Received the T49 in the mail Friday and can't put it down. Nice fit and finish. Sweet tone in original CGDA tuning. Sounds a bit banjo-like when picking individual notes, but not in an offensive way. It's loud, so playing dynamically is critical. Sounds good with my husband's Gibson J-45. Setup nicely for either conventional fretting or playing some notes with a slide. (I think slide is next in line on the learning curve.) Intonation bang on out of the box. A bit heavy-it's built like a banjo with a 2X2 stick that goes right through the body) So a good padded guitar strap is next on the shopping list.
Pleasantly surprised how good the NR-2 Schatten passive pickup sounds through my Genz Benz acoustic amp. (good volume without going through a DI) Excellent realistic acoustic tone, no feedback issues so far, but have not yet tried it at a jam with drums and electric guitar. Frank did an excellent job installing before the pickup prior to shipping. Frank's customer service is beyond reproach.
Non-radiused fretboard, appears to have an adjustable truss rod. Neck seems slightly wider than my Blueridge BR-60 tenor, but easy to finger and extra width not a problem. Impressed with the finishing detail-back of the neck and fretboard feels nice and smooth as you move your hand up and down and fret edges have been smoothed, no sharp edges. Compared to the a Johnson resonator mandolin, seems that a bit more attention to finishing detail was given.
I had considered changing to GDAE tuning. Tried it with the original strings (10,16 24w,36w) but found the tone a bit lacking and the strings a bit floppy. Frank suggested some other gauges to try GDAE tuning, but having fun in the original tuning for now.
Two thumbs up!
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