Gold Tone GM-70+ - opinions/reviews, please!

[BrazAd]

I received an e/mail from a dealer last night offering a Gold Tone GM-70+ for sale at his cost. I did a search here and can't find much info or input.

I just agreed to buy a 2006 Eastman 615 and it should be here in a week or so. I'll have a 48 hour approval period on it and am hoping that I like it. I'm a flatpicker/bluegrass guitar player who wants to add mandolin to my arsenal - I figure, why be a hack on just one instrument? Why not spread the pain?

Based on your testing and experience, is the GM-70+ a decent starter mandolin? Is the 615 a better choice? What would you recommend and why?

Oh, I play lefty... so finding and trying available lefty mandolins is like trying to floss a duck's teeth.

Thanks in advance,

Gary

[good_ol_al_61]

Gary:

I sold my Eastman 615 to a dealer in Albany. Could be the same one? Tell me the color and that will be the give-away. Anyway, back to your original question. I started out with A GT GM-70 and picked on it for a year or so. Then when to a Michael Kelly Elegante then went to 4 Eastmans. I can definitively state that your choice for the Eastman is clearly the right choice. I hate to state that this one is better than that one....but the manufacturing techniques do make a difference and GT versus and Eastman is quite different. The GT's and MK's are pressed tops/backs and the Eastman's are carved tops/backs. Therefore the manufacturing technique lends itself to the Eastman's being te better choice. Now that is not to say that the GT's and MK's are not good instruments, they are good and they get the job done. However if you can readily hear tonal differences, then the Eastman is the better choice IMHO.

[mandobassman]

I'd take the Eastman over the Gold Tone any day of the week.

[Tim2723]

I'm a Gold Tone fan and have four of their instruments, but none of them are mandolins. I will say that my experiences have all been very positive and I'd buy Gold Tone again in an instant. That said, the Eastman is a much better known choice around here with many top players recommending them.

[shortymack]

Theres a reason why your search turned up nothing. Eastman all the way, hand carved/made by a real team of luthiers.

[Tim2723]

I should add that the Gold Tones I own are banjos and a banjo-uke. No mandolins. They make really nice banjos though.

[BrazAd]

Al, I doubt this is your old mandolin unless your old one was a lefty! :-)

Sounds like I've made the right decision. Thanks, guys. Only thing that bothers me (and reason I asked for a 48 hour approval period) is that the nut is short on one side and doesn't line up evenly with the side of the neck. It may be just a cosmetic issue and not affect string spacing, etc., but I'll get to figure it out after it arrives in another week or so.

Thanks again,

Gary

[Tim2723]

I wouldn't loose any sleep over a problem like that. A nut is a simple fix no matter how bad it is, even assuming it has to be fixed at all. A good luthier can make a new one in short order and it's not very expensive. A lot of guys do it themselves for a couple of bucks and an hour of sanding and filing. Heck, even I've made new nuts. If I can do it anyone can.

[Luc D.]

I play the Gold Tone GM-70+ and I do like it. This is my first mandolin so I don't have much to compare it to, but I can tell you why I went for this one as a customer. What I was looking for was the best quality instrument, available to me here (Vancouver), in my price range, that was already decently set up. I feel like I made a good choice for a first mandolin.

On the other hand, the bridge is cheap. Mine has split on me this week, and a friend who has the same instrument, his original bridge and the one they replaced it with both split.

[Tim2723]

I'm glad to hear you like the GT mandolin. A bad bridge, or even two, shouldn't be considered an indictment against the mandolin itself. Bridges are made of different materials on a different assembly line. Being small, fairly complicated bits of woodwork they can contain a flaw in the grain, and Nature always sides with the hidden flaw. There are even those here who have spent a lot of money on expensive custom bridges that had a problem. It means nothing against the overall quality of the instrument as it's a separate construction on its own.