Tacoma (i think m1)

[ira]

just played a tacoma for the first time- i think that it was an m1- mahogany back a/e.

playability- excellent. clean fretting up and down the fretboard.
tone- sweet and clear, but certainly not bright (prob d/t the mahogany).
volume- none. it had no punch whatsoever.
construction- beautiful to look at and felt quite solid in my hands without feeling too heavy.
look- i know it looks different but it was gorgeous. obvious care was taken in the making.

would love to try one with a maple or walnut back to see what it could do.
just my 2.

[b.pat]

Man I hate to hear that about the volume. I just picked up one on the-bay a few days ago. It's an m3 so it's maple back and sides. I just needed something to noodle around with at the office. Hope it doesn't turn out to be a dog.
Should arrive in the next few days,so I'll let you know what it sounds like. One of these days I'll learn to ask around before I leap http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif
B.Pat

[ira]

i would guess that volume will be fine. i personally find that any mahogany instruments i've tried are sweet as sugar for sound but don't roar out a tune. i bet the maple will give you all that you ask, as the wood surely lends to some brightness and volume.

enjoy,
ira

[Bandersnatch Reverb]

Well... I own a Tacoma M1e. I've only been playing mandolin for about a month now. Its my first mando, but I've been on the gitfiddle for about 30 years. I know guitars, and what a good guitar is. So maybe this will help with the Tacoma evaluation.

The body is well made, no glue drips inside that can be seen anyway. Finish satin, well executed, no flaws can be seen. As noted above, top is spruce, the rest is mahogany, except the fingerboard which is ebony. Some headstock veneers are lighter wood - dunno what it is, but mine was mahogany. Similarly, the neck is well made, well finished in satin. It is a bolt on neck, but the seam to the body is faultless, and there is no gap visable, except for a very small gap under the 3/8 inch fingerboard extension. I dont think this is a gap caused by slop, its to neatly done and precisely uniform, especially since the rest of the neck pocket is dead-on tight. I'd say its there to account for something... maybe combined tolorance or something. Either way you have to look for this tiny gap as its hidden under the extension. The headstock is 3 sections, with the wings not part of the peg mounting area (ie, no stress on the laminations). The frets are very well dressed, even, and true - no high or low frets. The nut on mine was fit very high at about .055 above the the fret tops! I recut the string grooves down to about .030 (and will go lower perhaps). The "action" as set with the non adjustable bridge is very good, and with the recut nut, its very playable. I had to made an adjustment to the truss rod to eliminate some relief, and the adjustment was smooth and predictable. Its set to about .007 now (which is perhaps a bit low, but I can always let some out).

Keep in mind when I checked out mandolins locally, I knew like 4 "two finger" chords (C D Am and G) and had never actually played a mandolin before. So having said that,I checked what I could locally. Cheapo far east made mandolins mostly. Not good at all. I did get to hold and try a Gibson F9 at the local Guitar Center. Very nice. With later middle age memory being what it is... I'd say the sound is head and shoulders above the $199 imports, or even the "high end" $399 imports. Definatly not as sharp as the F9 was - I found the F9 to be rather shrill and like the Tacoma better, but... then again, I dont know mandolins. Its hard to remember how the volume was... since you have to really judge that side by side in the same situation, which I didn't have a chance to do.

The Tacoma does have some drawbacks - first is the machines. They suck. Very rough. They're going on ebay for about $8 a set new. Same tuners. The good news is that Schallers will fit just fine. The combination pickup and instrument are very feedback prone. I'm used to my Adamas... which really doesnt feedback at all. I dont know how other mandolins are, but this needs a notch filter on the preamp of the amp.

Another bad thing is the cheezy tailpiece, and its placement. Cheezy in that two strings go on one post. Break one, change two. Cheezy in that the finish is just black paint. The placement of the endpin/pickup jack is such that its in the middle of the instrument, in a non-standard place. From centerline of the hole to the top of the mandolin its 1.1 inches. Frank Ford tells me that the standard offset from the top is 5/8th inches... that makes a replacement tricky or maybe not do-able, except for a custom made tailpiece.

On the plus side, it comes with a decent (not great, but decent) case, and can be had with case for about $499 if you shop it right.

So to rate it with my limited experience - well made with exceptions noted. Passable voice. Better than lowest entry level. Good value I'd say. I dunno... but to me it seems like on mandolin, or guitar, you'd want to learn on something that at least plays well. The Tacoma fits the bill for that role.

Hope that helps guys n gals.

[craigtoo]

I have an M1 too. #My experience and opinions are idendical to those of Bandersnatch. Here's something new to add...The top cracked on me once. Maybe a temperature change don't really know what. #I took it back to the store I bought it at and Tacoma replaced it free of charge...No annoying questions or forms...and the people were great to deal with!

Regarding the low volume, I think it's the perfect "office mando" for exactly that reason.

The playability is excellent...mine has nice guitar frets with a radiused fretboard.

