Morgan-monroe mm-8

[skyblue]

I am interested in hearing from owners of Morgan-Monroe mandos.

[Stephen Perry]

I have some at the moment. Production things. Leveled the frets on all, they really needed it. Bridges aren't too hot, but they are OK once fitted. Some other things I'd do differently. But of the MM line, the MMS-8 models have been the most consistent. Gets the full binding and look at a very low price, and the tone is generally quite warm. I don't find the attack as crisp as I'd like to hear, but that may be a matter of taste. Some people really like them very much and are very happy with them. Some people prefer different start boxes.

[cooper4205]

the one i played most recently felt really heavy, esp. the neck and the headstock

[Stillpicking]

I picked up a used MM a while back, needed a setup but once that was done it was more than acceptable. I did the setup myself first time doing it. No pressure to do it quick as the MM is a backup mando for me, actually all my mandos are backups to each other all under the $800 range. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[AppBrookie]

I picked up a MM-8, fell in love with the look(I know, big mistake). I had a good set-up done w/ a Cumberland Acoustics Bridge added. I HAD plans to replace my Eastman 515 with it.
Great workmanship, good sounding but not near as good as the Eastman.

[mercenarymandolinist]

I bought an MM-8 a year ago from a well known shop in the NY area. My original intent was to fit it with a floating magnetic pickup (like a jazz guitar) and a piezo bridge pickup wired to a stereo endpin jack. I wanted an F style for aesthetic reasons and did not want to bring the F5 I built to pub gigs. The specs for the MM-8 seemed to fit the bill and the price was good.
This is what I found upon opening the shipping box. The bridge was canted forward, was in the wrong position and no attempt had been made to fit it properly to the top plate. The G strings were so close together that they rattled against one another even with a light pick attack. The pearl nut was WAY high. The neck binding was finished over the ends of the frets, but was not dressed, and it was like trying to play a hacksaw blade. The frets were not leveled. There was no finish evident on the edges of the F holes or the inside radius of the scroll. The finish had seeped into the ivoroid binding, leaving greenish stains in several places. The tailpiece was gold plated steel sheetmetal with stamped decoration, not the brass cast unit with engraving described in the sales literature. The trussrod cover was shiny plastic and was inscribed with the name of one of their banjos (?).The mandolin was essentially unplayable when I received it.
At this point, I could have shipped it back, but I'm not that pragmatic. I spent the better part of a weekend dressing, recrowning and leveling the frets, refitting the bridge and correcting the string spacing. Reworked the nut to a proper height. Rubbed out the pebbly finish with fine pumice and linseed oil. Touched up the missing stain with a fine brush. Installed phosphor bronze strings. Made a newtrussrod cover from an ebony and ivoroid "sandwich" and beveled the edges
Now I have a very attractive mandolin that plays nicely. The people who built this mandolin were fine furniture builders. The quality of the wood, tuners, and inlay are very good, but obviously they knew nothing about actually playing a mandolin.
I've been playing it every day for a year and the tone and volume have improved far more than I had hoped. Graduating and tap tuning the top plate seem to have been ignored by the builders. The top plate is the thickest I have ever seen. Overall, I'd say the mandolin is overbuilt, probably to cover the lifetime warranty. I noticed that the sides have "ribs" glued at intervals on the inside. I've seen this on fiddles, but never on a mandolin. Probably a good idea. I haven't installed the magnetic pickup as yet. only the piezo bridge pickup. With a preamp, It serves the purpose I had intended.
Bottom line- If you are a novice player and have no lutherie skills, avoid this mandolin. On the other hand, for the money, the materials are first rate and it looks very authentic for stage performance. It will never be a great mandolin, but I have come to appreciate it more with each passing day. It'll probably outlive me.
For the same money, you could probably find a nice used American made A style with minimal ornamentation, such as a Flatiron that would sound and play better.
That's my $.02

[Folkmusician.com]

I'll chime in here. I have setup three of the MMS-8W (F-model) in the past couple of weeks. As Stephen Perry pointed out, and especially this last post, these are not setup from the factory, but I do not blame Morgan Monroe. The problem is with the dealers that are not setting the instruments up. Instruments should never make it to the customer in the condition described by mercenarymandolinist, and there is really no excuse for it. They do come to us exactly as he described. And also as described, I find myself, leveling, crowning and dressing frets, filing nuts, doing bridge work, and sometimes finish touch-up. Final setup has always fallen to the dealer, and honestly, I prefer receiving an instrument with extra material left on the nut bridge and frets, so I have something to work with.

When buying imports, choose your dealer wisely. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif