It's worth noting that certain charactericstics, whether applied to guitar or mandolin, kill off high end and sustain.
F-holes interrupt the plane of the soundboard and help dampen it.
Archtop instruments often lose sustain and "sparkle."
It's pretty common for bluegrass mandolin players themselves to acknowledge the "woodiness" and "chop" of various f-hole archtop mandolins, desireable to them, and the sparkle and sustain of flat-top oval- and round-hole instruments, undesireable to them.
I highly recommend doing side-by-side comparisons, if possible, to hear the differences. The comparative lack of sustain on a bluegrass mandolin might not be to your taste.
Whatever you choose, good luck!
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