Looking for first Mandolin

[Samsdad]

I'm a fiddle player looking to buy a Mandolin. Wanting to spend around $1000. What should I look at and what should I stay away from. Help

[JEStanek]

Welcome to the Café Samsdad.

What style of music do you want to play? If more Bluegrass then ff holes are nice, for folky and celtic stuff ovals are nice. I will start by recommending an A style mandolin (tear drop shaped) instead of the F style with the fancy scrolls that cost a lot more and don't add to much sound wise. I'll also recommend buying used as you can get 30-50% more mandolin for your money.

Some options I would recomend at $1K are some of the Eastman mandolins from a good dealer (like our sponsors), have Howard Morris build you a student model (this gets you a US made mandolin under 1K that really does the job), look at used Breedloves (these have a non-traditional look and a thicker neck), another option is a pancake style (circular body flat top and back) like the Redline Traveler by Steve Smith for well under $1K great looking and great sounding mandolins. Finally, you might be able to get a vintage Gibson oval hole mandolin for close to $1K. It won't be a beauty queen but it should be playable and have good tone- a players instrument see the mandolin world headquarters and Charles Johnson for good advice there.

The best thing to do is get your hands on some and see what fits and feels and sounds nice. All of these have different neck shapes and sounds. There's no right answer that I can give other than buy from a good store that will set your mandolin up and stand behind their work.

Jamie

[mandozilla]

Hello there Samsdad and welcome to the Cafe! :grin:

As usual Samsdad, Jamie has nailed it...not much more to add really. ;)

Geez Jamie, you're good at answering this perpetual question. You should come up with a boilerplate, stock reply that you can just cut and paste. :)) Or, maybe there should be a Forum set aside for 'Newbie Needs Mandolin Buying Advice' questions...I'm just sayin'...:))

:mandosmiley:

[MandoSquirrel]

What he said.;)

[Folkmusician.com]

For new mandos, I would add the LM-600-VS to the list of instruments to check out.

[JEStanek]

Hey, I'm a fan of mandolins in the sub $2K market! I'm also a perpetual beginner. kee the suggestions coming. There's a lot of brands people play and like...

Jamie

[Folkmusician.com]

It took me a double take to figure out why Jamie looked a little different this morning.. hehe The Joker has gone green envious of the Green Goblin maybe :)

[JEStanek]

Just showing a bit o the Irish for St. Pat's

Jamie