Take Two

[JBoxwood]

Hello message board,
I posted a thread yesterday that I think was too broad in scope to get many responses. I'll be more specific this time around in hopes of getting some more feedback. I currently own a Weber Hyalite. It's been a good starter mandolin for me, but I'm looking to upgrade to something with a bigger, richer sound. I'm interested in the Weber Yellowstone, Collings MF, Summit F200, and Gibson F5G. I understand that this is very subjective, but I would love to hear your thoughts about these mandolins. Playability, tone differences, workmanship, volume, etc... Thanks!!

[Dave Cowles]

Funny thing about mandolins - it will ultimately be your own sense of the sound and feel of an instrument that will move you to obtain it. All those you mention are dandy examples of very good mandos, each with their own special traits. Of all of them, I might really want the Collings, and you might think the Summit was the ace in the deck. Playability is the function of a good, professional setup, along with neck shape, nut width, etc. Only you can decide what feels best to you. I know this isn't answering your question, but frankly, there is no one size fits all answer, which may be in part why you didn't get the responses you'd hoped for in your other post. Are you near a retailer that offers the above mentioned models? You need to find a way to test drive every one of them. That's really your only/best answer, and prolly not what you wanted to hear.

Dave

[Capt. E]

The best advice is to find a store that has a large stock of mandolins, various brands from moderate to high end, and play them. Do it for an hour or two, take notes, go to lunch, come back and play them again, whittling down your list. Who knows, you may just pick one up and decide it is the one right away. I have done this over a period of days, even weeks. That is how I finally decided to buy my Weber Bighorn.

[JBoxwood]

Thanks for the input!

[Ivan Kelsall]

These new Gibson models seem to get a consistently good press on here. The Gibson 'Jam Master'
A & F styles & they're both well within your previously quoted budget. They're at the lower end of the Gibson spectrum price wise, & with hardly any 'fancy stuff' on them,but personally,i think they look terrific,
Ivan

[WillyG]

I bought a used Weber Bitterroot F-style recently from the Cafe Classifieds and I absolutely love it. One thing about my Bitterroot is that the harder I dig in, the better it sounds. If you're an aggressive player, then I would think a Weber would serve you well. If you like the tone to jump out even when you're playing easy, then maybe a Collings, perhaps?

[blindboy]

I must say that a while back I purchased a Gibson F9 used to be my 'take-anywhere' mandolin so I wouldn't have to take my Collings and worry about it. Well needless to say the F9 now gets more playing time than my Collings. Its THAT good and used it was an incredible bargain. I've played a couple and they have all been relatively consistent. Gibson is currently making some really nice mandolins, that don't cost an arm and a leg. I realize sound is subjective, but hey... thats my two cents. FWIW my gibson now lives in the 'good' case .