I've been down your road. I'd been wanting to pick up a mandolin for sometime, and for my 60th bday my family gifted me this:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...-pack-sunburst
it needed a setup, but once that was done, it played really good it sounds great. I've been able to use it for some mando based tunes in my band. I am running it through a fender acoustasonic JR. it works great.
I bought a gator mando F case for it as well.