I've been seeing a few shops online with house brand mandolins and I've been intrigued. Some of them share some characteristics and as I looked into it, it appears that they source their instruments from the same builder in China. It appears that the Chinese builder sells online directly as well. The brand is Afanti from the Pango instrument factory.
Of course the mandolins that are sold through shops have custom inlay and logo, and maybe a different tailpiece or tuners or bridge or something, and are also setup by the shop, some even claiming to "tap tune" them. The shops sell them for $1000 to $1300 for the A styles, and $1200 to $1500 for F styles. One shop also sells them with the factory branding for about $100 less than their shop brand. Anyhow, I'm not naming names, and I'd ask you to refrain as well, since I have not dealt with those shops nor have I seen the quality of their setup.
One other note before digging in, I'm sure that the USA shops that sell these as a house brand provide some sort of warranty that might be worth something. The Chinese direct route claims to have a warranty, but who knows if it is valid or if you'd be out the time and expense of shipping an instrument to China for repair.
So, I ordered one from the builder off of their ebay listing for $585
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Top-Handcra...17/17341576875
I picked the Honey with Tortoise binding. I e-mailed with the builder and their rep said that they are hand carved, solid wood. I'm guessing that they are initially CNC cut and hand finished, but maybe not.
This model comes in several colors with different binding colors as well.
They do make cheaper mandolins with laminate wood, so be aware of what you are looking at if you choose one of their other models.
It took several weeks for the order to arrive from China, but it was very well packed and arrived unscathed.
I unpacked it and was pleasantly surprised by the build quality. The 1 thing I did not expect was the fretboard was very dry, but a bit of fretboard oil took care of that.
Anyhow, here's a video review. I'll add more later when I have time:
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