Looking for a Mandolin shop in UK with good selection to try

[chris24]

I made the mistake of stopping in a music shop when in the USA on business and tried some Eastman mandolins and a Weber. As you might imaging these all played much easier and sounded better than the Saga mandolin I purchased to see if I gelled with mandolin playing. The difference was amazing and is making me think I need to 'upgrade'. Whilst the Weber was beyond my price range the Eastmans (315 and I think the 515) are not.

With hindsight perhaps I should have purchased one then and there, but I didn't and now I'm back home trying to find a store here in the UK where I can try these and similar instruments to make a choice. Can anyone suggest somewhere? I live near Cambridge. The only place I've found so far is the Acoustic Music store in Brighton, but they look to be above my (current) price, which is around £500 - £750

Alternatively, I wait until I travel to the USA again and try and swing by TMS or FolkMusician (does the latter have a physical store - I couldn't work this out from their web site)

Thanks

[55bar]

Hey Chris,


TAMCO has some Eastmans, also Forsyth's in Manchester has quite a good range of mandolins, you could also use Thomaan and order "the Loar" a great mandolin for the price they have a great reputation, check out some threads.


http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_loar.ht...58a46eeeab038e


http://www.forsyths.co.uk/instrument...lk-instruments

[almeriastrings]

Beware of ordering from Thomann. Thomann's prices and service is fine. Reliable company - BUT - zero setup. Absolute zero. Instruments not touched since they left the factory in China. That particular brand typically needs a lot of setup to get them to play right. This is fine if you have the experience to do it yourself, otherwise, you face having to pay anything up to another £100 to make them playable.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Chris - Your best bet first off,would be to contact Trevor at TAMCO in Brighton to see what he has in stock (or visit his website).
Alternatively,look for a local Hobgoblin Music store & view their hoard of mandolins. I've only played one Kentucky "A" style mandolin,a KM505 selling for £450 at the time,& it was excellent value for the cash. Currently,it's bigger brother the KM900 is selling for around £850(ish),& from what folks on here say,they are one of the best value & sounding mandolins around for anywhere close to that price.
Living in Manchester,Forsyth Bros.is a 'local' music store & they do stock a few good instruments,but i don't know if they carry out any set up on them prior to sale - the same goes for Hobgoblin as well. However,any instrument you buy from TAMCO most certainly will have been set up correctly,
Ivan

[houseworker]

I'm taking it you're not intending to buy online from your initial post. That cuts out a lot of the risk.

Hobgoblin stores are a bit hit-and-miss in terms of their stock. They are the principle sellers of Kentucky mandolins in the UK, but don't routinely have the higher end models in stock. They do include a set up which again is variable (depending on the store) ranging from acceptable to really good. Their prices are on the high side.

A day trip to Brighton is no difficulty from Cambridge. A few hours playing Trevor's astonishing stock will certainly be an education, and depending on your budget he may well be able to tempt you to buy. http://www.theacousticmusicco.co.uk/

[Dagger Gordon]

In my experience Hobgoblin shops sell instruments in good playable condition.

I have been to their shops in London and Canterbury and I should think you would find something from them.
They sell instruments by London builder Paul Hathway which are worth a look, as well as things like Breedlove and Kentucky.

TAMCO does certainly have a great selection but they generally are expensive. It's well worth a visit , however, because if nothing else you will get a much better sense of what good mandolins are like, and who knows - you might find exactly what you are looking for.

Personally I would not buy an instrument from someone like Thomann. They are fine for things like PA equipment but I think it's important to try out an instrument. Each individual instrument is always slightly different from any other - how it rings etc.
I have been very disappointed with some Eastmans I've tried. Just because you played one which you liked doesn't mean you are going to like them all.

