70s/80s Suzuki bowlback mandola in DAEA?

[DickB]

Some time lurker, first time poster.

I've got the opportunity to pick up a 1980 Suzuki MD-518 mandola for around € 200. Online, that is, so I can't actually try it in person first.

I've seen a couple for sale for everything from 180 to 400. Found a couple of threads on old Suzuki mandolins where the general consensus seems to suggest the bowls were somewhat overbuilt with a thin sound, and the necks prone to warping.

However, I'd string it up with 11-40 strings and tune it up to DAEA, Brian McDonagh and Andy Irvine style. With the 17" scale I'd get pretty much the same tension as on my bouzouki, which is significantly less than that of the 14-49 sets that seem to be the norm for 17" scale instruments in CGDA. I'm hoping that the reduced tension, in combination with the longer theoretical scale of the higher tuning, might remedy some of the problems associated with these instruments.

Any thoughs on this idea?

Any thoughts on these old Suzukis in general? What would be a fair price, for example?

[DickB]

Ended up passing on this one. Will probably save up for a shortscale octave mandolin instead. Seems to suit this tuning much better, especially for chords.

[dan in va]

i had a nice looking Suzuki bowl back in the early 1970's that separated badly where the neck joined the body. It was made with no joint, the neck just cut off flush with the body head block and end grain glued together. Was looking for one last year and found this problem is documented. Don't know if the design flaw was addressed or not later.