Re: Chinese made mandolins (Northfield?)
I think we need to focus our attention not so much on 'country of origin' as 'quality of shop origin.' Northfield's shop in China employs skilled luthiers and craftsmen to build instruments. It is not a mass-production factory focused on making a product to meet lower price points. The quality of materials is top notch, as is the skill of the workers building them. I've had an opportunity to play Northfields side by side with Collings and Gibsons. From my limited experience, the Northfield instruments compare favorably to the two big US makers.
“Like winds and sunsets, wild things were taken for granted until progress began to do away with them. Now we face the question whether a still higher ‘standard of living’ is worth its cost in things natural, wild and free.” -- Aldo Leopold
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