Cheap, and I do mean cheap, beater mando

**lucky23** · Jan-17-2006, 6:10pm

On the advice of my instructor I went and bought a cheap mando to take back and forth to my lessons when it is very cold out (I live in VT, its been very cold out). So I purchased a 29.99 A style Rogue RM-100A from Musicians Friend. Now Im wondering what I should be expecting. Any comments on this?

Much thanks,

**Jim M.** · Jan-17-2006, 6:16pm

That's the mandolin that you can get packaged with a dreadnought guitar for $99. I've seen two of those packages, and in each case the guitar was pretty decent for the price, but the mando was pretty bad. Action was way high even though the bridge was all the way down, intonation was off, volume was weak, and tone was thin and cheesy. But for $30 you can try to get it set up and see what you get. Good luck!

**lucky23** · Jan-17-2006, 6:19pm

oh great! Oh well for 30 bucks my kid can hammer away on it and I wont wince in pain......the instructor said he would do a setup on it for me. Maybe he can get it to be ok for at least the winter months. thanks for the input.:D

**Jim M.** · Jan-17-2006, 6:24pm

Sorry to be so negative, but that's been my experience. You may luck out and get the 1 out of a 1,000 that is okay. I would think a better use of funds would be to get an insulated case cover, like Small Dog or Colorado. They can provide a lot of thermal protection for your instrument, certainly enough to get it back and forth safely to your lesson.

See this thread for some ideas:
Case covers

**lucky23** · Jan-17-2006, 6:29pm

I appreciate your honesty! I will look into one of those covers also.

**Golman8** · Jan-17-2006, 7:20pm

I got one of those for my grandson and I found the bridge had been glued on at the factory. I cleaned off the glue,fitted the bridge to the top, put some good strings on it and it sounded much better. I didn't mess with the nut, but it is high and could be a help if it is replaced. I wouldn't spend any money letting a luthier work on it, but if you feel comfortable setting it up it really helps. It's never going to be a good mando, but it will do nicely for a starter. I think my grand son has played his at least twice in the past 6 months! G.B.

**JEStanek** · Jan-17-2006, 8:29pm

If that 30 thing won't work I had good luck with a Johnson oval hole, all plywood special for $50 + 40 for set up and new strings. Still plays good enough for lessons and my kids love it. They make cheap f-hole plywood specials too. Never expect them to be set up.

Jamie