Thread: NMD
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  #11  
Old 01-13-2017, 08:47 AM
Mandobart Mandobart is offline
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The model designations come from Gibson. The most well known models use a 4 or 5. So an F5 is the quintessential Bill Monroe bluegrass mando - scroll and f sound holes. An A5 (like yours) is the same thing without the scroll. An F4 is the same as an F5 with three distinctions - oval soundhole vs f holes, the fretboard is flat on the body vs elevated and the neck joins the body at the 12th fret vs 15th. This last difference also moves the bridge back toward the tailpiece. The A4 again is basically the same thing without the scroll. There are also F2's which are less fancy F4's. Beyond that there are F9 and A9 and others that I am not as familiar with.
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