About a year and a half ago I bought my first mandolin--an Eastman MD-505 sunburst--from the Denver Folklore Center. I loved the sound and appearance of the instrument, and it was a pleasure to start learning how to play it. But I had this constant frustration when picking or chopping on the G course. I had so much difficulty getting a clear tone without a buzz. And I frequently pushed the outer string right off the edge of the frets. I assumed it was just my poor beginner technique, but (long story short) it turned out that the buzzing was due to the outer G string being too close to the edge of the frets/fingerboard because the tailpiece was misaligned. It was subtle to my untrained eye--a local luthier pointed it out to me. I called Denver Folklore Center to tell them about the issue. They had me send some pictures, and after consulting with their Eastman rep, they and the rep agreed that this was covered by the Eastman warranty and that they would replace the mandolin! Yesterday they received their shipment of new mandolins from Eastman, and I went down to the shop and picked out a replacement, a really beautiful instrument. I chose a non-sunburst style, which I like even better than the sunburst models. Another surprise is that the one I selected has wide frets instead of the very narrow gauge frets that the older instrument had. When I brought it home to play, I discovered that I can use a lighter touch with the wider frets, and for the first time I can easily do clear-ringing triplet slides! Mark, from Denver Folklore Center, was totally patient, friendly, and accommodating to me as I checked out three different instruments, and carefully transferred all the "accoutrements" (strap, grommets, armrest, leather string-damping strip) from my old instrument to the new one. While the new mando is very nicely set up, with perfect intonation all the way up the neck, Mark told me to bring it back in in a few months after it's had time to settle, and he'll check it out and give it a thorough setup. I'm so happy with my new mandolin–I can play the G strings cleanly now!–and want to give Brian and Mark at Denver Folklore Center and Eastman Mandolins a huge thank you for being so great and standing behind their products. If you're in the area, Denver Folklore Center is THE place to go for all acoustic stringed instruments, books, and supplies.
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