My first mando. #$384.00 #A good Deal.

craig

[Lee]

It's best not to compare a Tacoma with other mandolins, except maybe Mid-Mo's. A Tacoma is its own breed of instrument. The neck playability is top-notch. The tone is pretty and sweet, without the punch of an arch top. The workmanship is excellent. The perfect office noodler.

[mrbook]

I had (I guess that says something) M3 for a couple months. I paid $450 on ebay, and thought it was better than anything else in that price range. However, I couldn't get used to the big frets. Small instruments should have small frets; my others do, and I couldn't make the change after a couple months of daily playing. I sold it to my friend, a fiddle player - a few months later, I found it under his couch cushions when I visited him, tuned it up, and had no problem with the frets. They are a different kind of mandolin, but I would rather have one than a copy of something else. I don't feel a need to get another, but they are not bad at all at that price.

[Richard Polf]

Well, I feel I have to chime in here. Periodically I speak up here on the cafe to tell people what a fine instrument I think my Tacoma is --- wonderful neck, immaculate fit and finish work and, yes, sound. I've been the happy owner of a Tacoma M3 for the past 3 1/2 years. This year I really got brave and submitted it to the "Mandolin Tasting" at Wintergrass in Tacoma. I truly wanted to hear if it was as inferior as many people on this board say it is. It was played by John Reischman along with Gibsons, a Monteleone, etc. All I can say is that several players in attendance came up to me afterword and told me how fine it sounded. And, yes, that they were surprised. (You'll be able to hear it for yourself when the CD comes out.) Now, did it sound as good as Scott's Nugget? No, of course not, but then I paid $750, new in 2000, and it held up well against most of the instruments that were "tasted", many of which cost much more. Will it ever be described as a "Banjo killer"? Again, of course not. But, then, I rarely play with Banjos, and if I do, I sometimes ask the Banjo player to play softer. But if you want a fine American made instrument (see another thread on that subject) you can do a lot worse than a Tacoma. Look, Tacomas are like any other solid wood instruments, the more you play them the better they sound. I keep thinking (because I want to be a member in good standing of the "club", I admit it) that I'm supposed to dump the Tacoma and get something else like a Rigel or Weber, etc., at twice the price. But then I pull my M3 out of the case and start playing and I know that's just silly. Sorry for the rant, but sometimes it just gets too frustrating. Peace.

Richard http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Bandersnatch Reverb]

Dont get me wrong Rich, I REALLY enjoy my Tacoma, and to hell with the haughty rest. Its mine, I play it, I like it - thats all that matter to me. With its flaws, its still a great instrument. Of note - the M3 comes standard with Schaller tuners! But also the same bridge the M1 has (that bridge is my only real gripe... lots of instruments have cut rate tuners).

What the M1 has really done for me though, is open the door to the world of "mandolin". Whats that mean? It means that there's a Weber mandola in my future. If Tacoma suddenly started making mandola's, I'd probably get that instead though.

[ira]

rpolf and other tacomites- i hope my post didn't offend. i thought it was primarily complimentary. i commented on the lack of volume and brightness- which i stated is prob. due to the mahogany (i've experienced the same on other mahogany instruments as well). other than that, i loved it (read initial post and the third posting on this thread.

lee- i thought the tacoma felt and sounded quite different from a mid-mo. they both, however, certainly sound like mandolins. not archtops, but i know that the maple and walnut midmos i;'ve played were plenty loud.

[Bandersnatch Reverb]

No offense taken whatsoever. I'm wondering if strings (gauge) have more to do with the volume and punch on the Tacoma's than others, since the angle of the strings over the bridge is fairly shallow on the one I've got.

Lol... hey I just figured out that gap I described! Just came to me as I typed the thing about the string angle. Its due to the neck angle. The neck is set at maybe 3 degrees angle. The tiny gap is the space created by that angle!

Back to volume, I did notice a marked decrease in punch and volume when going one gauge lighter on strings (.011's to .010's). I have no experience to judge whats "correct" in that regard though.

[ira]

i know on my new mando which came with lights, that when i switched to mediums the volume went up considerably

[b.pat]

Well I got my M3 yesterday. Very pleased Fit and finish are excelent. [I guess you would expect that from a factory made mandolin] Now for the hard part The Sound .
I can understand why folks seem to have a hard time describing it. Sweet is as close as I can come. Every thing seems to Ring. Great sustain. I seem to be having a tone problem with any thing in a closed position.That is probably my fault. I'm having a little bit of a hard time getting used to the jumbo frets [You mean you don't have to press the strings all the way to the finger board any more]
Over all this is just what I was looking for. Not great volume. But I won't be playing this one in a group. Sweet and easy to play.
BTW this one didn't come with the case. None of my other F style cases will fit. Any sugestions?http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif
B.Pat

[Richard Polf]

B.Pat,

Colorado Case Company make a great softcase/gigbag which is insulated and works quite nicely for my M3. Hope this helps.

[URL=http://www.coloradocase.com]