I just released my new Eastman MD305 from Covid19 isolation, tuned it up, and had a plunk for an hour or so. I'm completely happy with it, which doesn't happen with many of the many musical instruments I've owned. Thanks to all here who recommended it, you were absolutely right!
What I wanted was a value well made plain looking woody sounding and easy playing mandolin, and that's exactly what this is - but there's more than that. I didn't expect this to have a three piece neck, but there it is - a narrow sandwich of some visibly 'other' wood between the outer layers, maybe that will add some stability. Then there's the alloy tailpiece common to a number of Eastmans and now even on this base model. What they don't bother telling you in the spec. is that this tailpiece depresses the strings slightly, and has a rubber or foam plastic piece on the inside which (I think) has a harmonic supression effect. The machines are, as someone else said on another thread, stiff, but they seem to work OK and don't stick and slip.
Straight off it sounded a bit hard with a brassy G, but after maybe 20 mins playing it started to loosen up and sound more woody, with more 'pop' to each pick stroke and the initially tight sounding Es opening up. By that time I'd messed with picks and settled (for now) on a 1.0 Dunlop Ultex Sharp - I''ve ordered a selection of thicknesses of these to see what works best. It also sounds like it's starting to sustain longer than straight off - of course it may be playing me in
I intended to get a Tone-Gard device, so for the moment I fitted a Wolf 'Forte Secondo' viola (not violin - much wider) shoulder rest I have, and I think that's doing the same job. It stays on the mando surprisingly well, it keeps the mando back maybe 1.5" off me and (I think) improves the sound.
This one's a keeper - even if I get a better mando sometime in the future, this is a good honest instrument that works well, that you can leave on a bar table while you get a drink without worrying about it. Thanks again for the recommendation!
Bookmarks