I often get asked what gear I use and what I would recommend. Below are all the music products I use regularly along with links to buy them if you’d like. If you buy a product through the link, you pay the same, but in some cases I get a small payment which helps me keep this site going.

If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll respond!

Mandolin

  • Newson Mandolin – this is my primary mandolin since 2018. Great sound and exclusively available at Gruhn guitar’s in Nashville. Tell George I said hi 🙂 If you are brand new to mandolin and want a more affordable mandolin to start with – check out the recommendations on my New Mandolin Gear page.
  • Gibson F9 – My David Harvey Gibson is my backup generally these days. It’s a real nice mandolin overall. They are a little harder to find these days as they stopped making them.

Picks

There are so many picks out there and believe it or not, your pick really impacts your tone. I’ve played a lot of picks before (and lost just about as many). For me, I like Dunlop gator picks. They are guitar picks, but they last a while, sound good, are cheap ($5 for 12) and thick. I don’t personally like the “mandolin” picks that are more a triangle or circle (like golden gate or the Dawg pick). Experiment when you can but below are the ones I use most often:

  • Tone Slab – Current Primary pick. I’ve been using the FS 1.5mm pick for a bit. The tone is much better than the Dunlop, but after about 2 months of playing it started to wear significantly. The tone is worth the price – but I would expect to purchase a few per year, so it may be too expensive.
  • Blue Chip CT55 – While it’s not usually my first choice pick, I do use my Blue Chip a lot. It provides a different tone than the Tone Slab which is a nice balance.
  • Wegen Bluegrass – I really like Wegen picks. The speed holes definitely make picking a lot faster! Not really, but they do help me grip the pick a bit better which lets me hold it a little looser, but I guess can make you faster!
  • Dunlop – (Dunlop 1.14mm picks and Dunlop 1.50mm picks) These were my go to when I started and for a long time after that. They are cheap and don’t sound too bad either. There was a time I didn’t understand why everyone didn’t use these, but nowadays I don’t like playing with them as much. The smaller shape isn’t my style I guess.

Amplifier & Direct Input (DI)

I’ve found that even with a good sound guy, having a good personal amp for the stage is a really great idea to avoid issues.

  • Amplifier – Normally I use the Fishman Loudbox Mini setup behind me on stage as a backup. If I’m getting lots of feedback from my mandolin through the monitors, I’ll have be able to turn those down or off and use my amp instead
  • DI – I currently use the LR Baggs Venue DI. The venue is really versatile and is a pro level DI box on a budget. The Grace Design Felix is becoming more a standard – but the Venue DI is still great and costs about $1,000 less! Like most good preamps, you need to play around with the settings to get it to work with your setup – so be patient with it.

Mandolin Strings

Used to use coated Elixir strings but they have since ceased production. Now I mainly just use D’Addario. They are well priced, last a while, and don’t break on often.

Books

I have a lot of music books in my collection, below are what I think are essentials.

Misc Accessories

While none of these are technically “needed” they are all products I use for a variety of reasons.

  • Tone Gard – a must have to avoid tone loss. I have one on all my mandolins. This keeps the mandolin off your stomach so you get better tone and more volume. This product is borderline required as it really improves your tone, sustatin, and volume
  • Clip on Tuner – this one is a USB rechargeable one so no more issues with stupid batteries!!
  • Leather Strap – This is kind of generic, but the Mandolin Store has some great options and are some of the nicest people out there. Support small business!
  • Cleaning Supplies – Cleaning your mandolin is important! All that gunk build up can both hurt your finish and your tone. Lemon oil on the fingerboard and use a clean rag to polish the finish (spray the finish on the rag!)
  • Matrix Metronome – I’ve seriously had the same MR-500 metronome from Matrix for over 15 years. Unfortunately, I don’t think they make them anymore, but the MR-800 seems similar. You can get free or paid digital ones for your phone too – but that can be annoying if you want to record a clip on your phone while using the metronome. I like have the separate purpose built device for that reason.
  • Wittner Metronome – While I love my Matrix (especially for travel), the Wittner Metronome is my new favorite. Mostly because the clicks are just so satisfying for some reason – and it looks nice! While I have the real wood one, they make a cheaper plastic one that probably works just as well.
  • Amazing Slower Downer – a must for practice. I’ve used this almost daily since the early 2000’s. Slow down songs, change keys, and create loops for practicing. Another near required product in my opinion.
  • Strum Machine – backing tracks are super helpful for practicing. Strum machine is probably the most use bluegrass specific backing track application. It works on your computer and your phone – which makes it perfect to get chord charts on the go.
  • iReal Pro – Similar to Strum Machine, iReal Pro is a great chord chart and backing track software. It’s free which is nice and there’s a ton of free charts you can download. This is the go to product for a lot of jazz musicians, so if you’re into playing jazz – this is the product for you!
  • EQ Charts – While not “gear” it’s good to know where the mandolin frequencies are so your other gear works better. It’s hard to find a chart that includes mandolin, but there’s plenty with violins listed like this and this. While mandolins are violins are different – there’s enough similarity where this is a good start.

If you have a mandolin product you’d like me to review, please contact me.