RESOURCE PAGE
MY SET-UP   STRINGS   PLECTRUMS   
INSTRUMENTS   REPAIRERS   EDUCATION   PUBLISHING
Still Being Developed:

This page will eventually be full of information on strings, plectrums, instruments, teachers, study opportunities, weekend and summer schools, festivals and many more subjects. Please bear with me.
INTRODUCTION: I decided to set up this page as I am frequently asked for information on the strings, plectrum and makes of instruments I use. People are also interested to know about other strings available and used by other players, availability of instruments to buy and where to buy accessories and sheet music.
     Many of these questions are answered in the Links page. This has a little description of various companies, indviduals and websites which might be of interest and use to other players and mandolin fans.
     As a good starting point for many resources including Teachers List, Events List and Makers List try Mandolin.org.uk. Its a very well run and set-up website which is kept up-to-date. It also features fascinating interviews with a real cross-section of the UK's prominent mandolinists from across all genres. Another very good resource is the USA based Mandolin Cafe which many of you will already be familiar with. It has all kinds of links and resources including a very thorough message board system. It is, in the main, USA dominated though.
     Finally, if anyone has any up-to-date info they think should be included on this page please Email me. I have tried my best to be accurate but please feel free to correct me if you think this page contains inaccuracies.
Back to Top
MY SET-UP: Many people ask me about my particular strings, instrument, picks etc..... So here I will try and keep you up-to-date on my set-up. It generally doesn't alter much for years on end but I have actually just started using new strings.
  • Main Instrument: Embergher 1933 5bis
  • Strings: Fisoma Supersolo Chromenickel flatwound strings (see Strings section.)
  • Picks: Roland Black pick (generally unavailable currently)
  • Cases: I have several cases hand-made by Kingham cases see the Links page. Kingham cases are made to your specification to fit your instument. They are very good and can be fibre-glass lined for added strength. The latest, and now favourite case, I have fits Emberghers and older Calaces perfectly. It is a fibreglass molded case which comes complete with rucksack style carry straps. It was made in China for the Japanese market but I got mine via USA. I will post any info as it becomes available as to how to easily buy one of these cases.
  • Other Instruments: Embergher-Cerrone 1956 5bis, Pecoraro 1985 Octave mandola, Vincentius Vinaccia 1764 original mandolin.
    Back to Top
STRINGS: The make of strings you use depends enormously on the type of instrument you have and the sound you like to get from that instrument. I'll give a brief summary of the basic types of strings available and then go into more detail on some of them.The big discussion amongst many mandolinists is whether to use a wound A string or not. Many sets come with plain A's and many people opt to combine sets in order to use a wound A. For me plain A's have several downsides: Firstly I find they don't blend well with the other strings and "stick out" especially on an open "a" note.I also find tuning rather unstable on plain A's in comparison to wound A's.
  • Phosphor-bronze style strings: these are (as the name suggests) bronze coloured and usually give a very bright and brilliant sound. To some ears this can be a little "jangly" but can often give a traditional "Italian" brightness to a mandolin.
  • Chromenickel style strings: These are "silver" coloured and tend to be slightly less bright in tone. People often think of chromenickel strings as being warmer and maybe richer in tone. They still can give a bright sound depending on the sort of winding finish (see next few bullets)
  • Round wound strings: Strings come in four types of windings; round, burnished, flat and coated (not strictly a type of winding!). Round wound strings are best imagined as spaghetti wound around a spaghetti core. They give the brightest sound of the four types. They often "deaden" quite quickly with a lot of playing. They also produce quite a lot of "whoosh" when the player moves their hand up and down the strings. Round wound strings are available in both Phospor-bronze and chromenickel styles.
  • Burnished/polished strings: These are wound round strings that have been through a polisher in order to take the "edge" off the windings. They produce less "whoosh" and generally produce a slightly less bright sound. They are often seen as a good compromise between round wound and flat wound strings giving an equal amount of tone and brightness. These strings are also available in both phosphor-bronze and chromenickel styles.
  • Flat wound strings are best thought of as tagliatelli wound around spaghetti. They cut down on "whoosh" considerably. They often produce a very sweet tone but tend to be a bit lacking in "brilliance". Many players find the lower strings "D" and "G" a bit dead and unresponsive in flat wound strings. Flat wound strings are most commonly available in Chromenickel style.
