Way back in 2009, I thought it would be fun to record and post clips of three very different mandolins on the Mandolin Cafe, to see who could tell the difference. This was a fun experiment and a tonally enlightening one.
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Gibson Master Model A5G
Here is the original post I made:
This was posted in another thread, but it didn’t really fit the thread and kind of hijacked it. (My apologies.) I’m always interested to see people’s subjective responses to mandolins. Can you tell which mandolin is which from the recordings below, site unseen? (Oh yeah…and if you have time to give a description of why you made the choices you did, I think that might be helpful.)
Here are recordings of two arch tops and one flat top.
Arch Tops Include
Eastman 604
Gibson Master Model A5G
Mowry Flat Top Two Point
Flat Top
Mowry Two Point
I have not listed them in order, I’d like to see who can match the sound to the instrument??! Sound like fun? Both files play a selection on one instrument, then the same selection on the second and then the same selection on the third. The instruments are in the same order on both files.
I just took my mando down to the music shop, comandeered (sp?) two other mandos and lined them up in a line and went through playing the same thing on each. This was recorded on a Zoom h2 using a proplec heavy pick. The distance from the recorder was the same on all instruments.
The weather was rainy, and 50 degrees. No sun shone this day. My truck did not hydroplane either on the way to Black
Eastman 604
Mountain, nor on the way back.
I’ll post the correct answers Monday or Tuesday of next week to give plenty of folks time.
You can read the rest of the posts here on this thread. They are entertaining.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?56133-Eastman-Gibson-Mowry-Which-is-it
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#1 was the Eastman, #2 was the Mowry, #3 was the Gibson
Out of 13 people guessing (oops I mean listening).
6 thought #1 was the Eastman, 3 thought #1 was the Gibson, 4 thought #1 was the Mowry
0 thought #2 was the Eastman, 4 thought #2 was the Gibson, 9 thought #2 was the Mowry
7 thought #3 was the Eastman, 6 thought #3 was the Gibson, and 0 thought #3 was the Mowry
Asheville Mandolin 