i'm slowly getting interested in an oval hole mandolin again, but i'm not sure the combination i'd like is out there. i only have two mandolins and am very satisfied with them (Stanley A5 and Martin A) but there is a void to fill with the right oval hole. There have been two in the stable, a '25 A snakehead, and a '23 F4 sans Virzi. The ears found their sound to be too tubby with weak E strings to stand the test of time.
Not intrested in Gibson or the extreme high and low ends, such as Gilchrist and Pacrim offerings. But tone, playability and good workmanship are the main things. Even and good volume across the strings/up and down the neck, overtones, resonance, and sweet tone. Neck rather v shaped and 1 1/16" at the nut. Need not be fancy. The kind of mandolin i would have a lot of trouble putting down and folks would recognize its sweetness of tone and volume.
There don't seem to be many out there like this for sale, so the piggy bank should be able to rest easy for a long, long time.
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