Eastwood Seafoam Mandocaster? - Any good?

[York]

I was looking at E-mandos and I stumbled across the Eastwood Mandocaster. It looks pretty good. Does it play very well? Any tweaking needed?

[Ron McMillan]

There are about a half-dozen (maybe more) brands of mandocaster that almost certainly come out of the same factory in China. Other brands include Harley Benton, Revelation, Alden and Clearwater. Quality across the brands varies a little, apparently; one expert told me that in his experience Eastwood and Revelation were consistently the best made (maybe different customers dictate differing levels of appointments and/or quality control).

They are eminently playable straight out of the box, though a re-set of the neck is often needed to improve the action. Unlike on most mandolins this is a very easy job. Just unbolt the neck and put card or thin plastic at whatever end of the four-bolt joint requires raising.

The pick-ups are built down to a price, of course, and replacements from Almuse in the UK and Moongazer in the USA are popular upgrades. Moongazer also produces a good replacement bridge that allows for individual intonation adjustments for each course of strings.

[York]

Ive seen Almuse's mandolins and their pickups. What type of four string pickups from almuse would you recommend?

[Ron McMillan]

Ive seen Almuse's mandolins and their pickups. What type of four string pickups from almuse would you recommend?

Contact Pete Mallinson via the Almuse website. He is good at responding to any questions about his products and will recommend what he thinks will work best for you.

[zedmando]

I've played them, I like them.
I bought a Mandobird, mostly because I found a great deal on one--if it had been a Mandocaster, I may have bought that one.

Although the Mandobird looks cooler.