Joe, looks like most are weighing in on Banjo. I borrow a Mandolin now and then and I always use this:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/two.html

You can also tune the mandolin to 'guitar' tuning (bottom 4 strings or top 4 strings) and go to town.

I fully realize that both of these methods are cheating in a way, but I'm usually just playing very simple stuff in a much larger band when I'm borrowing the two different mandolins that I do borrow.

Also, don't be surprised if you need to place the bridge somewhere other than where it's at when you get the mando. One of those that I borrowed from a friend is a nice Tacoma model, and my friend didn't play it because he said the intonation was bad - which it was upon receipt. I played around with the placement of the bridge and found it was off by about 1/8" and after moving it, had no issues with intonation.

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