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Thread: Help: Looking To Buy My First Mandolin

  1. #26
    Resident Hack
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    Default Re: Help: Looking To Buy My First Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by yankees1 View Post
    For your first mandolin .... just in case you don't stay with it !
    Perfect is the enemy of good enough.

    My first mandolin was about $100 and lasted me a year and a half, before I knew I needed a real mandolin. My second mandolin cost about $600 and lasted more than 8 years, before I realized that not all the issues with tone were my fingers.

    Honestly, I would be trying to minimize cost. Given your wants, I would go with that Bitterroot or maybe this
    Weber Gallatin in classifieds
    Despite being lower in cost than the Awesome mandolins being suggested, they are likely better players than what I was gigging with last summer.
    What I play
    2021 Skip Kelley Two-Point
    Eastwood 'Ricky'
    Morgan Monroe RT-1E
    Epiphone Genesis guitars
    Various Basses

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  3. #27
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    Default Re: Help: Looking To Buy My First Mandolin

    My buddy lent me his Red Diamond to try for a few days. I like it so far. These are tiny necks, lol. I have C, D, G, F and Em figured out.

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  4. #28
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help: Looking To Buy My First Mandolin

    I am not going to presume to recommend a specific instrument or course of action. I'll just share some ideas, for you to do with as you would like. If my comments don't apply, perhaps they will help someone else in a similar situation.

    1

    We are talking a significant amount of money. Just checking: do you know if you are in love with the mandolin or not. I don't mean this in a snarky way at all. It may be appropriate for me to suggest that you borrow, or rent, and instrument, and play on it for several weeks. If you fall in love, it may impact your budget. If you discover it is not your cup of tea, you will have saved a bunch of money. If this doesn't apply, it may help someone thinking of embarking on a similar journey.

    2

    It is generally agreed that mandolins sold with electrics are, in many if not most cases, not so great. In the mandolin culture built in factory electrics are not the norm, not as prevalent as in acoustic guitar culture. Acoustic mandolins with factory electrics are, in many cases, meant to attract guitar players to whom the combination is more expected. The electrics are often mediocre as as being somewhat of a cross over instrument, and the instrument itself is often a compromise because what the heck you are going amplify it anyway.

    You may get a better quality all around if you get the best acoustic mandolin you can, and then get high quality electrics installed.

    This also may not apply to you if you are looking at great acoustic mandolins with quality electrics installed by the previous owner. But it may be helpful to some.

    3

    As a general statement, with many exceptions, from a distance, and in order to set expectations, a mandolin will cost about twice the price of a guitar of comparable quality. So if you are familiar with what you can get in a guitar for X amount of dollars - take your budget and cut it in half, and think about what quality guitar that much will purchase.


    I hope this has been helpful. Mandolinning is about the funnest thing one can do, and I look forward to you discovering that and sharing your journey with us. There are many many answers as to what to buy, and for every three mandolinners you are likely to get four or five answers. I believe I would not be helpful just identifying a make and model.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

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  6. #29
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    Default Re: Help: Looking To Buy My First Mandolin

    Well, I just bought a used Skip Kelley A model from a member here. Good price for a good instrument from a cool cat.

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/164018

  7. #30
    Resident Hack
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    Default Re: Help: Looking To Buy My First Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by Torren61 View Post
    Well, I just bought a used Skip Kelley A model from a member here. Good price for a good instrument from a cool cat.

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/164018
    Congrats! Welcome to the addicting world of mandolins
    What I play
    2021 Skip Kelley Two-Point
    Eastwood 'Ricky'
    Morgan Monroe RT-1E
    Epiphone Genesis guitars
    Various Basses

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