Not the best but its paid for.

[bdowns]

108085

[Levi]

That's the spirit. What is it?

[GKWilson]

Play it like you stole it.
[You did say you paid for it. Right?]
Gary

[albeham]

Not the best? Hell anything that plays good and sounds good is good.

So play it and don't worry about what it cost, its what it gives that matters... .

[Bob Clark]

Never feel bad because someone else has a "better" instrument. There will always be someone who has an instrument they think is better than yours, no matter what you have (Schmergel Devastator excluded). Enjoy it like it's the best thing out there. If you enjoy it, for you it is.

[bmac]

Everyone strts somewhere... The alternative is to not start at all.

[JeffD]

Any mandolin you are playing is better than any mandolin not being played. ...Or something like that.

I think that owning the best is a ridiculous goal. A mandolin, for all the love and adoration we apply to it, is a kind of tool. You want to get a decent radial arm saw, but do you really need the best there is. You want one good enough to do the job and last a long time and perhaps do more than the job so you grow some and your needs become more advanced, but is there even a point to owning the best there is?

I am fortunate enough to own mandolins much much better than they need to be for what I am able to do with them. And nobody would say I have the best.

Besides, a quick look around the forum shows that there is no agreement what the best is, or what the best at any particular price is, and people buy and trade and sell and customize and modify so much I don't think many of us have an idea what the best for us is.

From what I can see in the picture, your mandolin is enough mandolin to make you happy for a long long time. Enjoy the potatoes out of it and then abandon it shamelessly to get another when the mood strikes.

[bdowns]

108085

Korean f style with fender slapped on it. She sounds pretty good looked around quite a bit and she stood out above the others in the same price range.

[bdowns]

Fender fm-63. Standard Korean made f style but she sounded better than the others I played in that price range.

[AaronVW]

I have basically the equivalent Fender A-style mandolin and it plays great! That mandolin can take you a long way.