[Mandobart]

I'm primarily a mandolin player now for the past 10 years. I also play mandola, octave mandolin and mandocello. One of the neat things about being a mandolin player is there are fewer of us. In my local music scene I went from being one of 1000's of mediocre guitar players to being one of less than a dozen mediocre mandolin players. That tremendously opened up playing opportunities.

I'll re-post what I usually say to new converts from guitar:
What beginners don't like to learn about playing mandolin:

1. There are about 1000 guitars sold for every mandolin sold.
2. Most mandolins are carved top and carved back - a lot more hours go into building them.
3. Adding 1 and 2 above means that to get the same quality in a mandolin that you can get in a $500 guitar, you need to spend $1000.
4. A cheap mandolin sounds a lot worse than a cheap guitar.