Is a Rogue a mistake for a beginner?

[PJ Doland]

They're actually totally serviceable instruments if you put a little effort into setting them up.

And even after you upgrade you'll always have a "beater" to take camping or leave in your office.

-PJ

[NursingDaBlues]

In my opinion, the mistake would be to delay getting a mandolin while there is still a fire in the belly. I truly understand (and faintly remember) my college days, so I understand meager funds. In my life, I have found that learning an instrument is as much motivation as it is the instrument. While it’s not a great mandolin, the Rogue is one that many have purchased and learned on. With the addition of Rob Meldrum’s set-up book that Allen Hopkins provided an email link to in his post, you’re ready to start on your wonderful mandolin journey.

I don’t know where you’re located, but just be sure that you’ve combed the pawnshops, music stores, thrift stores, craigslist ads, and bulletin boards for other likely candidates in your price range.

Whatever direction you choose, I wish you success and enjoyable picking.

[Br1ck]

I'd also place a want to buy add in the classifieds. There must be hundreds of playable instruments out there that don't even get taken camping because now our beaters are Eastman MD505s and the like. Give someone a reason to clean out their closet.

[Rob Meldrum]

I've weighed in on this topic before. If you're new to the mandolin and not sure if it is going to be your passion there is no better way to start than to buy the Rogue, set it up yourself, and play it. You'll know in 6 months or so if it is going to stick with you - or you with it. After a year or so of practice you'll be ready for a better instrument. You'll have the skills to play other instruments and know which one(s) speaks to you.

My favorite deal (no financial interest on my part) at Musicians Friend is the guitar and mandolin two-fer. Nice spruce-top dreadnaught and the mandolin for $99.95, delivered. Right now they have a 10% off Labor Day deal on, so it's $90 plus tax. You cannot beat that deal. Buy new strings for each instrument. Set them up. Have fun. BTW it's nice to have a guitar for a friend to play while you play the mandolin.

For the free setup guide, email me at rob.meldrum@gmail.com, put mandolin setuo in the subject line, and I will email you the pdf book. Enjoy!

Rob

[A 4]

A $50 Rogue was my first mandolin. Here's the thing: if it were more expensive, I may never have tried mandolin, let alone picked up any musical instrument (I was an adult beginner). Is that worth $50? Oh, yes. Getting started on the path is important, and an inexpensive mandolin greases that path a bit.

Let's say you try the Rogue, and three months later figure out that you love mandolin but are not satisfied with what you have...have you wasted your money? I would say no, even if you could have put that to a nicer mandolin. You got three months of learning/playing out of it, you learned you wanted to move on, learned enough so that you can try other mandolins and pick one you like more, and you can keep it as a travel mando or pass it on to someone else.

Maybe I got lucky, but I didn't need to do much to my Rogue: set the bridge for intonation, set the bridge height, and go. I know I later fit the bridge to the top, but not right away, and I did not need to adjust the nut or truss rod.

[Mark Wilson]

Go for it.

[HonketyHank]

And heck, when you do move up, you can give the Rogue to another potential mandolinner and it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

[JeffD]

I agree with those who say get the best you can afford - if you are sure that you are going to love it. If you are not sure, I would beg, borrow, or rent something for a couple of weeks, to plink on and see if you are going to like it, and save even the cost of an entry level mandolin.

Getting the best one can afford is different from getting the most expensive you can afford. There are mandolins you can get that are great value for the dollar, and worser ones that cost more. Depending. So for example if you are not necessarily going full out bluegrass, you can often get into a higher quality, better made, better materials instrument getting a flat top instead of an arch top. A flatty can do it all, but does not have that particular bluegrassy gibsonny sound bluegrassers crave.

If bluegrass is already your passion, then we are talking arch tops, and you can normally get a better A style mandolin for the same price as you would pay for an F style.

I personally have the prejudice that there is nothing to be gained buying real cheap if you can afford better. I am not of the school one sees sometimes in the guitar world where one gets all kinds of mojo out of the cheapest guitar shaped object, fixed up and stapled together, better if found in the men's room at the bus stop, with a jute chord for a strap and an old jasmine rice canvas sack for a case.

OTOH if you are one to work on your own mandolins, and modification, set up, fixing etc., are part of the fun for you, there is great value in getting a cheapie and learning how to customize and set it up. Worst case, you aren't out a whole lot of money.

[mandroid]

Hey everyone, this is my first post and I had a quick question for all of y'all. I'm a college student looking to get into playing mandolin and I have learned that most any instrument I get will need a form of setting up before it will be properly playable. Considering I only have meager funds right now I was wondering if I should just buy one of the Rogue 100A mandolins for $50 and then try to learn how to set it up myself. I figure that I would rather mess up something cheap than a beautiful instrument that I have invested into.

Considering I do plan on playing mandolin long term though, I am wondering if this will be a mistake and I should just bite the bullet and buy a higher quality instrument.

Thank you all for any feedback!

Been thru this many times before..
Better to get something sold already set up, by the retail dealer , rogue from musicians friend ships
un opened cartons, out of a warehouse.

