APC vs. Trinity College?

[NuclearWessell]

Thoughts on quality, playability, etc.?

[mandroid]

Armored Personel Carrier versus a College campus in Ireland, CT or Florida?


Playability?

Buy from a place that does the set up before selling each instrument

or a warehouse un opened carton shipper?

A friend here has a TC (China made, Saga Imports) Irish Zouk, He likes ..

[NuclearWessell]

Dude, I know that normally it is a good idea to buy a instrument that has been set up. I just was wondering if anyone had thoughts on the quality of António Pinto Carvalho instruments vs. Trinity College instruments.

[NotMelloCello]

Buy yourself a sense of humor, NuclearWessell.

[NuclearWessell]

Lacking a sense of humor is definitely not something I have been accused of. Didn't mean to come off that way, the internet sucks like that sometimes.

I have a local luthier that is pretty awesome and does cheap setups on CBOM's, so that isn't a concern. I am intrigued by APC instruments as they seem to have a good rep.

[noah finn]

I played two APC instruments one was an octave mandolin and other was a guitar zouk type instrument. They retailed in around 300/400 euro .



I was very impressed with the build quailty, tone , fit and finish.

Ive never played a Trinity College instrument.

[mandroid]

The rep is not International given I've never heard of the Guy.
Im In Oregon I dont Know where you even see them..

SAGA Imports is bringing them into The Container Port of Oakland, California, for US sales ..





4 years in the Navy, including on a Submersible Nuclear Missile Vessel..

[NuclearWessell]

I have just seen and read about them online. They seem to take care in the construction of their instruments judging from their videos. They are also very affordable.




30 years of being a Star Trek fan.

[Mandosopher]

I just recently acquired an APC octave mandolin, the M308 with cedar top. I don't have a lot of experience with the Trinity College octave mandolin, but I had played a little bit with one in a local music store. Of the two, I prefer the APC; I think it has a fuller, richer tone. It also has a longer scale than the the TC, and I assume the longer scale may have something to do with the difference in tone. The APC looks good and seems well-constructed to my amateur judgment. I had a great experience buying mine from Kieran Moloney in Ireland; it came quick, was well set-up, and Kieran was very patient and responsive to a long list of questions I kept badgering him with. I did make two small modifications. I put on the J80 strings, which are a little heavier than the strings it ships with, and I added a strap button. So far, I'm very pleased.

[KevinThomas]

I've got a Trinity College Bouzouki. I think for a factory build the instrument is definitely adequate and with some set-up you can get the thing playing and sounding great. I set it up with a heavier guage string set than it came with and unison pairs all the way across. Really happy with the results once the intonation got dialed in perfectly: that always makes a big difference. I don't have any experience with the APC, so I can't really speak to it.
Happy hunting!

[allenhopkins]

Trinity College, Asian-made and sold through Saga, is pretty much considered the standard for modest-priced octave mandolins and bouzoukis, sometimes also for mandolas. The Portuguese-made APC's don't get to the US as frequently; Saga is a big-time US distributor. NuclearWessell, if you're based in Europe you have better access to the APC instruments than we do; I've seen quite a few TC's, but not APC's, here in the States.

From what I've been able to glean off the internet, the APC's are bigger-bodied, all-solid woods, and a bit more "handmade" than the TC's -- which are also solid woods, but have a somewhat smaller, shallower body. Have you the opportunity to play an example of each brand? Doubt you'll find too many on the Cafe who've owned or played both.

[NuclearWessell]

Thanks everyone for your input. This was actually a roundabout way of getting an opinion for a mandocello purchase. APC sells a mandocello (called a mandoloncello in Portuguese) for around $450 shipped. Since I know that Trinity College makes a pretty good instrument, I wanted to get a comparison to the equivalent APC CBOM's.

Folkreps.com is the main source for all things APC, and it is easy to order from them. You just have to do a conversion from Euros to Dollars to get the price.

Also, as Mr. Mandosopher pointed out, Moloney Music is a great source for these instruments as well. I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this. It ended up being cheaper, and it comes with a setup!

Anyway, when it comes I will update this thread with my impressions.

[John Flynn]

I don't know anything about APC. Never owned a Trinity, but I've played a lot of them. IMHO the pros of the Trinity are: Great fit and finish for the price, a great hard case you can get with it, great tuners, easy to play with the slim neck shape and short scale. The biggest con is a lack of bass response. Some people have tried to counter this by using mandola strings, but I can't vouch for that.