I was on a business trip yesterday, and one of Germany's bigger music stores (not thomann) was right along the way. I knew from their website that they had a KM 900, so I couldn't help but making a little detour. Here are my impressions:
The Good:
- nice looks: this is a pretty looking mandolin
- overall nice workmanship, see below for exceptions
- very thin lacquer
- lightweight, not overbuilt
- low action at nut
- nice v-neck
The Bad:
- flat fretboard: I like the radiused fretboard on my MD-515 better - but maybe it's only a matter of getting used to it. If I had liked the rest of it, I probably wouldn't have cared.
- the fret ends were rather sharp
- fretboard extension (florida): how many people buying a $1000 mandolin play up there (frets 23 to 29)? I would assume that the florida is of little practical value to most mandolin players. But this thing really gets in the way of the pick when playing the A or E string. It's exactly where the sweet spot is and makes picking on the A and E strings a challenge.
- the pale brownish/pinkish rosewood bridge didn't really look as classy as the rest of the instrument
- the fit of the bridge was really bad, the contact area was 2/3 of the feet at the most, at the tips there was a gap of almost half a millimeter.
- sound: this instrument just came out of the box and had a poorly fitted bridge, so it most certainly wasn't at its full potential. But anyways, here's my opinion after about one hour of playing: I wasn't impressed. The G and the D string sounded rather boxy and the A and the E string had no sweetness - they weren't sounding harsh or dull, just not good enough to lure the money out of my pocket. Also, the sound thinned out very quickly when going up the neck.
And the Ugly:
- defects in lacquer (top): there was a curly mark of about 1cm length that looked as if a hair had been pulled out of the lacquer. And there were also some very thin (<0.1mm) streaks of 2-3 cm length following the direction of the grain. The surface was absolutely smooth, but it looked as if there were microscopic bubbles in or below the lacquer. My speculation is that these spots have not been properly sanded or filled before finishing the top. I certainly wouldn't pay the full price for an instrument with these blemishes.
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The sales clerk in the acoustic guitar division didn't seem to know much about mandolins. As he was clumsily figuring out which way to put on the bridge, he wasn't inclined to take any advice from me. Instead he gave me some free advice: "the bridge has to touch the strings exactly at twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret. No need for compensation, it's all in the bridge." and "Mandolins don't need to be played in, as there is a lot of pressure on the top." - Well... after 15 minutes I recieved a mandolin with the strings way off center, a bridge that was leaning towards the fretboard, the A and E string were buzzing and all strings were fretting horribly sharp. How is anybody going to sell an instrument that isn't setup properly? Well, at least the guy was friendly and left me alone afterwards, so that I could do a clandestine setup in one of their playing rooms.
To sum it up: I like my MD 515 much better in most aspects, I would even prefer the KM 250 that I've previously owned over this KM 900. I wouldn't even have bought this mandolin at half the price. Well, at least I didn't have to sneak into the backdoor of my house hiding a new mandolin under my jacket.
I haven't given up on the KM 900 though. There have been a lot of raving reviews here and I always liked the sound examples that I found on youtube. Maybe I'll have the chance to play this instrument again in 3 or 4 weeks.
Peter
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