[gabriel_bc]

Originally Posted by posternutbag

I don't want to dispute what you say here, but I will comment by saying that your results are not typical.

The thing is, $1500 doesn't really buy you much of a mandolin, especially new. You can get a very good pro level flat top mandolin for $1k-$1.5k, but if you are looking at fully carved instruments, $1500 will buy you an upper level Kentucky or Eastman, and the thing about Eastman in particular is that, in my experience, the upper level Eastman mandolins don't sound that much better than the lower end models. They have prettier woods and better hardware, but often, the upper level models just don't sound much better than the entry level mandolins... not sure why that is.

Also, my experience with Eastman mandolins is that they really need heavier strings to come alive. With factory strings, most Eastman that I have played (10-12 or so, total, over the years) sound bright, trebly, some say glassy... but put a set of J75s on it and all of a sudden the wood starts to speak. I don't want to say they are overbuilt, but my experience has been that heavier gauge strings really improve the tone of an Eastman.

And again, $1500 is not a lot to spend on a mandolin. By comparison, $1500 will get you a 3xx Taylor or a Martin D18, or almost. Again, $1500 for a mandolin will get you a nice import mandolin, a good Kentucky or Eastman.

There is a huge step up from a sub $2k mandolin to a $2k-$4k mandolin. Now you are looking at really nice used instruments including Gibsons, Flatirons, Collings, Northfields and (older) Webers, and even some luthier built A5s, both new and used. It is a big step up in price, no doubt, but you get a much better instrument.

One thing I didn't touch on in my first post, pickups. Having played a lot of mandolin on stage and having been flanked by flathead Gibson banjos rolling hard and fiddles sawing away, I still would never resort to a pickup in my mandolin. I have some nice clip on mics, but pickups just destroy the beauty of the mandolin tone, IMO. You lose so much... what's the point of being heard when what is being heard barely sounds like a mandolin? I have played plenty of acoustic guitars with blended pickup systems that sound pretty transparent, not quite "My guitar, just louder", but still true to the sound of the unplugged instrument. I have never heard a mandolin pickup that retains the clarity, brilliance and woody tone of the acoustic instrument.

I don't dispute that $2-4K mandolins are a significant step up from lesser ones, but the OP doesn't want (or need) one for what he wants to do with it. He also specifically wants one with a pickup in it.

Unless his worship setting is atypical, he won't be fighting with banjos or fiddles onstage. He doesn't need a $2K banjo-killer. At most he'll be playing with other acoustic guitars, electric guitars, keyboards and drums, with perhaps the odd string instrument like violin. The "odd" instruments in a worship setting (violin, mandolin, whatever) tend to be featured, not fighting for space.

His audience also will not (generally) be knowledgeable about mandolins and tone. They probably won't know much about bluegrass unless the OP is in the southern states where there is a culture around that music. What a mandolin delivers in a worship setting is different - a different sound that can accentuate the other instruments and add to the overall feel. Occasionally it can be featured - rolling alone through a chorus while the rest of the band drops out, and so on. It can add a lot. But it's not bluegrass. It's a different genre.

What the OP needs is the mandolin equivalent of a Yamaha FG800 to get started. That's something like a KM-150 or a Big Muddy (as you and I and others have suggested). Later he can upgrade if he wants to. If a pickup is important, then something like a K&K or JJB is a good option. And if he can find an older used Pac-Rim instrument with a solid top locally, that's just as good for what he needs at present (IMO). But it's good to know what the future might hold, and your advice is spot on for that. I just don't think that's where the OP is at right now.