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Looks like it might be an older KM-340s.

And sometimes it's not so much a matter of being "better" as being into the music that forms the original basis of the jam. If a newer player spends more time actually listening to and studying old...

I've seen it happen pretty often, actually. But like I said I'm kind of surprised they have an open advertisement for a more advanced jam. Usually the modus operandi is to invite more advanced...

I would say in my experience most jams are more welcoming than that (most can't afford to be that picky). Whether that's a good thing or not is an open question sometimes. I do think that usually the...

Looks like 1947: https://www.martinguitar.com/about/martin-story/serial-number-lookup/

Almost all the mandolins I see in the classifieds are so expensive (to me; I have a mental block about spending more than $2K for any instrument) that it's probably easier for me to get better at the...

Crazy good deal. Congrats!

This one had an irregular-ish label border too: https://reverb.com/item/3260143-1999-gibson-the-flatiron-performer-a-style-mandolin-w-hsc

Looks almost exactly like my late 90s Nashville Flatiron. They come up on the classifieds fairly regularly for $1,500 or less.

My 2 cents, if you wanna play with others, it’s better to learn more singin songs and fewer instrumental deep cuts. But every person’s interests are different.

If you like bluegrass Todd Collins’ Classic Bluegrass Mandolin Solos is great. All Monroe stuff from the 50s through 60s I think.

And the title track proved that an Ovation Balladeer can sound like a prewar herringbone in the right hands.

I think the Loar and the other instruments in the CMHOF get played regularly by a curator, I remember reading. Nice to see it played in public again, though. Skaggs sounded great (so did Garth btw)...

There's a cool little music shop in East Nashville called Fanny's House of Music. They didn't have a ton of mandolins when I was there but the ones they had were cool, and they had some cool guitars...

Dude, you live in Nashville. You can spend all your free time comparing mandolins!

1. Melody
2. Harmony (usually the chord note above the melody note) on sustained notes
3. the Blues (flattened 3, 5, 7)
4. Ending licks stolen from Bill Monroe (which usually involve a lot of (3))...

Nashville-era (99-2001?) Flatirons are Gibsons by another name but usually more affordable. https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/127587#127587

Very true. That's immaculate used Flatiron, Weber A territory. Might as well buy an American mandolin.

Holy price increase, Batman! Sheesh . . . https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/127844#127844

Big jams like this would also benefit from fewer guitar solos, so everybody else doesn't have to play quiet enough for the guitar solo to be heard. So ideally the best thing you can do for a jam like...

I bet they're really nice--I've never played one--but they resemble my Nashville Flatiron A to such an extent that I would be tempted to put the $1K or more price difference toward a scroll mandolin...

I think you have a good attitude going in, so you should do fine. One advantage of reading standard notation is that it allows you to access music that hasn't been tabbed out for mandolin yet. It's...

You Are the Everything

What kind of music are you interested in playing? Do you already play another instrument? Can you read tab or standard notation, or do you think you can learn how to?

I think the Brian Wicklund mandolin book (and fiddle book, for that matter, if you read standard notation) and Craig Duncan's fiddle books are good sources for basic versions of the 30-40 or so...