  • Coated strings: as the name suggests, these strings are often round wound but then coated in a substance. This has several effects; it eliminates "whoosh" almost completely, it apparently increases string life, and it is often considered to give a warmer tone.
Some of the more famous and popular brands:
Please note that some of these strings can be ordered locally in UK and Europe from music shops however it is perhaps easiest to buy them mail-order via the internet. The two leading companies for mail-order/internet strings are Saiten Katalog and Trekel. On the whole I find Saiten Katalog a much easier to use website with a much bigger selection of strings available which processes International orders with ease. They also offer free postage on orders over 100 Euros. Trekel are also very helpful though for non-German orders it is easier to email direct to order strings rather than trying to complete the online order forms.(Trekel, of course, also sell a huge variety of music)
  • FISOMA: I have only just discovered these strings. They have many versions of them: Round wound in various materials and also flatwound in various guises. They also make a form of "early" string similar to Pyramid strings - silk wound with silver. The ones that interest me though are called SUPERSOLO. I use Mediums. I discovered them whilst experimenting with flatwound A's as an alternative to Tomastik. The A's although flatwound, were so bright and full of tone that I immediately ordered the rest of the set. The D's and G's are equally bright (for flatwound strings). They are a little less bright than the polished Optima that I have been using but there are so many plus points. They are smooth as anything under fingers and therefore give very little "mechanism" sound from either the fingers or the pick. They are ready for reliable playing and hardly need tuning within about 1 hour's playing! They seem to be fairly long lasting although I have only used them for a few months during which time I have either been recording or practising for a Calace CD - so they've really been put through their paces! I think they are just wonderful and this is a girl who never ever thought she'd ever use an entire set of flatwound strings! As far as I've found, Fisoma are only available from Saiten Katalog . They can be ordered as a set or as individual pairs (e.g. just a pair of A's).They come in medium, heavy and light. The medium's are reasonably heavy so I would advise most people to have "medium's" or if beginners or a bit weaker in the fingers then "Lights" should be fine
  • Tomastik: These are flat wound chromenickel strings. They come in light, medium and hard tensions. The medium are quite heavy enough (in fact some people prefer the light tension). They are very stable hard wearing strings and give a sweet dulcet sound. For many tastes the Tomastik strings don't have enough "bite" or brilliance and can be a bit dead sounding particularly on the lower two courses (D & G). They are commonly used by many European players, particularly those in Germany incl. Gertrude Weyhofen and Caterina Lichtenberg (although I believe that both of these players (and several others) use Hannabach E's with the Tomastik set of A, D & G). They can be ordered as sets or individually (in pairs) from Trekel by email or fax. Its easiest when ordering from Trekel to email them direct rather than place an order through the website. Most people use "mediums" as thes are actually quite heavy. "Lights" are better for beginners or people with weaker fingers.
  • Lenzners: There are two varieties of Lenzners. The flat wound chromenickel style strings are similar to Tomastik. The variety that is becoming increasingly popular are a phosphor bronze style set (not sure of exact material they are made from) called "Consort" strings. These strings have been specifically developed for use on Embergher style instruments and are in full use by the Het Consort (mandolin orchestra of The Netherlands). I believe they now include a flat wound A string. They have a fairly bright but reasonably rich sound and give a good tone.They are quite light tension strings and are therefore quite suitable for older instruments. I found them a little too light in tension for my personal taste and instrument. Players other than members of the Het consort who use Lenzner Consort strings include Chris Acquavella, a recent graduate of Trinity College of Music, London. I believe the best way to buy Lenzner "Consort" strings is via Ebay, paying via Paypal.
  • Optima: There are at least three varieties of Optima string. The first, the bronze style set, I know little about except that they are cheaper than the more widely used chromenickel strings. They are polished wound round strings. They are fairly bright and have a good tone. The second are the polished Chromenickel strings. These take at least 5 hard hours of playing to bed in and have a bit of zing for another 10 playing hours or so but once finally broken in are very sweet and have a really good depth of tone. Tey are also very hard wearingonce broken in. The third are silver coated strings and are polished again. I have only tried the E's of these which I use alot and I find very good and sweet. All these sets come with a plain A. Again they can be bought as a set or individually (thes DON'T come as a pair! You need to order TWO packets for each "pair" you want. So if you want 4 sets worth of D strings you need to order 8!) from Trekel or Saiten Katalog (see above re: Tomastik). As mentioned above, since many players do not like unwound A's many players opt for Tomastik medium A's with a set. This more or less is the set-up I used for about 18 months: A & E are Tomastik medium and D & G are Optima polished Chromenickel. I have found them hard wearing (up to 3 months of up to 5 hours a day including the bashing they take at concerts!). They are stable and travel well. On my Embergher 5bis the courses blend very well after about 2 hours of playing to bed them in. They continue to blend well right through the life of the set.
