I need help choosing a new mandolin

[mattmrob99]

I started playing last August using a $50 used Savannah A-Style. I am wanting to get a new instrument but I need help choosing.

I'm a very casual player. I really play only for my own enjoyment. I might go jam with a couple guitar playing buddies or a jam circle at a festival, but that is it. I'll never be in a band or anything like that so I wouldn't need an instrument of that high a caliber, or one with a pickup.

I know I want an F-Style, but that's about it. Whatever I buy will most likely being the last mandolin I buy. I need help with is choosing the right instrument for me. I was thinking around $500 would get me an appropriate instrument (Loar LM-520??), but I could be way off base or how much I need to spend to get what will meet my needs.

Any suggestions are welcome!

[Brutus1999]

You might not need to spend $500, but if you are willing to spend that much, and you REALLY want "The Scroll" (I assume that's what you mean by "F-style"), then the Loar 520 is a very safe bet -- lots of mandolin for the $$$ and while it won't appreciate like an antique, you could almost always sell it (if you want to) for near what you paid for it. For $500 or so, you could get it set up well by Folkmusician, but I don't want to "advertise" one over another. There are plenty of good vendors here on mandocafe and elsewhere.

Furthermore, just to complicate things, there are other good models besides the Loar.

Let's see what others have to say.......

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I started playing last August using a $50 used Savannah A-Style. I am wanting to get a new instrument but I need help choosing.

I'm a very casual player. I really play only for my own enjoyment. I might go jam with a couple guitar playing buddies or a jam circle at a festival, but that is it. I'll never be in a band or anything like that so I wouldn't need an instrument of that high a caliber, or one with a pickup.

I know I want an F-Style, but that's about it. Whatever I buy will most likely being the last mandolin I buy. I need help with is choosing the right instrument for me. I was thinking around $500 would get me an appropriate instrument (Loar LM-520??), but I could be way off base or how much I need to spend to get what will meet my needs.

Any suggestions are welcome!

[Cackmandu]

There was an awesome deal on a new Kentucky km900 master A-style that someone got on ebay last night for under $500 (kind of hesitant about those ebay deals), if I was ready for that much mandolin I probably would have bid on it, but like Brutus said, the Loar 520 or even the 500 (a little more) would be my choice in the $500 range and they are highly endorsed by Richard at Folkmusician.

[Steve Ostrander]

New or used? If you are looking at used, it opens up the menu a little more.

[Steve Ostrander]

+1 for the km900, but the OP said he wanted ff.

[Jim]

Rover RM75

[FloridaCracker]

Theres a regular Ebay vendor who sells Loar 520's for $345 shipped. They need to be set-up properly like any mandolin, but mine has really grown on me. Out of the five or six Chinese mandolins I've played, it has by far the best sound (at least to my ears). Even with setup and some extra strings and such I'm still in it for less than $400.
If you don't want to worry about setup, I'd heartily suggest Robert mentioned above... Great guy to deal with.
But if you're on a major budget, "b" or "blemished" Ebay mandos are usually pretty affordable. I bought a blem, and can't tell it from another.

[Greenmando]

If you watch the classifieds here some nice used Eastmans come up real reasonable.

[mrmando]

NFI, but here's a local builder with three good-looking F-style instruments built by hand from solid woods at $500 a pop.

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/msg/2925938043.html