I’m listening to the roughs from our session with Mike Hagler on the 20th of October, and liking what I hear. One of the songs we tracked was a little fiddle tune I wrote a few months ago called The Takeup Reel. We weren’t especially happy with any of the takes we got of the tune that day (I think we were all somewhat weary from our gigs the night before), but we like the tune enough to take another crack at it next session.

It’s a simple little two-strain fiddle tune in A. The first strain uses a flat III chord to stretch the tonality a wee bit, while the second strain uses a more typical borrowed flat VII chord. I used my newly acquired copy of Finale to spit out a lead sheet for it. Sorry, no tab. Learn to read music already.

The Takeup Reel sheet music (PDF)

Here’s an excerpt (a rough mix) of one of the rejected takes. It’s not bad, really, just a little sloppier than we’d like. This is one of the first times I’ve used my resonator mandolin in a recording session. It sounds pretty decent, though I suspect that I’ll wind up leaning on my old F-2 when it comes time to cut this tune again. This was cut live with Mike at King Size, with the band gathered in a circle in the live room.

The Takeup Reel (MP3)

You could be the proud new owner of one of the mandolins I used to record Where You Been So Long?, a very cool 1930s Dobro resonator mandolin.

The serial number is L9268, which would most likely place the date of manufacture around 1936 or 1937. Dating Dobros by serial number is an inexact science, so it could be a few years on either side. This was most likely manufactured by Regal in Chicago, under license to Dobro.

You can view the auction and place a bid here: eBay.com.

I am an intractable mandolin snob. Until this weekend, I had never owned a madolin that was made after WWII. I’ve got a couple nice old mandolins that are great for recording, but usually have to be plugged in at gigs. Also, like most mandolin players, I struggle to be heard in jam sessions. It’s often like trying to tap dance in a stampede, as the mandolin’s delicate tone is trampled by a wall of guitars, banjos, and fiddles. I have to play as hard as I possibly can to be heard at all, resulting in arm cramps, broken strings, and other annoyances.

In my relentless pursuit of unrelenting volume, I broke down and bought one of the new National RM1 resonator mandolins over the weekend. it’s a remarkable instrument — easily the loudest mandolin I’ve ever played, but with a surprisingly sweet tone. I compared it side-by-side to my 1930s Dobro Mandolin, and it was significantly louder with superior tone.

I used it for two gigs over the weekend. One was an all-acoustic Tangleweed show with no mics. I was able to cut through on my solos no problem. In many cases, I was actually able to approach the volume of our banjo player. The second show was a gig with Ed Burch and Andy Leach at Simon’s up in Andersonville. I threw up a cheapo condenser mic in the general vicinity of the mando, and had no problems putting out enough volume to compete with an electric guitar and an acoustic plugged into the PA. And the tone is vastly superior to the sound of of a transducer pickup running through a PA.

The extra volume opens up a wealth of options as a soloist, making it possible to play with a much lighter touch, and makes the upper range of the instrument much more useful. All in all, a very cool mando. I will use it to annoy my fellow musicians for many years to come.

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