Kentucky F style kit ?

[mandolinstew]

Anyone have any experience with these ?

[20MartinA]

Are you talking about something like this?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/302873662130

Saga/Kentucky doesn't offer a kit F-style currently, although there is this A-model:

https://www.sagamusic.com/shop/instr...-mandolin-kit/

Could be a good starter project. Most of the assembly is already done.

[mandolinstew]

Yeah the eBay with the neck attached.

[20MartinA]

Could be new/old stock. I don't have first hand experience with those. I did build a StewMac A-style mandolin kit. It turned out playable and doesn't sound bad. It was fun to build even though I didn't really know what I was doing. If your woodworking skills are good, you should have no trouble. But, to do it right, you're probably going to need some specialty tools that you don't have in order to get the best results.

[20MartinA]

Here's my StewMac

[Mark Gunter]

No experience with it, but I wouldn’t bother with it because it does not have a carved top. You’ll see in the photos that there’s no ridge in the scroll of the top (and appears to be some chip out around the scroll as well, though the phots aren’t great on my iPhone screen.) The lack of a carved ridge indicates a pressed top, or an induced arch on a flat top, which may even be laminated (as in plywood) - at any rate, you’re not getting much for $150 in my opinion, other than some experience toward building a mandolin-shaped object.

Understand, I’m no expert nor luthier, this is not advice, just my opinion & saying I don’t find it very appealing. YMMV

[Eric Platt]

Well, the eBay one comes up as "out of stock" when I pulled up the website. Also agree with Mark that it is impossible to tell if the top is carved or pressed. Or even if it's solid wood.

Lastly, the back and sides on that model are not maple, but appear to be some mahogany variant. Not a bad wood, but will give a very different tone than maple. (Disclosure - once owned a Weber mandolin with mahogany back/sides and it was quite good.)

[mandolinstew]

I found some reviews and none too good.Lot’s of filler.

[Mark Gunter]

Well, the eBay one comes up as "out of stock" when I pulled up the website. Also agree with Mark that it is impossible to tell if the top is carved or pressed.

Actually, it is easy to tell that the top is NOT carved. The flat scroll is a dead giveaway, it is not a carved top, but I can’t tell whether it’s a pressed top or simply an induced arch, though most likely it’s a pressed laminate. Can’t know for sure without having it in hand, but I’d bet good money it’s not carved because the scroll is flat.