Status of Kentucky KM-1500?

[mandotrout777]

Looking at the Saga website, it appears the KM-1500 is now absent from the list of Kentucky mandolins. Have they maybe abandoned this one for the moment to try and keep up with demand on the KM-1000 and 900? Anybody know what the status of the 1500 is? Is there anybody out there who played one and thought it sounded better than the 1000? Curious.

[tburcham]

Jeff,
I did play one at SPBGMA, I don't think it was anywhere near as good as the 1000 I'm currently playing. The one I played was easy put down...and as we all know thats never a good sign for a mando on display at a vendor booth. Dont get me wrong it was Ok, but just Ok. The Gibson F5-Gx Big Joe had SPBGMA was very difficult for me to put down and it had me thinking of second mortgages
(-;

Of course every mandolin is different and the environment where you try them out can affect the perception.

[aardbark]

You had me worried for a minute. I just bought one a couple of months ago and was worried that they had already been discontinued. I found them on the Saga website, but not in the same place as the other mandolins. Check out the following url:
http://www.sagamusic.com/catalog/products.asp?CategoryID=1&FamilyID=3

[Stephen Perry]

I don't know about the average one. I had one through for some setup and other work a couple of weeks ago. It was extremely impressive. The one at SPBGMA didn't thrill me, either, but this last one - wow. Big sound for a new instrument.

[ColdBeerGoCubs]

The mandolin store has one in stock

http://www.themandolinstore.com/scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=9027

[Phil Goodson]

I played one at Gruhn's in Nashville back in February and thought it didn't sound as good as the KM-1000 beside it.
But I recently played one at a local music shop in NC and it sounded really nice. A little woodier that the KM-1000 which was also on the wall.
Bottom Line: each instrument must be judged for itself. But we knew that already, didn't we?

[Robert Mitchell]

I finally convinced myself to get one a few weeks ago,,having been very impressed by the km900 i got months ago for my grandaughter, and after talking to dennis @ the mandolin store.. I'm very happy with it,,the only thing i changed was the strings to j75's. The stock strings are very light ga. Dennis was very helpful and is a pleasure to work with..it's a powerful mandolin with a dry woody punch, nicely appointed, and great fit&finish. Being curious,,i took some measurements to see what i've heard about the body being "taller".. I measured 1.845 @ the rim by the tailpiece, checking some other places,yielded nominaly the same. The km900 also measured the same. My gibson a9 measures 1.750 as does my f12. I don't have a km1000 but am curious what they meas.

[f5loar]

This goes back to June and I was wondering about the current status of these KM1500 model? Have they been selling and are they easy to get? I see one every now and then for around $1500. Is that pretty much the street price now? Is there really that much different in sound over the 1000 model? Wood grains I've seen look to be about the same as the 1000s. The finish I've seen is not that much Loar like either while the 1000 is more Loar like.

[Andrew B. Carlson]

I'd like to hear more opinions about the 1500 too. It's on the top of the list for my next upgrade.