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Mine's an it. It's little, and its a Gibson Junior A, so its named Junior.

Actually, I got rid of my A5 because it was too fancy. Binding? Yuck! Replaced it with a modest snakehead Junior A, and it's just right for me — my forever mando. Check it out below and tell me it...

I'd probably trust Guitar Center with setting up a guitar. But mandolin is trickier and in less demand, so there's a chance your Guit Center tech will be winging it.

If there's a local luthier...

Well, there, then!

I've read that Bill Monroe did it that way because he didn't want to take his hat off every time he put his mandolin on or took it off. He was self-conscious about what his hat did to his hair.

Hey, Ayo Leo!

With a lot of higher-end instruments, you're paying for the decoration. Inlays, scrolls, points, and bindings are all extra work that your fingers won't feel and your ears won't...

I don't denigrate the quality of the products. But I have real problems with the labor and environmental standards of a lot of other countries. China alone has over a million slave laborers, and...

Welcome, Tom!

Guitar guy here who bought a used Fender mandolin on a whim* five or ten years ago. It was crap, but it was a hoot to play, anyhow, and it got me going nicely. Your instinct to wait...

Absolutely. It'll help your driving, too!

If that doesn't make you an expert, words have no meaning.

The flip side of ADD and ADHD is that while we're too-easily distracted, we can also fall into things for hours, like we're hypnotized.* Yesterday I started practicing C major on my new squareneck,**...

More tips:

- Keep your mandolin out in a place where it's near at hand and you can grab it. You'll find it lets you do a lot of drive-by playing, even if it's just in five- and ten-minute chunks....

To make the hand-made instrument costing thousands of dollars sound good!

(Full disclosure: My tuners all cost more than ten dollars, and my mandolins have all cost less than thousands of dollars.)

Yup, that's pretty much what I do. I don't time it, but three minutes sounds about right.

It's slow, but I learn the songs. And forget them. So before a gig, to refresh my memory, such as it is, I...

How about using the email button on the ad to write the seller and ask?

I like my oval a lot more than the two F-hole mandos I've had. It just sounds better. But I'm not a bluegrasser, so there's that.

Now you know.

Can you just try both and see which you like better?

This is the kind of question the smart folks at www.MandolinCafe.com love to field. You might go there to see what they think. They're friendly...

Well, yes, they can.

I've never tested this, but the conventional wisdom is that if you always wipe down uncoated strings after playing, they'll last as long as coated. But if you're not in the...

When I started playing, the unbalance bothered me a lot. I asked here, and found a brand people recommended and used a set or two. But then I mentioned it to a long-time pro mando player, and he just...

That's my guess, too.

My first mando was a used Fender that I got through a friend. ("Want to buy a mandolin?" "Nope." "Fifty dollars." "Oh. Okay.")

The next three I bought online. The first...

You might not. When I'm just gigging with one instrument, I go straight from instrument to Red-Eye to PA. The Fire-Eye folks have done all the fine tuning so I don't have to. And when it doubt,...

Second attempt

That's Junior, before and after. It was a basket case when I bought it. Some regluing, refinishing, and refretting happened. The hardware is all new: Cumberland Acoustics bridge,...

Oops. Never mind. Sorry. Computer isn't cooperating. Ugh.

What's your budget? I don't know of any mandolin louder than a metal National. And it wouldn't be as plinky as a banjo.

But I'm no pro. Others here know a lot more than I do. I'd love to know what...

I was real frustrated with all the preamps I'd bought and unloaded. The several folks here recommended the Fire-Eye Red-Eye. They engineer all the fine-tuning in so you don't have to. Always sounds...