You are then the one that has to go find or do the set up..

[rljmusic13]

I own and play a Rogue. It will need some improvements to be a better playing instrument but when you are short on cash it is a great way to get in the game. You WILL want to do a slot filing on this to get the action lowered. and you will want to take a look at a video by Rosa String works. He can do a full meal deal on a Rogue and have it ready to play and you will get some enjoyment out of it. You can get a cast brass tailpiece on e bay that looks like the Bailey one and a set of Grover tuners and a fairly nice beginning instrument that has great sustain and great tuners. I use GHS Bobby Osborne strings on mine. You can get a Rogue starter kit with a gig bag, strap, tuner and strings for under 100 dollars and get a set of Grovers and a cast brass tail piece on ebay and still be under 200 dollars and you will at least be able to learn and join in on some jam sessions. Then later look into getting a Washburn or a Rogue or even an Eastman if you stay with it and need an upgrade. Those other brands make decent mandolins. I have a Washburn M3SWK F body that I bought used. I did change the tuners out for a set of Grovers and got a strap for it and I did my own setup.
Anyhow the Rogue is a great beginner mandolin and once set up it is a pretty good player.

[backpacker]

I've weighed in on this topic before. If you're new to the mandolin and not sure if it is going to be your passion there is no better way to start than to buy the Rogue, set it up yourself, and play it. You'll know in 6 months or so if it is going to stick with you - or you with it. After a year or so of practice you'll be ready for a better instrument. You'll have the skills to play other instruments and know which one(s) speaks to you.

My favorite deal (no financial interest on my part) at Musicians Friend is the guitar and mandolin two-fer. Nice spruce-top dreadnaught and the mandolin for $99.95, delivered. Right now they have a 10% off Labor Day deal on, so it's $90 plus tax. You cannot beat that deal. Buy new strings for each instrument. Set them up. Have fun. BTW it's nice to have a guitar for a friend to play while you play the mandolin.

For the free setup guide, email me at rob.meldrum@gmail.com, put mandolin setuo in the subject line, and I will email you the pdf book. Enjoy!

Rob

I have played mandolin for several years. (mostly poorly) Guitar is my main instrument. I sent Rob an email regarding his Mandolin set up eBook. He emailed me the eBook. Today has been a cold, wet, rainy Saturday, so I read through the "book". He gives what I believe are very good instructions and it truthfully does not seem to be a difficult task. My current mandolin sounds good and plays well, but I am seriously considering buying a Rogue just to try doing a set up. He also had a youtube video of Rogue mando before and after set up. Quite a difference. If you were to follow his instructions a Rogue should be a good mando to learn on.

[Sothoth]

Buy what you can afford, upgrade later if you love playing. As others have said, it's better to play something than it is to not play because you don't have a mandolin.

If you love playing it, you'll find yourself wanting an upgrade fairly soon, but that's how it's supposed to work. Have fun!

[Smyrna5]

I know this is a dinosaur thread, but still useful for beginners considering a Rogue. I can only say that for me, it was not a mistake buying a Rogue for $42.99 delivered to my door a month or so ago. I got Rob's book, and watched a few videos on setting it up and had at it. Only weeks after getting it, I was in love with the instrument enough to order a new Kentucky km252 on sale. The 252 is back-ordered, but in the meantime, I have a mandolin to learn on, and either sell later, give away, or just use as campfire mandolin. Well worth the pocket change for me. I play it every day and enjoy it.

I will say that if you are not a DIY person as I am, you may want to get a better mandolin to start with that is already set up. Mine was playable (and even enjoyable) before I set it up, but its far more fun to play now. I also learned from the Rogue that even though I feel confident setting one up now, it is probably worth paying the custom mandolin maker I found in my vicinity that says he will set up my Kentucky for $45-$65 when I get it.

[Dave Fultz]

Almost any new mandolin is better than the $50 Rover. I had one and traded it in.

Imagine buying a new car that was not tuned and the wheel alignment was all out of place, and the doors weren’t adjusted to shut properly. That’s the $50 Rover.

However, maybe stupidly, I am considering buying another one, and while reading Rob Meldrums book, see if I can do it up proud. Then give it to our Folk Music Society’s instrument petting zoo.

[Foolish Frost]

I think the problem is threefold.

1. It’s not that a cheap mandolin CAN’T be good, it’s that it tends to take trying several to find one that isn’t bad.
2. The neck on the really cheap ones can’t be adjusted. No rod to Chang the bend. This means no way to correct the neck for curvature issues.
3. The setup by a luthier costs roughly $100 with new strings, neck and bridge work, and the like. So that can triple the price. Generally, I did a basic setup on my own, and it was ‘fine’. A pro did it and it rang like a bell.

So, it’s down to, do you pay $150 for that rogue to be ‘fine’, or double that with a $300 one that sounds ‘pretty darn good’.

