ComEnts

Sorry for the appalling joke in the title of this post. In my defence it's AK's joke, I stole it.

During the summer I was walking past Modern Music in the Butts - yeah, they changed it's name to Broad St Mall about 20 years ago but we know what it's really called - and saw an Elecric Mandolin in the window. It was about £130 and I almost bought it immediately, I was pretty hungover. In the end I was too hungover and feeling very poor and decided not to.

Then, around September time I was at my parents house and I spied something strange in one of the rooms... it looked like... a Mandolin! An old, fairly decrepit Mandolin that was missing a few strings - those that were still there looked like they were as old as the instrument - but a Mandolin none the less. Turns out my little brother had picked it up for next to nothing in Winchester at some point. It was about that time that we were preparing for the last Sonic Undermind gig and I had this crazy idea that I should learn to play it, or Pete should learn to play it, quickly so that we could use it at the gig. I was going to Oxford that day anyway and whilst there I picked up some Mandolin strings and a Mandolin scale book for about a tenner. Pete was pretty happy with his present and restrung the Mandolin at once. We didn't get round to using it with SU - not enough time to practice.

I guess it's been at the back of my mind ever since. Yesterday something on the Left Side Brain messageboard brought it back to me again and I did a load of research on the net. It seems it's pretty hard to find places that sell cheap electro-acoustic mandolins in Britain. I should probably go to Modern Music and see if they still have one but I can't do that from the comfort of my desk, plus I don't really like Modern Music very much. In the meantime, as I hardly have enough time to do my Christmas shopping let alone go Mandolin shopping, I have sent the very helpful chaps at Guitar Heaven an e-mail asking if they can help. We shall see.

My research did reveal that Godin make Mandolins, and it sounds like they are excellent. Ever since I played my current guitar, some minutes before buying it, I have fallen slightly in love with Godin and it'd be nice if I could get one of them but I think five or six hundred pounds is far too much for a novelty!

Anyway, in the meantime I'm going to be at the parents' for Christmas to I can learn to play Pete's Mandolin.

Speaking of Godin, which I did earlier. I've been looking for stuff about my Guitar on the web. It seems it's pretty loved! Owner reviews at Ultimate Guitar and Harmony Central are pretty complimentary. Ah well, it makes me happy too.