Mandolin

Check out my new mandolin!

Not long after DS and I moved in together, or perhaps even before that, DS was given an old mandolin that had been found in his aunt's attic.  For a long time I dreamed about learning to play it, but it was not in great shape.  We held onto it anyway, and after I started playing with the band Designer, it was decided that my learning to play would be beneficial.

So I tuned it up with the old strings, which were rusted, to see if it was worth a shot.  It seemed to hold a tune, and I got really excited and bought new strings and a book for learning to play.  Unfortunately, when I went to restring the thing I discovered two of the tuning pegs were bent.  They would only turn so far in one direction before they would just stop moving and would only go back the other way.  This made restringing it impossible.

We took it to the repair guy at the music store who tried his best, but apparently that old thing has a weird tuning head and he couldn't find a replacement for it.  Poor me, I was forced to buy the one I had been playing with all the times DS had been shopping for a bass!

I've had it for just over a week, though it already feels like twice that.  I try to play for an 45 min to an hour everyday to help build up my calluses, because I've never played anything like this before.  I'm taking my time learning the basics, trying not to rush it.  DS keeps asking if I can play like Chris Thile yet, and I can assure you the answer is no.