Merano mandolin

[Silla88]

My father was given this mandolin. The tag inside says it's a Merano MR-80. It is identical to the Suzuki and says made in japan. I can't find anything online about a merano only Suzuki. Does anyone know why it says merano or when it was made.

[DavidKOS]

I think there were several Japanese makers of similar mandolins, Suzuki was one of them - and they used quite a number of names on the labels.

Some of them play quite well - others are overbuilt, have too much finish, and sound rather dull. I hope yours is one of the good ones.