Topic: Second Fiddles - Mandolin Blues

[Flatd7]

My acoustic trio the Second Fiddles have recorded a few tunes and have them up on our myspace page. (Appologies to any and all who are waging war against the evil Murdoch empire.) Anyway, we're doing demo's ourselves and hope to get a better recording of a dozen or so tunes for a possible CD in the Fall.

Of specific interest to Weenies might be our takes on the mando classics "Lonesome Train That Took My Girl Away" and "You May Leave, But This Will Bring You Back". Haven't quite figured out how to mic my little Stewart Banjolin yet, but they're fun tunes that we're only just starting to get loose on.

There are two others on there, the State Street Boys "The Dozen" and a very different take on "I Hate Myself" than Tampa Red intended. Hope you like 'em.

http://myspace.com/thesecondfiddles

[Slack]

Great stuff Jon, you guys are very polished - how long have you been playing together?

Really liked Lonesome Train, the high low vocal harmony and the doubling up of mando and harp - great Country Blues harp.

Good luck with the CD project and keep us posted!

[Flatd7]

Thanks Slack

We started as an offshoot of the NYC IGS jam circle. Guillaume and I hit it off and decided to do something other than the monthly jam, last summer. It's slowly picked up steam and we're having a lot of fun giging around town. No one's quiting their day job anytime soon, but it's nice to play with two guys who "get it".

[Johnm]

Hi Jon,
What a nice job!  "Lonesome Train That Took My Baby Away" sounds just stellar.  The banjolin projects really well and your harmonica player is really adroit.  Sounds great, and neat to hear a group mining this repertoire.
All best,
Johnm

[Buzz]

Hi Guys!

Love the music! Have been playing  a lot of jugband music myself lately....., so this sounds cool to me for sure.

RE: MICs FWIW,   Suggestion:  after checking with Suzy and Eric Thompson and admiring the simple sound Eric obtains on his mando over the past few years, I bought and have used  a Crown GLM 100 micro mic on my Dodson cigar box mandolin: tiny micslides inside the box thru an f hole, secures with a clip to the tailpiece under my R wrist, out of the way. I use a Roland small stereo amp (with two  speakers), has  phantom power source  out to mic, then picks up from mic and into/out the amp. Rear of amp has tons of plugs, one can go from amp to PA. Can use amp as monitor or for small gig as speaker, and have PA output too. Can use second plug on top for vocal mic or guitar pick-up, while other plug is your phantom power out. Works for me.

All best,
Buzz

[Flatd7]

Hi Jon,
What a nice job!  "Lonesome Train That Took My Baby Away" sounds just stellar. Johnm

Thanks so much John. From you, that is a great compliment! The calandar on my wall has a big mark on it for Greater Yellowstone in two weeks. Unfortunately, I won't be able to join you, Orville, Mike and Jan this year. I'll miss our talks and tunes.

RE: MICs FWIW,   Suggestion:  after checking with Suzy and Eric Thompson and admiring the simple sound Eric obtains on his mando over the past few years, I bought and have used  a Crown GLM 100 micro mic on my Dodson cigar box mandolin: tiny micslides inside the box thru an f hole, secures with a clip to the tailpiece under my R wrist, out of the way.
Buzz

My Stewart Banjolin is an open back. I don't know if I could get a mic inside, and if I did, I'd guess there would be some surface noise from my body. I have a Schertler DYN, that I should try on the ring along with a condensor mic. I spent some time with Mike Dowling this Spring and paid a lot of attention to how he mic's his guitars for performance. Although most of the sound reinforcement came from a front condensor mic, he had some sort of internal electronics on both flat tops and reso's.

The real trick I find with the banjolin is not to use mandolin strings. I find that light flat wound tenor banjo strings do the trick.