Northfield Mandolins NFM-M5 The Quickstep Mandola – New

We’ve been waiting for Northfield’s first fully-carved mandola to arrive, as this Quickstep model fills an important niche in the Northfield mandolin family line. Mandolins are, well, mandolins and octave mandolins are big instruments tuned an octave lower (well duh!). But that’s a big jump, and some of us want to use our mandolin chops but enjoy the deeper tones and lower, richer bass response you get when you’re playing three sets of wound strings instead of just two. In case you’re not familiar with mandolas in general, their top three pairs of strings are tuned like the bottom three pairs on a mandolin, with a low C for the 4th pair. This means a mandolin player has a lot of familiar territory under their left hand, and while the scale length is longer than a mandolin’s, it’s not the quantum leap you face when playing an octave mandolin (which has a string scale a full 8 inches longer than a typical mandolin, can you say s t r e t c h?). And while earlier mandolas typically had a much bigger neck, the Quickstep’s is only slightly wider than a mandolin neck and has a nice gentle radius. The result is a mandola that feels very familiar to your mandolin, which means you can work out cool duets with another mandolin player, and chords have a meaty, more guitar-like tone.

If you want to enjoy the deeper mandola tone but don’t want to stretch your mandolin-accustomed left hand much at all, try a banjo capo at the Quickstep’s second fret. This makes playing in D a breeze which is great for picking fiddle tunes and you get to enjoy lots of ringing open strings and easily fingered chords.

If you want to breathe new life into your mandolin playing, the Quickstep will do it, and in style.