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Congrats on your new mandolin! And, best of luck with your most recent surgery!

My suggestion is to be ready to find a local luthier who knows how to properly setup a mandolin. It is always...

I will go revisit the video that Jim Garber recommends, but I'll toss in one possibility for a beginner mandolin. A dear friend, an accomplished professional violinist, came by the other day to meet...

I've played many wonderful mandolins, but the one I've been happiest with, and most impressed by, is my Ellis F5 Special. It has a beautiful voice.

I would like to add to this demo discussion. When an individual or a shop is comparing two instruments, such as an Eastman next to a Kentucky, or an f-hole mandolin next to an oval hole, please...

I've been dealing with psoriatic arthritis for many years, mostly just trying to keep my hands limber and taking Tylenol on occasion. I think playing the mandolin has helped keep my hands more agile...

I tend to mention this a lot, but my background started with the violin. Although I have had only a single mandolin lesson since I discovered the instrument in 2017, I have years of training on the...

I am, at heart, an old violinist who found a new friend in the mandolin in 2016. When I was really looking for a perfect classical sound for my violins, I used to buy Evah Pirazzi Gold sets. They...

I like one glass of a decent Cabernet in mid-afternoon, just before playing mandolin on the porch or in my comfy chair. More than that, and I think my left hand fingers might trip over each other,...

My own approadh to the mandolin started in 2017. I was a violinist in my youth, quit playing for decades, and went back to that instrument after retirement. What I discovered was that I really...

I came to mandolin rather late in life. As an 8 year old kid, I began to play the violin and over a very few years, I became quite good, for a kid. Although I quit taking lessons or playing...

I play my Ellis F5 Special almost exclusively. I have a nice Eastman 515, and a canoe paddle, but I really treasure the Ellis. I have Thomastik Infeld medium gauge strings on it and I play with a...

I'm really happy for you. The Ellis mandolin is a phenomenal instrument. Great choice!

I am a totally blind mandolinist. As a youth, I played violin and was able to read any score. As a much older adult, nearly 70, I had to play without being able to read the music. I've been...

Sheila,

Glad to see you are back, all fixed up. And, as always, as I look at your list of what is precious to you, it is always good to see your 1959 model of Rich gracing the list.

Welcome...

This sounds ever so much like a bruised nerve in the tip of your finger. I have this happen a couple times a year and I just take a break from playing for a few days.

][Howdy,

I wish you well on your mandolin adventure. My own vision failed completely over the decades and I didn't pick up my first mandolin until well after I could no longer see. However, I...

Just a quifk note... I really started my mandolin adventure with the Eastman 515. I chose it after talking to the folks at Fiddler's Green and decided on the F style instrument because it held its...

[QUOTE=Marcus CA;1897118]I feel like I've logged in to the Medicare Cafe. :grin:

At 66, I guess you can call me "The Kid."

Thank you, kid! You made my day with Medicare Cafe.

I'm 68 and I did order a custom instrument. Why? Because I wanted to. I got my F5 Special from Tom Ellis on January 6 last year and I love playing it every day. It gives me great joy! What else...

[QUOTE=journeybear;1896842]There is at least one: Pasha Alden, from South Africa. She has been posting less seldom than she used to, but we keep in touch via facebook. I don't recall having heard her...

Yup. revisiting an old thread...

Today, I found myself a bit out of synch when reading a post about what I later found out was a reference to an Ellis mandolin. I think there might have been a...

I cannot say that I've actually ever seen a mandolin. I'm sure I have, but I didn't begin to pay attention to them until long after I'd lost my vision and decided to transition from the violin to...

Good luck with your surgery! And, we'll see you back soon!

I know you can find much less expensive strings, great strings, but I really prefer the Thomastik Infeld M154 on both my Ellis and my Eastman. I am not a BG player, and I do very little with...

When playing on a fine instrument,

When I play good, I sound very, very good.

But, when I play lousy, it is obvious.

Play for fun, often, on the your best available instrument and enjoy the...