I have several nicer mando-family instruments, but I was debating getting a beater mandola for house parties and things, so I was shopping around because it generally seems the usual makers of cheapies rarely make a CGDA mandola variant.
I checked eBay and ran across a brand called "Koda", and they make a mandola that's a very reasonable $225, but I'm in the US so it'd be another $60 to ship from Ireland. I dug around a little and apparently Koda is an import (China) brand marketed mainly in Ireland for cheap guitars and mandolins which are maybe okay for the price. Is anyone familiar with the brand?
Given the difficulty of finding any mandola in this price range, is $285 and then maybe I get $75 of settup work done by a luthier (which I presume it could use) to have it running smooth? Like as long as it isn't falling apart, $350ish for a functional mandola doesn't sound bad even if the shipping is a bitter pill.
I will say though that for folks in the UK or EU that sounds like a pretty sweet deal so long as it isn't total junk.
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