As some of you may have seen, I received an A5 mandolin direct from the factory in China a while ago:
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...MD-717)-review
I really like it and decided to see how the F5 compares, so I ordered one as well.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Top-Handcra...9/173415842484
I finally had time today to unbox it and get to work on it. As before with the Afanti A5, it was well boxed and survived the cross-Pacific trip with no problems.
As with the A5, the fretboard was dry and needed a bit of oil
I went through the setup and sanded the bridge base, adjusted the nut, and set the action. As I was going over it, I found that 2 frets near the neck joint are a bit high on the bass side and they will have to be leveled. It could be a small bump in the fingerboard there, or it could be the frets aren't seated quite right. Anyhow, that is above my pay-grade so I brought it to my local mandolin repair shop and they are going to take care of that for me. They are seriously backlogged with setups from folks who bought instruments off of Amazon for the holidays, so it may be a week or so until they can get to it.
Before I took it in to them, I did string it up and play for about an hour. I really like the sound. It is more treble sounding than the A5, and a bit punchier. I think this has to do with the different body sizes. The A5 has a 10-3/16" bout, while the F5 has a more standard 9-7/8" bout. The A5 has a 14th fret neck joint and the A5 has a 15th fret. Also, in order to avoid buzzing from the high frets, I raised the bridge a bit more than I would normally, so that could also be why it has more of a punch to it.
Here are a few photos:
Overall the build quality is good, as I found with the A5. The scroll is pretty clean, though no attempt to polish inside the curve was made.
The F5 has upgraded tuning machines vs the A5, with what appear to be Grover Deluxe 308 F tuners
The gold hardware is otherwise the same as the silver on the A5, solid cast tailpiece with guitar style endpin.
I love the honey amber stain and the tortoise binding is nice with 4 layer B-W-B-W purfling on the top and back, with single W purfling on the sides. Corners on the points are good, with the tortoise binding from front to back.
I will report back with some sound files once I receive it back from the shop.
Thanks!
Al
Bookmarks