"F" or "A" Mandolin
So, would you say that for my money I would be better off buying a Kentucky "A" style KM 505 (side sound slots) than I would buying an Epiphone F-style MM50 (Side sound slots). Since they are about the same price ($550-600 Canadian) it sounds like the majority of you would agree that the Kentucky 505 is a far better purchase than the Epiphone according to the responses from my previous two posts. What do you think...help me out? All the best.....
--Capo
"....if you can't find a way out...go deeper in..."
Eastman 805D
Fender 53S SB
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Capo,
Generally folk post about equipment such as cases/armrests/picks/pick-ups etc etc in this category- you might get more eyes on this post if you put it under the "Looking for information about mandolins" category.
To answer your question - the Kentucky KM505 is the better buy in my opinion, and for resale purposes, if/when you go to upgrade, used ones generally get snapped up fairly quickly when listed in the classifieds here. The Epiphone you're looking at is only equal to the KM505 in price alone - F-style mandolins usually cost more than A styles because of the extra work that goes into the carving of the scroll - so if you look at it that way, then the Epiphone is really only the equivalent of one of the lower down Kentucky models, like the KM250. Go for the KM505 says I!
The "side sound slots" are called f-holes.
Cheers,
Jill
2018 Girouard Concert oval A
2015 JP "Whitechapel" tenor banjo
2018 Frank Tate tenor guitar
1969 Martin 00-18
my Youtube channel
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Yep, that's what we'd say. Those side slots are called "f holes," just to use the terminology universally understood in the stringed instrument world. It's because they resemble the letter "f."Originally Posted by Capo
So, would you say that for my money I would be better off buying a Kentucky "A" style KM 505 (side sound slots) than I would buying an Epiphone F-style MM50 (Side sound slots). Since they are about the same price ($550-600 Canadian) it sounds like the majority of you would agree that the Kentucky 505 is a far better purchase than the Epiphone according to the responses from my previous two posts. What do you think...help me out? All the best.....
--Capo
"I thought I knew a lot about music. Then you start digging and the deeper you go, the more there is."~John Mellencamp
"Theory only seems like rocket science when you don't know it. Once you understand it, it's more like plumbing!"~John McGann
"IT'S T-R-E-M-O-L-O, dangit!!"~Me
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
No doubt about it - A model.
Last edited by Rob Gerety; Aug-23-2009 at 7:41pm.
Rob G.
Vermont
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
A without a doubt.
Collings MT
Weber Gallatin Mandocello
Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
A eh
Jim Richmond
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
If it was me I'd buy the Kentucky.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
I'd rather have a F style over an A style any day!
An A style mando is a castrated F style mandolin!
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Jim, Jim, Jim.........I'd rather have a F style over an A style any day!
An A style mando is a castrated F style mandolin!
Shaun Garrity
http://www.youtube.com/user/spgokc78
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Jim your wrong! The scroll is useless but............well let's leave it right there!
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
An "A" style should be much more expensive, due to the extensive work it takes for the luthier to remove those useless, vestigial scrolls and points, returning the instrument to the teardropalicious shape that God originally intended.
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
well yours might be but there IS help ...Jim your wrong! The scroll is useless but............well let's leave it right there!
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
So an F Style is simply a fancy looking A style?An "A" style should be much more expensive, due to the extensive work it takes for the luthier to remove those useless, vestigial scrolls and points, returning the instrument to the teardropalicious shape that God originally intended.
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Assuming that you are comparing mandolins with similar woods and construction, yes.
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Castrated? Off your meds again Jim?
Rob G.
Vermont
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
yea Wog, like padded shoulders , [or B's into D cups]..
writing about music
is like dancing,
about architecture
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
wow thats pretty witty never heard THAT one before! LOL!Castrated? Off your meds again Jim?
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Or, some might think of an A style mando as the female of the species, which is what I prefer to have in mind when I play my A.I'd rather have a F style over an A style any day!
An A style mando is a castrated F style mandolin!
Rob G.
Vermont
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Ooop. Someones ignorance is showing.
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Lots of that around here.
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Ok, ok, care to let me in on it?
Rob G.
Vermont
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Jeez, Rob. You don't recognize it? You commented on it.
Got to go practic now.
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
I visited the Louisville FQMS showroom over the weekend, (more on this later), and played a brand new Collings A5. The salesman there said, just prior to handing it to me, "Imagine that you haven't seen it and can't see it when you put it in your hands and give it a play."
WooHoo!!!I had just moments before played a 2003 Derrington Gibson F5 MM. Cost @ $25K.
This thing was sooooo close to the same sound. Can you say volume and hearty "WOOF"!?
If I was in the market for a new mando, I would be seriously thinking about this one. Beautiful woods, magnificent tortoise with white top and side binding. I yi yi. I am glad I didn't have an available line of credit with me!
Eric
Eric Hanson
Click #016/ Born on 2/29/08 - Sold to the next Conservator of this great mandolin!
The search has ceased! (At least for now
Collings A-Style
White #29R : Oh my!! This one is so AWESOME!!
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Jim is obviously kidding folks. He even owns an A-style or two! But I'll chop my A5 in his ear a few times at our next jam just to make sure he remembers!
Shaun Garrity
http://www.youtube.com/user/spgokc78
Re: "F" or "A" Mandolin
Definetly the km505. I own one. It's better than any F-style I ever owned--including a km855. It's not quite as good as my MT, though, and I'm glad, because I paid 4x $$ for the MT!
Living’ in the Mitten
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