin Burke, both as a recording artist and as a teacher on his DVD tutorials.

1) Kevin Burke (solo or with Bothy Band, Patrick Street or collaborations) - Terrific player. Plenty of soul, and a bowing arm to die for. 2) John Sheahan (Dubliners) - Not entirely trad. JS has some classical training back in the misty days of his youth. The thing with John is that his playing is v...

Be aware that the Kentucky, despite its name, is also a Chinese mandolin. But as many players of Jade, Eastman or the better Kentucky mandos will tell you, there is nothing at all wrong with a good Chinese mandolin.

If the mando is an archtop, Gibson-style, with a solid wood top then I'd always recommend D'Addario J74 as a default starting place. I've never played an archtop mandolin that they didn't suit. J75s may be a bit heavy for a flat top, or for some archtops. My old Fullerton F mando went dead with J75s...

Congrats on your new instrument.

Interesting, Trout! :) I'm currently getting the bits together for a series of builds: flat top (more accurately shallow induced arch) mandolin, mandola and octave mandolin. Also a concert 'ukulele (maybe archtop). I'll be doing mine from scratch rather than from a kit, but I have certainly eyed Don...

I used to have an Eastman 504 oval hole. To me as a player the sound seemed fuller and more appropriate for ITM. But... Listening to other people playing my mandolins has been a revelation. F-holes cut though much better in a loud/busy session. If your session is quiet then oval holes are lovely, bu...

Thanks David. Didn't occur to me to try that.

(and me a search optimisation consultant... )

Hi guys,

Does anyone have a Spotify invite they can send to me, please?

My login doesn't work - or I'm not remembering the details - and I can't access the email I used, so I'm a bit stuck.

Thanks.

I currently play a Kentucky KM-505 and I'm very happy with it. I am in the process of building a custom mando for ITM, but until that's finished the Kentucky is my main mando. I've also played the F style KM-1000 which is a lovely instrument. That said, I have tried cheaper Kentuckys in Hobgoblin an...

But did you ever notice that bhangra has that same kind of quasi-shuffle bounce as reels do when played by some people?

I can see bhangra/ITM fusion having a future!

It's been good. Saw The Dubliners last night for the umpteenth time. Today My wife and I spent the late afternoon in a local Irish pub watching one of our favourite local bands, Gor Jus Wrex - an IrTrad and ballad group. This evening three mates and I bundled into my local pub, where the landlady, M...

Robert Gogan's book is good: http://www.amazon.co.uk/130-Great-Irish-Ballads-Book/dp/0953206831 130 songs with decent notes about many of them. Melody dots, chords and words. Nearly all the song/ballad books I've seen, and I have about 30 of them, have pretty strange chord accompaniments. I've never...

I changed my ebony tailpiece with fine tuners to a Witner integrated one - very light weight. Didn't seem to change the tone, but I think it did increase volume a little. My fiddle is now a little brighter than I like. I took it in for a set-up last year. It plays very comfortably indeed now, but so...

Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny "cheat" all the time.

And here's a picture of Paul Brady "cheating".

http://lovepeace.org/vos/photo/06photos ... lt6318.jpg



If Brady says it's ok, then it's ok.