any ideas?

[FadeOutAgain]

My Uncle just gave me his old Mandolin for a an early Christmas gift. He doesn't know any thing about it and neither do I. It has no maker or model printed on it, expect for a made in Korea sticker. help would be greatly appreciated. he told me got it for $180 at a pawn shop.

[mrmando]

He was ripped off!

Worth half what he paid for it, and I'm being generous.

[Rick Crenshaw]

The question of whether you got a nice mandolin can be answered better by knowing how it plays and sounds. I have an old Framus that I bought off the classifieds that by all rights should be a dog, but it is sweet. Looks kinda like that mandolin, but I'm sure that is not a Framus. Looks like a Kay or Stradolin, too, but again, it is not. So you have a Korean copy of a Kay mandolin... that says nothing about the quality of sound or playability. You might have a nice mandolin to learn on. My son uses my Framus for blues and rock and loves it.

[MikeEdgerton]

I can tell you what it is. It's a mandolin that was imported under dozens of brand names and some with no brand name at all and sold all over the US. Here's a thread with several different examples of this same mandolin.

[Jake Wildwood]

1970s cheapo Asian import probably from Korea, probably all laminate.

[brunello97]

Whatever the quality of the instrument (and the tone of some of the comments here) consider it a thoughtful gift from your Uncle.

Most important is that it is playable for whatever the cost or type of materials. A local repair shop can probably attend to that for not an excessively high cost. I hope you learn to play on it and love the mandolin enough to continue to explore the many different kinds of mandolins, old and new, expensive and inexpensive.

Mick

[Jake Wildwood]

...! Good point Mick, I didn't mean to sound like a grump there, myself. It's just my stock reaction.

I played an Asian-made Goya A-style copy from the '70s for a long time until I upgraded (at the time the nice old "family mandolin" was in serious disrepair), and it served me just fine.

[mandobassman]

He was ripped off!

Worth half what he paid for it, and I'm being generous.

I was thinking the same thing. I have a Johnson MA-120 that I bought on Craigslist for $40 that is probably a better mandolin. You can buy a brand new Kentucky KM-180S for about $190 and have a much better quality mandolin. That mandolin is just a cheap Asian Kay copy and is probably made with plywood. Not that you can't have some fun with it, just don't expect too much in terms of quality.