Huzzah! New Mando Day! Kentucky KM-272 from The Mandolin Store!

Nothing like unboxing a new instrument...

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Even though I tend to prefer F-style mandolins with f-holes, I was inspired to acquire one of these KM-272's after seeing a couple previous cafe posts about it. One was from mando_dan which you can read here. The other was from MikeZito which can be read here. Another good review was done by Jimmy Gaudreau which you can watch here.

Every review I've seen of this mandolin says that it punches above its weight. And at $500 USD, it seemed like a nice low-risk purchase, so I grabbed one from The Mandolin Store.

Right out of the box it plays great and feels great. In terms of sound, this mandolin is sweet and has notable sustain from the oval-hole design. It may not be ideal for bluegrass chopping, but it's really great for slower songs where you want each note to "breathe". I imagine that Celtic or classical players would like this mandolin. I agree with Jimmy Gaudreau that the sound has an interesting sort of "compression" to it. To my (admittedly novice) ear, it has nice depth and complexity to it.

Thanks to mando_dan and MikeZito for putting this instrument on my radar, and thanks to The Mandolin Store for an easy transaction
and a nice setup. This mandolin should serve me well for quite a while.

Beautiful lookin mando and ringing endorsement

Congrats!!

Sure looks like fun! :mandosmiley:

Nice photos, and a fine looking instrument! Thanks for sharing it with us. An oval hole will be a fine addition to the toolbox, and as you say, pretty reasonably priced for a well regarded instrument. We'll look forward to your followup report, and maybe some clips. :)

Congrats - I had one in brown for a while that I bought used from a Cafe member. Played great, but wasn't the sound I was looking for, so I let it go. Enjoy!

Thanks for the pics, especially starting with the cardboard box. We've all experienced the anticipation of that moment it arrives and you say "Ok, here we go". Made me want get out my pocket knife and cut up some cardboard.
Beautiful instrument. Certainly shows you researched your purchase and got great value in return.

How are you liking it?!

Sweet!:mandosmiley:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mando_dan

How are you liking it?!

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It's tonal quality is nice, but now that the honeymoon period has ended I've noticed some issues with it.

1) The tailpiece cover doesn't fit. It apparently wasn't shaped properly. It doesn't fall off, but it sits somewhat askew on the tailpiece. I could probably hammer it to fix this, but that's kind of annoying to see from a new instrument.

2) The pickguard buzzed a lot, so I took it off.

3) I think the action is a little too high. I think it could be lowered fairly significantly without incurring any buzzing.

4) The tuning is noticeably off with fretted notes (probably somewhat related to the high action). For example, if I use a tuner to tune all my open notes perfectly to GDAE, then a fretted G note on the 5th fret of the D string will be noticeably out of tune with the open G, and so on for all the strings. I know that this is somewhat inevitable with mandolins, but I feel like it could be better.

5) I get some thumb pain after playing this mandolin for a while, so I think the neck style doesn't quite agree with me.

I don't have much experience with mandolins except my old Rogue, so this 272 has not cured my MAS. I want to get a 300 or 500 level Eastman next.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J.R. Jersey

It's tonal quality is nice, but now that the honeymoon period has ended I've noticed some issues with it.

......

5) I get some thumb pain after playing this mandolin for a while, so I think the neck style doesn't quite agree with me.

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Does the neck hav a pretty sharp V towards the nut? My 900 has that and it didnt' bother me until i read on the Cafe that it bothered somebody else...

Yes indeed it is a V-neck.

In picture 5 the Kentucky logo appears to run off the headstock, very strange.

Dave H

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave Hanson

In picture 5 the Kentucky logo appears to run off the headstock, very strange.

Dave H

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That's just dark shade at the top of the headstock. I looked at it on my computer and it appears fine.

Those are nice little mandolins. Maybe yours needs a setup. The few I've heard in person have sounded good. I keep thinking about getting once just to have a modern oval hole.