Aloha David! Thank you for this excellent review of my Octolindo! One of the best parts of being a luthier is seeing ones designs take flight and reach ever broader horizons in the hands of wonderful players and educators like you! I wanted to offer a couple small details in response to your comments regarding strings and gauges. This set is the best I could come up with knowing that there are quite a few tunings being used these days. I chose these (custom made for me by GHS) with the goal of perfect intonation and even response across the full range of the Octolindo. I have had lots of folks letting me know how many tunings they are falling in love with, the most recent was to take the low four courses of a twelve string guitar set which lands pretty close to Mando Cello range. I wanted to let you know also, when I sell these direct to customers I always offer to include endpins and strap buttons for the neck heel. There are quite a few opinions about where and how folks like to place them so I don't pre install them on the instruments I send to dealers, but I hear you and will speak with my dealers about including buttons and endpins on these so folks can go straight from the showroom floor to a gig or jam if they need to. I also offer tuning key upgrades for all of my customers, I am huge fan of Waverly tuners, but they kick the price up substantially for most players. I will look into another option for the stock tuner on these, supply chains globally have been really tricky lately. Love the Brilliancy at the end, one of my favorite tunes! Aloha, -Kilin PS: That little bit of buzz you are getting on the G strings can be quickly remedied by adding a touch of recurve to the neck. This can be done by giving the truss rod 1/8th of a turn counterclockwise (looking from the top of the headstock towards the body). Feel free to call me and we can do it together by zoom if you like!
Hi David. On your recommendation I picked up one of these directly from Kilan in Hawaii. I couldn’t be happier. Great service and it’s a wonderful instrument. I’m mainly a guitar player so it feels natural. It travelled to me in Calgary Canada through the biggest storm in recent history. And it sounds incredible. Thanks for the video!
Great thorough review and that octave mandolin sounds really good. I can see why you used it for your recordings. I started playing octave mandolin a couple years ago and the one I play is one I built. It's a flattop like the one in your video which I believe gives a richer fuller sound with more sustain than you typically get from an archtop. I prefer a 20.5" or 21" scale for easier playing in first position, but maybe your fingers are a bit longer than mine.
I have a octave with the same appointments from kilins first run!! I love it!!! Love hearing ya play it!! Wonderful instrument! You get amazing sound and hard to beat the price!
David, Danny Miller here. I was looking up this instrument and found your review! It sounds great. Hoping to purchase one for myself donw the road. Though I'm not performing much anymore.
I love the octave mandolin. I first was introduced by listening to Sarah jarosz! I have a custom build from a luthier in Conway,SC! It is a arch top with a similar scale length to northfield’s. I really love it and couldn’t be happier with it. I mostly play it to accompany myself singing. It has such a unique voice that I really enjoy and has inspired many songs for me! I love this review, that octave has such a deep and rich tone. I recently listened the new album and have enjoyed it very much! Love what y’all do!
I recently picked up one of these from The Guitar Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. It is exactly the same model but with a light top rather than the sunburst. It has been such a wonderful instrument to learn. With my little hands I had always struggled with guitar, but learning this has been such a joy, and it pairs so well with singing! I have always played piano, so it is very interesting getting my head around the Octave Mandolin 😊 Your channel is providing some great inspiration!
David, your fingers appear longer than mine. I find I have to use my 4th finger while playing my E-- octave I built from StewMac parts a few years ago. Mine has a 21 inch scale and uses ball end strings of almost the same gauge. They sure are a lot of fun to play, especially at jams with at least one more mando picker. Thanks for the demo here. Take care, Bob
Grover tuners are the tuners prefered by musicians that refuse to pay the over priced Waverly tuners. I worked at Waverly for 21 months and they are nice, but the price, at the time, of north of 500 bucks was not for me. I bought Grovers for my three mandos and there is little difference that I can tell. The Waverlys have a solid brass base milled on a CNC machine and machined parts -- worm and gear, posts and bushings. Grovers have a gear ratio of 18:1, while Waverlys are 16:1. Grovers are quality. My Flatiron from the '90s came with the cheapest Schaller tuners the company could find. Some pegs were stiff and hard to turn. I purchased a set of Grovers as soon as I'd had enough, even tho I was working at Waverly at the time and could have gotten a nice discount. These look like they could be Waverly tuners, but no doubt you would have paid more than you did for this octave mando. Sincerely, Bob Shorthill
Hey, David~ Thanks for doing this very informative video. I didn't know just how different all the builders' interpretations are! As for the tuners: Those look a lot like Gotoh (or a copy of them) tuners to me. Definitely not Grover, though.
Kilin Reece initially made these with Pono. Dunno if these are better, as those might have been Chinese built and these Hawaiian. You can check my Pono out in some videos I shot in Vegas in 2019; unfortunately, my octo got stuck in USA while I am in Canada now.
Thank you so much for this review! I am a bass player and I wonder if a tuning by fourths would work in this instrument? Could you try it? What tuning would you use? Maybe (from low to high) D G C F ? Thanks!
This looks and sounds mighty fine. I play Celtic and Old-Time styles, and the Celtic octaves usually have very long scale lengths that make playing fiddle tunes a reach. I've had several octaves, and my current Eastman MDO305, while OK, doesn't really have the oomph I prefer in an acoustic instrument. Yet, spending $4000 and up doesn't really make a huge amount of sense to me, given the pay scale I normally work at:) Really useful review of a very interesting instrument!
David. If you played the floating bridge style in Rw or Mahogany I’d be interested to know your take on those vs the fixed bridge that you have. Thanks!
Look for a Schub ( spelling?) capo for a 5--string banjo or a D'Addario. They come either flat (banjo) or curved for radiused octave mandos. I tried a guitar capo -- not good.
I have a poor man's "Octave Mando", I set up a Recording King 000 Tenor to be tuned GDAE. It sounds great and is a ton of fun to play; 1/2 the strings but also 1/10th of the price 😅. Can anyone help me out with the name of the tune at 12:03? Please and thank you!
2 года назад
I was looking for this kind of model but it's too pricy for me. Eastman maybe ?
