Maestro mandocello

[mandolinstew]

At Amazon: $134 plus $25 shipping

[NotMelloCello]

Link?

[MikeEdgerton]

http://www.amazon.com/Mandocello-40-...rds=mandocello

Maestro is the seller's username. I can't figure out the brand.

[Theo W.]

That's one ugly duckling.

[MikeEdgerton]

One customer review and a half dozen comments here.

[NotMelloCello]

That's NOT the Maestro associated with Gibson, nor the one based in South America.
These are made in Korea, and yes - that thing is UGLY.

[MikeEdgerton]

If there was any way to cosmetically redeem that instrument I might consider buying one to mess with. You could strip that, change the headstock shape and anything else you wanted to do and it would still hurt your eyes to look at it.

[Bernie Daniel]

Hard to do much with that diamond shaped sound hole though. All it all it's not that bad IMO and for $135 you can't expect a K-5 I guess.

For great entertainment read the 6 comments (reviews) pretty interesting.

If the guy lived near me I'd invite him over to see if I could fix it up in my shop. At least I could show him how to get to the truss rod nut but it sounds like it is too late for that now!

[tkdboyd]

Sometimes I hate this site...

I'll have one coming sometime next week.

[Bernie Daniel]

Sometimes I hate this site...

I'll have one coming sometime next week.

Cool! I'll be really interested in knowing what strings they put on it.

[allenhopkins]

One customer review and a half dozen comments here.

Anyone interested should read this! An intelligent discussion, at some length, of the instrument's strengths and weaknesses, plus the initial reviewer's struggle with the zero fret.

Thanx, Mike!

[NotMelloCello]

I think the problem lies in the fact that a trained, experienced luthier was NOT consulted.

[delsbrother]

That thing is not a mandocello, it is (or is attempting to be) a mandole, traditionally used for Algerian Chaabi music. I suppose it could be tuned and used as a mandocello, but I believe the scale is different.

They have been discussed on the Cafe before, here.

[Jacob]

Label says "Made in China"

[garryireland]

That thing is not a mandocello, it is (or is attempting to be) a mandole, traditionally used for Algerian Chaabi music. I suppose it could be tuned and used as a mandocello, but I believe the scale is different.

They have been discussed on the Cafe before, here.

Have to agree with you there, looks the same scale etc as the Algerian Mandole that I have been looking at. Apc have just launched one and the dimensions look similar. Not saying you couldn't tune it as a 'cello but...doesn't look the most robust of instruments

[mandolinstew]

ahhh, a little mandole with your calzone.learn something every day

[Barry Wilson]

I bought a Maestro mandolin off ebay when I first joined this site. a blond. it was an interesting instrument to say. the bridge was a lefty, had rusted strings and screws... case was really nice.. I had to take a file to the neck

[MikeEdgerton]

Totally different manufacturer. The only thing named Maestro on this is the sellers username on Amazon.

[tkdboyd]

I should have one in my hands this afternoon. Will do my best to have a post about initial impressions this evening.

[tkdboyd]

Obviously the people making these things really don't know what a zero fret is for:


I am correct in thinking that all I need to do is pull up the nut and cut away at the bottom of the nut until the strings are touching the zero fret, or should I file down from the top and just recut the nut for the strings?

First impression: Glad I didn't spend more than I did on it. I don't see this holding up for very long, will certainly need to keep the string gauges very light. However it might be able to serve the purpose of laying down a mando family bass line.

It is around 25" scale, until I can properly set the bridge I won't know for sure the exact scale. And there is a truss rod in there.

Anyone recommend string gauges? I don't mind harvesting them from guitars. Wonder about using Gypsy Jazz strings, and just try to find for the C course?

[tkdboyd]

After working on the nut for a while and struggling to get it in tune, set the intonation, etc...was able to get a few open chords to sound okay, but anything past the 5th fret was off. Don't know yet if that is an issue with the frets not measured out correctly or what. But I'll keep messing with it.

I would hate for someone of no ability to either put some more money into it or work on it themselves to purchase this instrument, it would just leave them frustrated.

[MikeEdgerton]

If you read the comments on the listing they discuss the zero fret issue and yes, you are correct about that. Thankfully there is no money playing above the fifth fret so you might get by.

[Barry Wilson]

the original listing goes nowhere for me

[fox]

Good luck with your purchase, it seems zero frets are pretty fickle things to set up!
I bough a classical guitar with a zero fret & eventually gave up on it, I moved the nut down to the zero fret position in the end!
Unfortunately it always looked a little odd around the nut area but it sorted the issues.