handmade eBay mandos

[CatJag]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...728820547&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws....37&rd=1

I've seen these on eBay a couple times now. Almost bought one last time, but decided not too at the last minute. They sure do look pretty. Has anyone ever heard of the builder? Played one?

[Magnus Geijer]

Can't really give you any new information here. (So why am I posting?) There are two things that strike me as odd though. The 0-fret is one. Isn't it strangely far from the nut? Also it seems to me that the fret board doesn't taper at all, but is the same width at the nut as at the 18th fret. Very nice looking maple though.

[mrmando]

Builder's name is Allen Gerrell and he's had at least a dozen of these mandos on ebay in the past year.

I have an earlier pic at emando.com; there does seem to be a tiny bit of taper on the fretboard. Zero fret placement does look odd -- almost as though there's more space between frets 1 and 2 than between frets 0 and 1.

[b.pat]

Well, I can't be a lot of help on the electric, but I did buy Two {don't ask why} of his acoustics. Kind of "Folk artsy" if you get my drift. Lots of hand work for not much money. I sure wouldn't do all the inlay ect for $250.
A few weeks later I had a problem with one. The heel split and the neck started to pull up. I was offered a refund but decided to return it to be repaired. This was done ,but before he could ship it back, the same thing happened again. Several weeks later I requested a refund,and HE got pi%^&*ted. Finaly received a partial refund. Don't know he seemed like a nice guy until the refund was requested . Maybe I just caught him at a bad time .
This is my first post down here. Didn't even know you were here. Think I'll pull out my old eletric and order a new set of strings.
Later,
B.Pat

[neal]

I bought one of the little mandolin guitars from him last year. Sent it back, made by a child. Sorry, but it really was quite primitive.

[krishna]

Cat,just from the pics,I think it`s a mistake to buy one.It does`nt look like he has a clue...

[cascadepicker]

Is anyone familiar with Rick Felkel of Elloree Guitars work? I saw on his web site that he also builds electric mando's.
#Any opinions? good or bad?
# #CP

[Jim M.]

A friend of mine owns the double-necked mando/octave mando that's shown on the site. Seems well-made for the money, but it weighs a ton. Sounds very electric. I'm not a big fan of e-mandos, I'd rather have something that sounds like it's made of wood. But I've heard that Rick is a good guy to deal with.