Mandolins

Some of them, yes. Look out for electro models which have pickups fitted to them. We sell a range of these including the Ibanez M510E and the Godin A8. You can normally tell by looking at them: just keep an eye out for the pickup or some control knobs. We also stock Mandolin pickups like the Fishman Pro-M10 so you can retro fit one of these to the mandolin of your choice whenever you need to amplify it.

Mandolins come in a plethora of shapes but two main designs dominate: the 'A' style and the 'F' style. The 'A' type Mandolin is the round, teardrop shape. The 'F' type (otherwise known as Florentine) has the more elaborately sculpted scroll design with the points coming out of the body.

The easiest way to remember the most popular mandolin tuning is to think of it as being like a 'backwards bass'. If a bass guitar is tuned (like the low strings on a guitar) to E-A-D-G, then a mandolin is G-D-A-E. The strings are tuned in pairs to unison notes so the 8 individual strings are tuned in pairs to 4 notes.

Mandolins are heard in lots of Bluegrass, Folk and Country styles. They are mostly commonly used in American Folk genres. However, Eastern European Folk music uses mandolins and similar instruments too. Not only that, mainstream artists like R.E.M. often use them in their music.