  • Dogal: There are several varieties of Dogal string, not all of which I am so familiar with. The ones I have heard played a fair bit are the "Calace" strings. They are bronze style round wound strings and come with a plain A. For my personal taste I found them a little jangly. I have come across players very happy with these strings (although many opt to mix them with the Tomastik medium A again).
  • Other Options/brands:
    • Newtone
    • Pyramid (they do a flat wound A string)
    • La Bella (apparently very hard wearing, currently used by George Hadjinephytou)
    • D'addario (various styles and types including a very high tension flat wound type)
    • Dan Larsen's Strings
    • Argentine Savarez (Chromenickel style)
    • Elixir (coated strings)
    • Hannabach (similar to Tomastik)
      Back to Top.
PLECTRUMS: The variety, thickness and shape of a plectrum is such a personal thing. It depends on the instrument, the strings, the player's technique and playing style and, most importantly, the sound the player wishes to achieve. As a general guide line most players benefit from plectrums that are neither too hard or too soft (flexible). Go for something reasonably rigid but that still has some "give" in it. Different materials produce different resistance so its difficult to advise on actual thickness.

As far as material goes there are many options:
  • Tortoise shell (the original favourite for Italian mandolin). Other than being extremely hard to get now (and essentially illegal!), tortoise shell has gone out of fashion due to its brittle nature and the extreme brightness of the sound achieved with one. I stopped using tortoise shell picks in 1985.
  • Nylon: there are many different styles of nylon picks on the market. Virtually all of them are "guitar pick" shaped although there are an increasing array of different shapes available. I used Jim Dunlop nylon picks (.88mm or .73mm cut down into a slightly pointed tear drop shape) for years.
  • Composite polymers: Essentially a variation on nylon, there are a lot of special polymer picks out there now. One of my recent favourite finds are the Clayton picks - they get a good depth of tone out of a mandolin. They come in various shapes and thicknesses.
  • Rubbery materials: I have to confess to not knowing what material they are made from but there are two types of Woll pick (white and blue) on the market plus the Roland black picks (currently unavailable) which have a rubbery texture. They are used extensively by German taught players and go particularly well with the Tomastik string set-up. They get a good tone though can have the tendency to be a little "knocky". I have used Roland black picks, sanded to shape for over a year. I really like the way it smooths over the sound, particularly in some of the bigger techniques such as Duo-style and arpeggio technique. All three of these picks need careful custom sanding and shaping. The Woll picks are currently available from Trekel and the Roland black pick should be available again from Trekel in the future.
  • Quills - used for baroque mandolin or early Neapolitan mandolins (e.g. pre-1800 Vinaccia mandolins). I have found the best type of quill for shaping for this use is American wild turkey (from tail feathers). However ordinary domestic turkey tail feather works well too. I believe you can buy "ready to play" quills designed for baroque mandolin in Germany. I shape my own and find USA wild turkey feathers quite hard wearing and good for tone.
Some specific examples of picks/plectrums other than those mentioned above would be:
  • Ranieri Style picks - these long "double-ended" picks are sworn by as being the way to go by those who use them. Those of us who have tried them but don't use them find them a little clumsy and prone to a brittle sound. However there are many fine players both now and over history who have used these picks.
  • "Dawg" picks - as used by Dave Grisman (USA Bluegrassy/crossover/jazzy mandolinist). These are very thick and very round with very little in the way of corners. Used by many players, particularly of the bluegrass variety.
  • Dogal, the string makers make a plectrum (I believe it was developed by Ugo Orlandi's school of teaching). I think it comes in two thicknesses and is quite small but reasonably long and tear-drop shaped. (this is quite a traditional shape for mandolin picks). I personally find the material a little bit "clattery" and unforgiving but, again, many very fine players use these plectrums.
