Advice on Mandolin

[Tunes]

Yes - I know this is not the "Acoustic Mandolin Forum", but I really do not want to sign up for yet another forum, and I am sure there are some mando players here.

Just looking for suggestions on a "decent" inexpensive Mandolin. Would prefer to pay no more than $500-600. Would prefer an F style. I have done enough reading to know that Gibson makes very fine mandos, but the ones I have seen all run well over $1,000. Below that appears to be a mixed bag of names that are all over the place.

Funny, after a lot of years on guitar I have never really looked at or played mandolins, so looking for some help here.

[Billm2067]

One of the Upper end Kentucky's or the Loar (made by recording king) are nice madolin's. Go someplace that has many and look for something that has a woody tone and volume.

[wa3jpg]

Hi Tunes -

Yep, www.mandolincafe.com is the place to go when you want to talk mandolins (and they have a free classifieds section where you might want to look around......) IF you're ever inclined to look.

There are many reasonable mandolins for the $5 -$600 range, and when you get to $1K, even more. You can even land a hand made conus built mandolin, but it would probably be a flat top, oval hole style. The F style will cost more (and the scroll is sometimes called an expensive strap holder.... the A style is equally nice in sound, wood for wood.... according to luthiers I speak with.)

There are fine F style mandolins that may suit your needs.

I have a "The Loar" LM 700VS, F style that is certainly an OK mandolin. You can find them new for a few bucks over 1K (maybe less?) I believe the LM 600 is also a nice mandolin and is much less money. There are other nice F style models for less. The Kentucky mandolins are well known to be reasonable in the under 1K range, too. These are Chinese built mandolins (and they're getting pretty good over there :-).

As always, I suggest you go play some of them to see what strikes you. Each of these mandolins I mentioned has an individual sound (made in a factory, yes, but the woods vary in structure and with some human does the final carving.) I've played the same model side-by-side and found them to sound really different. I chose my particular LM 700 from a few on the wall, same model, the necks were carved differently and they each sounded different. Picked the one I liked.

Clark

[stephenT]

http://bigmuddymandolin.com/

My next purchase, they made a wide nut version which interests me. USA made, check 'em out!

[rfrich74]

I don't really have any advice about mandos, but there is an "Other Stringed Instruments" sub-forum here just a couple spots down from this one.

[jeepnstein]

I've heard many more good sounding A models these days than the flashier F's. Now when you get into serious money north of $1,500 then the F's are pretty good. In your price range I'm going to bet the best mandolin will be an A. They just aren't as flashy, which is a consideration.

[JJO]

Probably the first piece of advice you'll get is that you can get more for your money in an A style rather than an F style. This is absolutely true, but I'm also a firm believer that looks matter, for your own motivation and excitement at the very least, so if you really, really want an F style, don't let that dissuade you.

The other piece of advice you'll get, which you should definitely take seriously, is to buy from a place that does a thorough, professional set up, even if it costs a little more. Set up matters significantly more on a mandolin than on a guitar (not that it doesn't matter on guitar), and small changes can make the difference between essentially unplayable and smooth and easy.

I just started mandolin this spring/summer, and I decided on a Kentucky 550, a low mid-level A-style. It's been great -- just what I wanted and probably more mandolin than I'll ever need.

[zaskar1]

tunes

i had the same question

i have some guitars, if i get another stringed instrument, it might be a mandolin. i am too uncoordinated to learn how to play the violin or as country folks say "fiddle"

ukulele is "too popular" and if you heard the phenom, jake shinibukuro, you would just not even attempt to learn

z

[aphillips]

Originally Posted by Tunes

Just looking for suggestions on a "decent" inexpensive Mandolin. Would prefer to pay no more than $500-600. Would prefer an F style. I have done enough reading to know that Gibson makes very fine mandos, but the ones I have seen all run well over $1,000. Below that appears to be a mixed bag of names that are all over the place.

I would look for a used Breedlove Quartz mandolin. All solid woods, well made. You should be able to get a good sounding mandolin with F holes for close to your price range without going pac-rim.

[kydave]

Probably the best buy in an F-style mandolin is the Loar LM-600-VS... All solid spruce over solid maple b/s; hand carved, nitro finish. Every one I've played has sounded very good and this build/sound quality in an F-style simply was not available at this price ($750 new) even 10 years ago.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Hand-carved and graduated from solid select tonewoods and featuring a lightweight nitrocellulose finish for incredible projection, The Loar’s LM-600 Professional F-Style mandolin is an accurate replica of an original 1920’s F5-style model.

The hand-buffed tobacco sunburst finish with nitrocellulose lacquer provides a vintage sheen and an authentic pre-war-style bark that will impress even the most avid vintage purist.

The LM-600 features a solid hand-carved spruce top, solid hand-carved figured maple back and sides, a one-piece maple neck with rounded ‘V’ profile, bound ebony fretboard and an abalone and mother-of-pearl custom flower pot headstock inlay.

The LM-600 includes a featherweight case with an embroidered logo.

For $500 you can get the nice, but poly finished and not nearly as nice, Loar LM-520-VS.

For $550 you can get the A-style version of the 600, and it is a SWEET mandolin!

[jeepnstein]

http://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/60389

[architype]

Here is a Washburn F style for $600.00. Solid figured maple back and sides and solid spruce top. Steilberg is a local shop here in Louisville, KY, but they do quite a bit of internet business. I've bought from them and they are nice folks and very knowlegable.

http://www.stringinstruments.com/p-3...olin-whsc.aspx

[Billm2067]

I have played a couple of Loars and they are nice mandolins. Some really have great tone and others are so..so. I think this will be true in most F Styles under $1000. One of the best of the less expensive brands are the Eastman String. They make a mandolin as good as their guitars. There are a couple of MD515's used out on Ebay that fit your price range. I hate buying stuff without trying....but I would do this on an Eastman before I would a Loar or a Kentucky.

[Phantoj]

Eastman, The Loar, Kentucky...

mandolin sounds great with guitar and they aren't too hard to play...

[devellis]

I'm one of those folks who will urge you not to get an F-style body. You're dumping a substantial portion of your investment into a purely cosmetic feature that you could, instead, invest in getting a better playing and better sounding mandolin. I've gone both ways and know of what I speak. Let's take one small example: you get an A-style instrument with f-holes vs. an F-style instrument with f-holes for the same price. The internal sound chambers are virtually identical. There may be a small hollow area in the scroll, but it's completely irrelevant sonically. The points are just glued-on blocks of wood. So, the sound chamber is really the same pear shape in either case. But carving that scroll and bending the sides to the more complex shape takes time that sucks up cost. So the F-model may have tuners on it that will make you psychotic as a way of offsetting the additional cost. Or the neck may not be as stable. Or the bridge might be some cheap piece of junk that you find very hard to adjust without it falling apart. There's just no way a builder -- factor or otherwise -- can build an F-model and an A-model of comparable quality at the same price. And the scroll and points have zero impact on the tone. Don't believe me? Luthier Steve Gilchrist has said just that.

The shape of the sound hole makes a big difference. An oval- and an f-hole mandolin sound different. So, that's important and not just cosmetic. But the body shape is purely for looks. That makes sense at the high end when you're pulling out all the stops for a super-duper instrument. But not for a first instrument, where price and small differences in quality can be critical to the success of your mandolin experience.

Kentucky makes good A-style mandolins with f-holes. Eastmans are a step up but cost somewhat more. In either case, get a good setup, especially paying attention to action at the nut.

Have fun! Mandolin is a great instrument.