How many here play Mandolin?

[devellis]

I think your best bet for what you're describing is an A-style, f-hole mandolin with arched top and back. Eastman and Kentucky make decent examples in your price range. Solid woods are better than laminates and are really important for the top, less so for the back, and least important for the ribs. But an all-solid instrument will generally be a nicer mandolin and should be affordable in your price range. The plates will likely be pressed rather than carved but they can still sound very good in the $500 neighborhood.

Buying an F-model with the scroll and points will substantially increase the cost without any sonic benefit deriving from the fancier shape. Likewise, gobs of ornamentation will increase cost but not impact tone. So, the best A-model (pear-shape) mandolin with f-holes (like a violin), with the least ornamentation, within your price range is likely to give you the best bang for your buck. Eastman and Kentucky, as mentioned, are great brands to start with. I'm sure there are others, too, but those two makers have very good reputations in that price range.

One final note: have someone check the action at the nut. Most mandolins of this type will have adjustable bridges but if the action is too high at the nut (and it often is), they'll be a bear to play in lower fret positions and no bridge adjustment will correct that. If you buy new, a good dealer should be willing to check that for you and make a quick adjustment (and it probably will be necessary). If you buy used, have an experienced player or a tech check it out for you and get any adjustments that are needed.

[Dave_PA]

I play mandolin. Here's my strong recommendation for a first mandolin:

https://themandolinstore.com/product...-with-gig-bag/

I have no financial interest in the product or the dealer, just a very satisfied customer. The Kentucky KM-150 is not just a good starter instrument, it's a good instrument period. I sold my 150 after I'd been playing for a bit, thinking that a more expensive instrument would be better. In hindsight, I wish I'd kept it.

It's crucial for a mandolin to be properly set up. Buy from a dealer who will do that. The Mandolin Store does that. And you can call and talk to them and they'll be happy to talk to you without just trying to sell you something.

Good luck, mando is a fun instrument.

[Kupuna50]

Your thinking about using/playing a mando to 'cut thru" is spot on.
My suggestion in the <$500 category is an Eastman.
The 305 or 404 (black) are wonderful instruments, probably worth more than their price tag.
Bought my 305 from Ted @ LA Guitar.

[terrapin]

I spoke to several great mandolin players, and asked a TON of questions over at the Mandolin Cafe and the HANDS DOWN most recommended instrument the would not cost a bundle, but play exceptionally well and sound as good as mandolins costing many times more was the Eastman 305. I got one and LOVE IT! I have been playing for about 5 months now, and get lessons from my Luthier/Tech who has played for years and owns a Collings. He constantly comments that my little Eastman makes him wonder why he spent so much for the Collings.

[Wade Hampton]

First, Bob Devellis wrote:

Originally Posted by devellis

I think your best bet for what you're describing is an A-style, f-hole mandolin with arched top and back. Eastman and Kentucky make decent examples in your price range. Solid woods are better than laminates and are really important for the top, less so for the back, and least important for the ribs.

I agree completely.

Bob then wrote:

Originally Posted by devellis

...have someone check the action at the nut. Most mandolins of this type will have adjustable bridges but if the action is too high at the nut (and it often is), they'll be a bear to play in lower fret positions and no bridge adjustment will correct that. If you buy new, a good dealer should be willing to check that for you and make a quick adjustment (and it probably will be necessary). If you buy used, have an experienced player or a tech check it out for you and get any adjustments that are needed.

I agree with all that, but speaking as someone who was getting paid to play mandolin before even learning to play guitar, I think it's important to emphasize that the action on mandolins can and will shift dramatically with the climate of wherever it happens to be.

So an instrument set up by someone in another state and then shipped to you might need to be adjusted further once you get it.

It's because everything on a mandolin is so much smaller than on a guitar, and so much closer together. Weather shifts that don't have any discernible impact on the intonation or action of an acoustic guitar can change things dramatically on a mandolin.

So be aware of that going in. If you buy the mandolin from a good retailer in another state who lowers the action at the nut properly, the top can still expand or shrink a little bit in transit, which will raise or lower the action some, which can affect the intonation. So if you do buy the mandolin from someone or some store that's out of state, give the mandolin a week or two to get accustomed to your climate and then take it to a guitar tech to be looked at and get dialed in more precisely if needed.

These days my main performance mandolin is a National resonator mandolin, which works in a different mechanical way. But when I was still performing with my wooden archtop A model, I typically got its intonation dialed in twice a year: when the snow was on the ground to stay, and when the snow had melted and was gone to stay.

Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller

[Jim Owen]

Hi Ikravchik,

Former mandolin player here.

Visit the Mandolincafe and check the for sale section. I agree with Bob, Wade, and others: the best values are found in A style mandos and for what you're looking for, you may be best suited with f-holes (I'm an old-timey guy so my preference is different).

A used Eastman would be my choice. But there's plenty of love for Kentucky and for The Loar (never to be referred to as Loar or the purists will seek you out and give you a whipping).

[ikravchik]

Originally Posted by 815C

I do (that's my grandpa on the left). I play a Breedlove OF Quartz Custom.

Great photo. I like how the love for music passes through generations

[ikravchik]

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions, this is very useful

Moved from General

[ikravchik]

Ok, just bought a Kentucky KM-162 for $199. Should be fun

[ikravchik]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

Moved from General

Where did you move it to? .... Oh, to other strings, ok no worries

[Bingoccc]

Originally Posted by ikravchik

Ok, just bought a Kentucky KM-162 for $199. Should be fun

Sweet. They can be more addictive than guitars. Remember to enjoy the ride.

[ikravchik]

Originally Posted by Bingoccc

Sweet. They can be more addictive than guitars. Remember to enjoy the ride.

They are definitely faster because of the tiny neck, and I do love that soaring treble!

[Wade Hampton]

Be aware that mandolins are twitchier than guitars, and because of the high tension that they're under, can go out of tune quite a bit faster than guitars unless you learn to modify your right hand attack for them. Playing mandolin is going to require developing a slightly different touch than what you'd use on guitar.

But it's so nice to have that fifth interval tuning combined with that short scale length, and you can find things on them that you probably wouldn't find on guitar. To my mind mandolins are more logically laid out than guitars are.

Some guitarists doubling on mandolin tune the mandolin as though it's like the first four strings of the guitar. But to me that's an unfortunate practice, because you rob yourself of the very real advantages the fifth interval tuning offers. The chord forms in the GDAE tuning are very simple and movable all over the neck. So I'd urge you stick with that tuning, even if tuning it like a guitar seems easier at first.

But if you do that basically you've acquired a crummy little guitar that can't do all the things that a real guitar can do. The fifth interval tuning on a mandolin also sounds different, and sounds better, than trying to make a sawed-off guitar out of your mandolin. But if you use the fifth interval mandolin tuning, you'll give yourself a whole new musical vocabulary and way to express yourself.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[fatt-dad]

Yes, tune it like a mandolin and learn those two, four-finger chop chords! It'll take time and practice. Essential mandolin though! Look for the four-finger A chord and the four-finger D chord, for example.

I love playing mandolin!

f-d