[dhergert]

I see nothing wrong with starting on a Rogue and getting a copy of Rob's e-book to learn the setup. I'd rather see somebody experiment on a $50.00 Rogue than a $500.00 Eastman. If you decide it isn't for you you're not out a whole lot and if you decide it is for you you're going to start buying more expensive mandolins anyway no matter what you started with.

^^^^ This ^^^^

The important thing to keep in mind with any inexpensive mandolin is that it will not play well until it has been setup. Whether you do that setup yourself using Rob's eBook, or have a professional setup person do the work, it needs to be done before you become too attached to that inexpensive mandolin (to avoid learning bad habits that accommodate the shortfalls of the instrument's original setup).

A good setup from a pro will probably cost ~$100, and it will worth every cent. Or, following the instructions in Rob's eBook will require some tools, a little handy woodworking aptitude and will take some time to do it well. And just so you don't feel bad about it, in general a good setup has to happen with almost any new mandolin under ~$5K (and some over that price).

Just also note, a good number of the supporting advertisers here in the Cafe' provide a great setup on the new Rogue mandolins that they sell for not very much money, so then the mandolin comes to you ready to play.

Just remember, it is an inexpensive instrument, so don't expect to resell it in the future for a great resale value... However when you are ready to move on to something better, your Rogue will continue to serve you very nicely as a backup mandolin for those situations where you don't want to risk your better mandolin.

Most of all, enjoy your mandolin, whatever you get!

[Br1ck]

Both I and dhergert worked wonders on our MK mandolins, but there was a lot to work with. The horrible factory setup was the main issue. These were solid wood mandolins. I'd only spend my time on something I thought could be good. But the fact remains there is no reason a Rogue can't be made to play well. What you can't overcome is the sound.

But the fact also remains that any mandolin is better than no mandolin at all.

[JeffD]

Put all your money into your second mandolin. You will know what you like, you will have developed a discerning ear to chose better, and you will appreciate it more having struggled with whatever your first one was.

I have still not exceeded the capabilities of my second mandolin, and that was a bunch of mandolins ago.

[dhergert]

Both I and dhergert worked wonders on our MK mandolins, but there was a lot to work with. The horrible factory setup was the main issue. These were solid wood mandolins. I'd only spend my time on something I thought could be good. But the fact remains there is no reason a Rogue can't be made to play well. What you can't overcome is the sound.

But the fact also remains that any mandolin is better than no mandolin at all.

Yes!!!

However, I'd probably also submit that a whole lot of the sound of an instrument is in the touch of the player. I've heard some pretty lousy instruments sound wonderful in the hands of a master.

That said, whether a person can learn all the skills needed to become a master on a Rogue mandolin is a fair question.

[William Smith]

Any Mandolin is better than no mandolin in my opinion, its a learning experience that helps you learn set up, playing chords, double stops etc...It will want you to keep stepping up in mando quality! I started off on a not so good mandolin, then started trading up and saving up with work $ and credit till I have some really great mandolins now "after way too many to speak of that didn't make the cut". Sure the better mandolin will make you want to play more again in my opinion because of the quality of sound/build etc.... But again any mandolin is better than nothing!

[Br1ck]

The voice that is missing here is the 'I bought a mandolin and it hurt so bad I quit' person. I have no idea, but that could be 90% of everyone who ever bought a Rogue. What we have here are the people whose will was such that they overcame the obstacles. Kudos to them, but what's the big picture?

[Smyrna5]

The voice that is missing here is the 'I bought a mandolin and it hurt so bad I quit' person. I have no idea, but that could be 90% of everyone who ever bought a Rogue. What we have here are the people whose will was such that they overcame the obstacles. Kudos to them, but what's the big picture?

I think that is correct, but I don't think those folks read the forum. I am also guessing that 95% of the people that try any instrument give up when they find out that it is work to learn it. I would never recommend a Rogue (or even an un-setup guitar or ukulele) to a non-handy person who isn't going to have an expert set it up. Coming mostly from the ukulele world for the last 8 years, I have played an awful lot of really bad action ukes that had such high action that the intonation was unbearable (to me anyway). Some of them were not even cheap instruments.

[chuck3]

The voice that is missing here is the 'I bought a mandolin and it hurt so bad I quit' person. I have no idea, but that could be 90% of everyone who ever bought a Rogue. What we have here are the people whose will was such that they overcame the obstacles. Kudos to them, but what's the big picture?

Good post. My first was a Rogue and it certainly didn't encourage me to love playing mandolin. But I've played enough musical instruments of different kinds to have recognized that, so I upgraded to an Eastman. A common progression I guess. Then once I played the Eastman I knew it was worth investing in a Collings.

[Roger Moss]

The voice that is missing here is the 'I bought a mandolin and it hurt so bad I quit' person.

That's probably because they don't play mandolin now, and therefore won't be lurking around here.

[Mandoplumb]

My first mandolin would probably make a rogue seem to play like "butter" but I would practice on it all week because on Fri. Night there was a jam at the local barber shop whose owner would let me play his A50 Gibson for a little while. Man that mandolin played good and sounded great. P.S. It took years but I now own that A50 and a few more better mandolins but there's a lot of memories in that little mandolin.