Tracking Mandolin

[Gillihan]

Howdy Y'all!!
Mr. Questions here! hahaha
A songwriting buddy of mine set me up with a mandolin and I have been learning to play it for about a week or so and have gotten pretty blessed good at it.(PRAISE GOD) I have written some cool rips and wanna track them pro. (the more you can play and track saves on production aye?) anyhow..
Any advice to get the best quality recording of a Rover MandoLIN??(sounds amazing in the room to begin) I have a few AKG pen condensers , an AKG perception 200 and a p120, a few SM57s many EV drum mics, and an EV nd86. any help on the proper mic for the job and placement would be greatly appreciated. Again, this is a new instrument for me. Not quite hip to where it is on the frequency chart etc. (couldn't find an eq cheat sheet for it ) . I have tracked it a few times with the pen mic by the f hole and it sounds pretty good, but again I have heard better (The dead south and Billy strings tracks etc.) I want to attain their tones. So far i have been tracking it like a guitar. I don't know a ton about getting tone on the instrument ..COMPRESSION? NO COMPRESSION? ETC. Although I have learned all the chords and a few scales,and much of my guitar skills have came into play with getting tones from just my hands and pick attack. just wanna capture it's beautiful sound the correct way. Here in the forum I usually I get good answers from pros that know .
Thanks and God Bless you all!
Humble and eager to learn!
Brandon

[Cameloide]

From Bobby Owsinski's "The Recording Engineer's Handbook" -

Placement -

1. Use one mic pointed down at the top string from about 6 inches away and a second mic pointed up at the sound hole from underneath, again at a distance of about 6 inches.

2. Place a mic between where the picking hand and the neck meet, at a distance of between 12 -18 inches. Place a 2nd mic near the top of the f-hole for fullness.

3. For stereo, place a mic on each f-hole, keeping them about 6 inches apart.

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That being said, personally I tend to just use whichever condenser mic (currently an AT 4033) that I have set up for Acoustic guitar, banjo, vocals etc. I sit about 12 inches away kinda aiming the mic towards where the neck & body meet. A small diaphragm condenser like a Shure SM81 would be fine too, and you could probably experiment a little bit more with mic placement if you wanted, but the instrument is so small, there's only so much you can do. I'm pretty new to the mandolin game too, and one thing that helped me was getting a proper mandolin pick...they're usually a little thicker and heavier (which helps the instrument project) and the edges are more rounded making tremolo picking more feasible. Good luck. I find the Mandolin is the hardest to play compared to guitar and banjo, considering the double strings being tight as dick's hat band, the neck being thin as hell, and the frets being so close together. I'd love to see somebody with giant hands like Shaq try to play one.