I love his comment at the end!!!
Theresa O'Grady with Katie Geringer and Evan Powell.
No microphones on the instruments, just an acoustic recording on a cell phone at a house concert. This is Round #2.
Playing in a pub session at McGonigel's Mucky Duck, Houston, Texas, courtesy of their livestream. Microphones were part of the house system and mounted over the audience, far from the players. This is Round #2.
Evan Michaelides on Round #3 with two guitars, bodhran, fiddle and flute at Hugh O'Connor's.
Comparison video showing an Ellis A4, Taran Springwell, Gibson A2, Ellis A5 and Round, with no sound processing. Note that the Round is more penetrating and will be heard much better in a session. All played with same pick, sound settings and picking force. This is Round #4.
John Bolduan playing at the tionol with a few others (see next video for many more players joining in). This is Round #4.
John Bolduan playing a Round again but with many more players (fiddle, three flutes, pipes, whistle, banjo, bodhran). The Round still hangs in there as an equal session partner. This is Round #4.
This is a sample of the tone of Round #6. It is very much the same tone and volume as Round #5 (as played by David Howley above).
“What an awesome instrument! I’ve never played a mandolin type instrument that was as loud as this. Holy shit!”
Indie folk artist from Ireland and founding member of Billboard No.1 band We Banjo 3, David Howley has been at the forefront of Irish guitar, banjo and mandolin for over a decade. An award-winning vocalist, he has performed with The Chieftains, Eileen Ivers, Carlos Nunez, Billy Strings, Bela Fleck, Altan, Ajeet and Mumford & Sons, amongst others.
My new Round Mandolin arrived a few days ago. Here is my review of it. It’s a beautiful instrument. Amazing curly maple, especially on the back of the resonator. I mostly play bluegrass mandolin and dobro in several jams and performances each week. I realize the Round isn’t meant to be a bluegrass mandolin, but I play in jams with twenty players and many more in the audience, in a big room, and even though I know how to play loudly, it can be difficult to be heard. My usual instrument is a $12,000 (used) Gibson of professional caliber and superb and unusually loud bluegrass tone, but in a jam, it is still hard to hear during a solo. I love the tone of the Round, but what I ask of it is volume.
How do the two mandolins compare? Rather than be subjective, I turned to science. I used my SPLnFFT decibel meter app on my iPhone and compared the two, side by side, from two feet from my iPhone. Playing hard, as I do when performing, both fiddle tunes and chop chords, the Gibson AVERAGED about 85 dB with PEAKS at 93 dB. The Round, by contrast, AVERAGED 93 dB with PEAKS at 100 dB! I then measured the decibels again AT TEN FEET from the mic. There was of course a large drop off between 2’ and 10’, but the relative volume differences remained. The Gibson AVERAGED 74 dB and PEAKED at 85 dB. The Round AVERAGED 78 dB and PEAKED at 92 dB. That means that players who know how to play loudly can expect a bump in volume between 4 and 7 decibels. Given that on the log-based decibel scale, three points is a 100% increase in volume, that’s huge. It seems to me that in any jam or performance where amps aren’t allowed and simply being heard is most important, the Round is the instrument to have even if one already has a louder mandolin than most. The extra volume is a huge benefit. In any acoustic string jam, it is likely be the loudest instrument–even louder than the banjos.
Sunday, I went to a bluegrass jam where I switched between the Round and my dobro (the loudest one I’ve ever played.) The room was about 40 x 60’, uncarpeted, and there were the usual twenty or so musicians and an audience of about thirty. I played hard, meaning to be heard. The Round sounded even louder than my resonator guitar and seemed to really fill the room. When I was playing, I could only hear the bass. Everyone could hear it well. I discovered that the Round has a sweet spot about half an inch wide around an inch down from the end to the fretboard where the sound seems louder and thicker. I also discovered that the E strings, despite being only 0.009 gauge, are amazing in their clarity and volume. They really sing, much more than my Gibson. That should be appreciated especially in Celtic music, or Choro, but I like it, too. All over, the sound is full and well balanced, never thin or weighted to one end. It sounds like a very loud high-quality mandolin. It does NOT in the least sound like a resonator mandolin or a banjo-mandolin! I hear no unpleasant banjo-like echoes from inside. I play a lot of double stops, and the Round sounds great with double stops. I might even say revelatory. Anyway, wonderful mandolin! Well done! And thanks. I hope you sell a lot of them.
Ed Christian is a retired literature professor who has published over 20 novels and books on music from Choro to Bluegrass to Ukuleles and more.
(After hearing the David Howley video above) Wow John, he makes that mandolin sound great! …. Ahhh… I mean it’s Not that you don’t…. I mean it just as he plays it I hear these great tones and…. I mean you make those tones too… and you make it sound pretty and everything….and it’s an amazing instrument you make…and aaah… I mean it’s David…. So that everyone should get one of your Mandolins and you’ll sound like ….David…. I mean you could sound like John too… and I mean…. You know that’s not bad….but every mandolin player should get one…for sure!!! ( feel free to use this testimonial in any of your advertisements…. For sure…)
Robert Shaddox is a masterful bodhran player and singer.
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