Tom Ellis was kind enough to let me play one of his F5 mandolins at IBMA for "as long as you want." Now, you have to be careful with offers like that because if my husband didn't heavily hint that we were missing Balsam Range, I would have sat there for a few hours. Tom is a gracious and nice guy and his mandolins sound incredible. So if you can find one go play one and you definitely will not regret anything except having to give him back his mandolin. If you have 11k for a mandolin, go for it.