MorganMonroe mandolin

[Tombstone Holliday]

[FONT=Arial]I am a about to buy a morgan monroe mfm300 anybody know anything it
FONT]Morgan monroe mandolinm

[allenhopkins]

Stop! Don't do it!

The MFM-300 is an all-mahogany, heat-pressed (not carved!) F-model, and discounted on Amazon the price is $544. Robert at folkmusician.com has the MFM-300 for $649, but at least you know it's properly set up.

Now we could have a discussion about how you'd do better to buy an A-model, without the scroll and points, and get more for your money. Probably others will chime in with that point of view --

But let's assume for the sake of argument that your heart's set on an F-model, 'cause it looks like the cool mandolins all the bluegrass guys (and gals) play. Consider the Rover RM-75, which features:

A. All-solid wood, hand-carved construction;
B. Traditional tone woods: spruce top, maple back and sides;
C. Nitro-cellulose finish, dovetail neck joint, bound headstock, other niceties;
D. And, it's $100 cheaper -- with a hardshell case!

Now, you may be buying from a local dealer, and that's a worthy thing to do. And you may be getting a "bargain basement" deal, or be buying used and saving some money. Or, you may just like the looks of the MFM-300 (it is purty, ain't it?).

But from all the generally-accepted criteria of mandolin quality, you can get a better-made instrument for less money. Morgan Monroe and Michael Kelly instruments are almost always really attractive -- "eye candy" as they say -- but the real question is what's "under the hood"; what woods is it made from, and how is it built?

For the price of the MFM-300, you should be getting solid spruce and maple, and a carved top, at a minimum. That's my 2¢.

[Tombstone Holliday]

thanks for information I appreciate it