[Anglocelt]

The TAMCO shop in Brighton is highly recommended as it offers by far the widest range of high quality mandolins anywhere in the UK and, I believe, the EU. I was there two weeks ago on a rare visit down south and I am still absorbing the experience.
Another possibility for you is to visit the Cambridge Folk Festival instrument stalls July 25-28, on your doorstep. There is usually a good selection of new and vintage mandolins on sale and you will get to hear others playing them - a useful perspective if you usually only hear yourself play. Dealers like the Music Room (based in Cleckheaton, Yorkshire), who have the best range of Eastmans (properly set up) I have seen in the UK may be there also.
Enjoy the quest!

Kevin

[Beanzy]

I've sent you a PM with another suggestion (so you don't get gazumped on-line)

[houseworker]

I've sent you a PM with another suggestion (so you don't get gazumped on-line)

Eoin, I think Chris wants to play a range of decent mandolins in a situation where he's under no pressure to buy. Quite how dealing with (presumably) a private seller might fit into that scenario I can't begin to work out.

[Beanzy]

No it's a shop with Eastmans and gibsons in his price range or near enough.

[houseworker]

No it's a shop with Eastmans and gibsons in his price range or near enough.

This one?

[Ron McMillan]

I see Forsyth's have a Jimmy Moon standard. I have a gigging musician friend who swears his Moon is the bee's knees. Moons are very reasonably priced, especially when you consider what you can get from overseas for the same money.

ron

[Beanzy]

Well yes, but I was trying to give him time to actually arrange a visit before someone called in an order and removed his options.

Very helpful. Thanks

[houseworker]

Very helpful. Thanks

I imagine Chris is an adult, and that he understands that inviting suggestions on UK mandolin stockists in a public forum means that the responses will be more widely shared.

Your suggestion of John Alvey Turner sounds a good one. Care to tell us more?

[jimmy powells]

I bought a The Loar Lm 700 from Thomann a year or ago and I must have been lucky because it came set up perfect and I've owned literally hundreds of mandolins over the last 40 years and have a fairly critical eye. Yes set up is everything but even paying a luthier £100 if it wasn't great would still be OK. I paid £600 and list price was £1399 I think. 30 day money back guarantee but I do respect Almeriastrings experience that you can also be unlucky and find it comes as it left China with the worst strings on, poor bridge etc etc.
Jimmy
UK

[Kieran]

We've just received fresh stocks of competitively priced The Loar mandolins here in Ireland.Optional set ups are offered,including Cumberland bridge etc.
Kieran

[Kieran]

Here's a link
www.moloneymusic.com

Follow the menu to mandolins page
Kieran

[55bar]

I think we scared him off

[chris24]

No not frightened off - just busy elsewhere.

However, just to let y'all know in mandoland I am now the proud owner of an Eastman 515.

In the end as I couldn't find all the mandolins I was interested in within easy distance in the UK, I used a spare day on a business trip to Oregon (no sales tax) to try several Eastman, Kentucky, Loar (and a Weber) in a number of stores and settled on the Eastman 515, almost went for the 315 (I do like the finish on this mandolin) but as I needed a hard case to bring it back home the 515 ended up as the better deal for not a lot more (and still a lot less than I'd pay back home). I just didn't find the Loar as easy to play and couldn't get a good deal on the others. Weber was good - but way beyond what I can afford.

Now to get my playing to do justice to the new toy

[houseworker]

Glad you've found a mandolin you like and that we didn't scare you off after all.

I'm not surprised you opted to buy in the US. One of the problems for UK buyers of the higher end Asian imports is that there are no stores here that carry sufficient breadth of stock; not one single UK store as far as I know carry both the Kentucky and Eastman ranges for example. The Loar is pretty much dead in the water here after the initial stockists were forced to slash prices to shift them after Thomann started dumping them onto the market at prices that appeared below cost.

TAMCO do sell Eastman mandolins, but had no stock at the time of your initial enquiry.

Beanzy's suggestion of John Alvey Turner was an interesting one, and I'll look in there the next time I'm in London, but their prices (even by UK standards) seem on the high side.

Anyway, good luck with the new mandolin.

[trevor]

Deliveries of Eastmans to the UK have bee VERY sparse recently. Of course my prices include VAT and duty which personal importers should pay on entry, at risk of fines and confiscations if caught. No aspersions being cast here..