There's something about the sound of the instrument, smallish in size, that adds something special to select rock songs. It's Italian. It has strings. It's part of the lute family of stringed instruments with long necks and and rounded bodies. Most often played with a pick, it typically has four courses or sets of 2 strings, tuned in unison and making it an 8 string instrument, and when you put two strings close together like this, you get more volume, just like with a 12 string guitar has that shimmer of strings vibrating against one another. Mandolin after the Italian mandolino, and it's in the spotlight this time in nothing but the songs of Led Zeppelin.

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