I found that when playing the octave Mando in a group session it got totally overpowered by the guitars.. as opposed to a mandolin which sat on top. My Mandola became a 'sofa' instrument and after some nerve damage in my left hand made it difficult to form some guitar chords I moved more and more to this instrument and after changing to octave strings it gave me a lot of notes and much easier to make chords (2 fingers for basics..). My instrument has matured beautifully over the years and now sounds fantastic.. I dont write songs but I found this instrument very easy to come up with new tunes/melody's and would reccomend to any Guitar player having a 'dry' spell.. As Joe says, it has a blank history with a wide open future.. Worth a go..
