What is the worst mandolin you have played?

[RBM]

Threads abound with everyone's idea of the best A or F best under $1,000, under $5,000 best over . Let's cut tothe chase - tell us about the worst you have owned.

[onlyagibsonisgoodenuff]

I still have it. My Grampa's old bowlback. Won't even stay in tune, can't hold the durn thing cause it's always trying to look at the sky. Good wallhanger, though.

[TheNaivePicker]

I never owned it... But I went to a new giant music store in town, and to my supprise they had one 'Dean' mando. I Dont know If some other Dean mandos are any good, but this one was down right...How you say...Odd?!
IT was badly out of tune, and it wouldnt stay in tune, the Tone sounded awful, (no offence to Dean mando Owners) But this one must have been messed with or something..

[evanreilly]

THE BIG HONDO!!!!

[John Flynn]

My first mandolin: It was a "Lotus," A-style "plywood special" from Korea. You can still buy them from Appollo's Axes, although I got mine from a store. The action was bad, the sound was "pure tin," the pickguard buzzed to certain notes, the tailpiece buzzed to other notes and something in the headstock buzzed to still other notes. But I have to say, that with some amatuer repair work, I got it playing decently with no buzzing and it got me through my first year of playing the mando, including some performances. Plus, I got about 60% of what I had in it on a trade-up. It was a POS, though!

[jmkatcher]

Johnson MA-550, the nadir of octaves. Its musical ability was inversely proportional to its ornamentation. Fretting was godawful too. Must have been an off day in the slave labor camp in China when they made it.

[Rroyd]

A plywood Stella a friend of mine abandoned on a picnic table during a cloudburst, which then changed shape during the drying process. #We now plan to give it to gdae_boy1 in exchange for his new Brunkalla, so that he can play it on the beach and not have to worry about it suffering any further damage.

[AeroJoe]

Ditto on the ol' Hondo...worst sounding higher priced mando was an old Gibson F-12...

[smilnJackB]

I have to go with a Hondo too. It was an ebay purchase that I later sold for a small profit (God, forgive me).
However, the biggest dissapointments I've had in mando sampling were 2 new Gibson A styles at two separate shops. I had high expectations and they had low delivery - not much tone.. Jack

[Unseen122]

Johnson MA-550, the nadir of octaves.

Be careful you might offende some people such as me I am not even going to get into an argument. No the worst mand I have played was a no name i bought in Mexico tuning was hell the E strings would break while I was tuning the A trings the action was horrible it even beat a Johnson MA-100.

[8ch(pl)]

El Degas, plywood, bent neck unplayable above 6th fret.

[JGWoods]

I played a (edited) by some guy named Brunkala. He said it was his first try at building a mandolin so I kinda forgave him and told him to try something easier to build, like violins...


2nd prize- my eBay bowlback

gw


Ooooops- I don't know Martin Brunkalla and never played one of his instruments. I should never have put this message up. I guess I could delete it, but for now I am saying sorry Martin,
happy pickin,
gw

Hey i dont know most mandolins i play sound decent. But I was in a music store and i tried a cheap Alpha 1 and it didnt play or sound 2 nice. Hey cool thread!

[gdae85]

I played a piece of junk by some guy named Brunkala. He said it was his first try at building a mandolin so I kinda forgave him and told him to try something easier to build, like violins...

lol!

[merv]

without a doubt the worst one was my first mandolin an old hohner neck was warped , the top was collapsing and the tone was way off past the fourth fret . It is now a hanging vine pot in my living room . looks better now than when i first got it.

[Flatpick]

A Vega bowlback.......

[flairbzzt]

It had to be an old no name banjo mandolin which had spaces between the individual strings as wide or wider than the spaces between pairs. Also, an a-style called a "Cameo".

[fatt-dad]

Second (or is it fourth) vote for the ol' Hondo. I bought one on ebay for $41.00 and it sounds real bad. First vote (so far) for Framus. Mine is a flattop with all laminate construction. Awful sound and hard to play - ha.

f-d

[doanepoole]

Played an MK with 2 failed top braces.

Before the braces failed, I played it, and it was really a pretty good mando. After they failed, sounded like a dying dog begging for a scrap of moldy bread.

[odeman]

I've got you all beat. My first mandolin was a "Lindell" and it cost me $20 brand new. 'Must have been made in Mexico or somewhere ( this was before the Asian countries started making them ) but it had a slotted headpiece and you could tell it was made from plywood 50 feet away. It did get me through Navy Reserves bootcamp, though. In that sense, it was the best $20 I ever spent.

[Eugene]

A Vega bowlback.......

This is a little surprising to me. #Amongst bowlback fans (i.e. fans of real mandolins), Vega has a consistently solid reputation. #I have never come across one that strikes me as bad while even a couple of the Martins I've handled have given an impression of being a bit thin-toned and tinny. #Was this Vega in particularly bad shape?

[JeffS]

Haha, all these bad mandos people have experienced are the bread and butter of the local music stores I visit. Oh had only Skynyrd featured the mandolin things might be different.

[WireBoy]

I agree with JeffS. #Your typical neighborhood or chain music store will feature imported mass produced mandos that sound really terrible. #granted their top (sole) selling point is $cheap$, but whew! its supposed to be musical.

Next is the disappointment factor. #A lot of mando brands get mentioned here with glowing reviews by rabid fans. #when i finally catch up to model x and give it try, its often not what i expected. #sure there is the odd clunker but after playing several examples of model x, i'll often wonder what all the fuss was about. #but then i'll catch up to model y and be awed and come away thinking 'now i understand"

[Thomas]

Worst cheapo was a Johnson at my local music store. #Worst not cheapo was a Weber Yellowstone, also at my local music store. #The Johnson can speak for itself; low priced Pac-rim insturment. #The Yellowstone surprised me in just how bad it was. #Never played such a bad sounding mandolin for that price. #Yeah, I know all the reasons it could have sounded bad, so don't blame me, I'm just answering the question. #A man wants to sell a nice mandolin, he needs to make sure it sounds good, too. #

[Scotti Adams]

..my first mando I ever had was a A model harmony...at the time..when I was 12....I thought it sounded pretty good....only later did I realize that it sounded like fence post.....but you know..that little mando holds a special place in my heart...I learned on it...my kids have dragged it thru the sand box and all...but most of all its the mando that my folks got me that started me down this road to Mandoville. Ive still got it somewhere....minus a few frets that I pulled somewhere down the line to use them to replace the frets in a Alvarez F model that I later upgraded to.