yet another newbie plea for help

[dwc]

long time listener first time caller.

anyway i have been lurking for a while. reading posts and absorbing what i can. the forum is great. i hope to be a regular contributer but first i must call upon the collecttive resource to aid me. i have been woodshedding with a johnson 120 that i picked up for my birthday. i love to play, but i am shy.
anyway, long story short (too late) some friend heard me and want me to sit in with their band. so, i need a decent mando that is loud. i will have to cut through a guitar, bass, hammond organ, a woodwind and drum kit. i don't want to go electric, and i want to blend in as much as possible. They play lots of covers and extended jams but i will put my touch on the whole thing with a few jazz standards.
i also want a sort of specific tone. i want a full warm sound without a sharp biting initial attack, i think of it as a more rounded attack with less abrupt decay without a sharp pronounced pitch spike at the attack. i hope that makes sense. any recommendations would be welcome.
thank you to anyone who bothered to read this monstrosity. my future posts will be shorter. promise.

[dwc]

sorry, forgot to put a max price. <$1000 would be good.
see, shorter.

[softshell]

It seems that with that set up you would definitly need an instrument with a pickup and some way to amplify it. I think a Rigel A+ Deluxe would fit the bill and I think I saw a used one on the Cafe classifieds.
They are also great unplugged.

[8ch(pl)]

A Mid Missouri, with Maple M-2, or Rosewood M-4 will probably do for you. I think the Mahogany M-0 and M-1 will have less volume and I am not sure about the Walnut M-3. There was an M-4 in the classifieds for $400 or so. Dale may still have one for sale, I think his was a Maple one. If you need to amplify you should be able to get a pickup and a small amp and still be within your budget. The basic sugested price of a new M-4 is $630, all other models are less. This info is from their website.