MF blem

[John Bertotti]

Saw a mandobird blem with 10 percent more off at musicians friend. How are these instruments? Probably needs a different pickup? Thanks John

[Daniel Nestlerode]

Mandobirds are, on the whole, an excellent value. But before you go upgrading the electronics (which people have done to very good effect but IMHO is unnecessary) you'll need to do some set-up work.

I had to set the intonation on my 'bird correctly and play with the saddle height just a little.

The tone of the instrument will likely also benefit from a new nut made of a harder material than plastic.

Best,
Daniel

[John Bertotti]

Thanks Daniel, I have ruled it out already and glued up some slightly spalted maple with a heavy quilt to build my own. I have about 6 acoustic and 1 electric in the works now so I figure to get the hardware to finish them first. The electric is going to have a SD vintage rail pickup BTW. Thanks John

[Ellie]

GuitarpartsUSA has a good sounding dual rail pickup pretty cheap, too. I like his parts, they're very reasonable, and he's been good to deal with. I made my last mandocello neck from a maple fender style neck he's selling with no frets dirt cheap.
I just marked out the neck width I wanted and ripped it down each side and reshaped the neck edges. The cost was less than I'd have paid for a truss rod and the maple, and it comes with an undrilled headstock easy to recut for mando tuners.
I have gotten a few of those MF blem instruments, and acoustic bass guitar and an electric sitar Danelectro copy. The two I got were barely blemished, and worked out fine after the usual tweaking most new instruments need.
My only complaint about using guitar pickups in electric mandos is that they're too wide, visually, and look sort of clunky. That's why I started making my own pickups.

[rlw]

I do a lot business with MF. They are fast and prompt.

But, after my only experience purchasing a BLEM from
them I would say you have to BEWARE.

I order an inexpensive keyboard amp that way expecting maybe a little scuffing on the exterior.
What I got was a amp in a cardboard box to packing material what so ever. The from of the speaker cabinet looked like someone put their foot through it. The speakers and front of the cabinet where pushed back about 6" into what was left of the cabinet. Even the chasis of the amp was bent.

I called them and told them to please have someone come out and pick up this junk. They had Fedex remove it the following morning. Great service but watch out for blems.

[ryru14]

I also do a lot of business with MF, but I would second what rlw said. I bought a epiphone special II guitar and the the blem was that the headstock had been broken off and then glued back on. It held up for 2 years and now has brken off again.