    Back to Top
INSTRUMENTS: This is a very difficult subject for me to cover thoroughly. As my knowledge is very limited on flatback and archback style mandolins, (and there is lots of information elsewhere on the web) I have decided to, pretty much, stick to bowlback mandolins in this section. There are now a huge number of makers in the UK, USA and across the world making various flat-back and archback style mandolins as well as electric solid body, 5 string mandolins and all sorts in between. If you look around you will find many very competitively priced instruments of this sort. As little as £200 will get you quite a nice one (but if you want a Gibson Lloyd-Loar mandolin you'll need to add about another £100,000 or something equally absurd!). For those of you with an interest in classical mandolin but who are only just getting started, a flat back style instrument is an acceptable and sensible place to start. For beginners there are all sorts of choices and I'm not completely up on all the lower priced good options. I've found Paul Hathaway, Fylde and various other instruments to offer good value for money and suit people potentially planning to play classical music on the mandolin. There are quite a few good music stores around that now sell mandolins but a good place to look is Hobgoblin.. They have a good website as well as stores in: Birmingham, Bristol, Crawley, Leeds,London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Nottingham and Wadebridge. Hobgoblin stores usually carry a limited number of bowlback mandolins (mainly cheap nasty ones or original Neapolitan c.1900 ones). The Hobgoblin store in London is in Rathbone place, just off Oxford Street. They also have their own resident repairer called Mike Cameron. He worked on my instruments for many years.
ROUNDBACKS This is also a difficult topic to talk about. There are a huge variety of roundback mandolins of various sorts. On the whole I would avoid new roundbacks with a few notable exceptions which I will cover later. I will endeavour to list various options in no particular order with their good and bad points, characteristics and approximate price band (and availability!)
  • Embergher and Roman style mandolins: These mandolins differ in some ways from standard Neapolitan style instruments. They generally have narrower convex fingerboards, with narrow but slightly triangular shaped necks. This tends to favour a traditional, more violin-like left hand technique. The fingerboard is frequently extended up to 29 frets. The bowls are usually very elegant, often fluted and more "pear" shaped than the deeper and rounder Calace for example. The bowls are frequently made of maple although in some makes the more traditional rosewood is also used. The earliest examples of Roman style mandolins you are likely to find date from around 1880. Names to look out for include Embergher, Pecoraro, De Santis and Maldura, Manente, Cerrone, Palma, Vallucci. Players generally either love or hate Roman style mandolins. I, of course, love them. They are renowned for their vibrant, loud, direct sound and depth of tone. In my opinion you won't find a mandolin that projects better with both tone and clarity in a large concert hall than a high model Embergher, particularly a 5bis. Many people insist you need small fingesr to successfully play them.... I can't comment as I do have small hands and fingers but I know of several fairly large male players who favoured Roman style mandolins - Hugo D'alton being the obvious example and if you at photos of him in my Scrapbook you will see that he had HUGE hands! For more information about the Embergher, the different models and related makers see the Embergher website.
    PRICE and availablity: This is the sticky bit. If you can fine one then you might well be able to buy via auction a Roman Style mandolin from one of the less know names for around £1,000 (possibly less). If you want a Cerrone, Pecoraro or orchestral model Embergher, you are probably more likely to have to pay over £1,000 up to £3,000. Some Pecoraro 5bis style models go for more than that. If you can find a model 4 or 5 or 5bis Embergher - particularly a pre-1930 one at auction or elsewhere you are likely to have to pay in excess of £5,000 for it, very possibly a lot more.
    Back to Top
REPAIRERS: I have recently come across two very good repairers willing to take on all kinds of repair and restoration work on bowlback and flatback mandolins:
  • Martin Bowers - in Maldon, Essex (near Chelmsford). Tel: 01621 853376 or Email: martinbowers@macunlimited.net. Martin is primarily a lute maker but also a great mandolin enthusiast and good guitar mender. Martin has recently become my main repairer and is also starting the long and skillful job of copying Vinny for me.
  • Dave King - in Denmark Street, Central London and also in Reading. Tel (Reading): 0118 926 2446, Tel (London):0207 836 0816. Email: dave@daveking-acoustics.com I've heard great things about Dave's work.
    Back to Top