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(More customer reviews)I have never played the Mandolin. I have had both Martin and Guild guitars, though never was a good enough guitarist to warrant those fine instruments and eventually sold them. But I do have an ear for quality. I haven't had any instruments in my house for 10 years and have wanted a mando for sometime now. I did quite a bit of research on them...F-style vs. A-style and how the mandos are made, materials used, etc. I am mostly interested in songs like Rod Stewart's Maggie May, McCartney's Dance Tonight, Led Zepplin mandolin kind of playing is the sound I was going for. Paul plays an A-style so that is what I went after.
The mando arrived as a Christmas gift from my husband. It does not have any instructions with it, even a hang tag like you would expect with other new instruments "Thank you for buying a Kentucky instrument," nothing like that, but it did have a label inside the hole. Not knowing anything about Mandos, it was unplayable when it arrived. At first I thought it was damaged. I was trying to tune it and get the strings lined up without the bridge!!!The bridge is packaged separately and must be assembled (placed in the right position under the strings). This should be done by someone who knows what they are doing. If you expect to play it right out of the box, forget about it. This is the best price on the Internet but it arrives NOT SET UP or tuned so keep that in mind!
But fortunately for me, I have a music store very close by and rather sheepishly, took the Kentucky Mando in where I did not buy it and asked them for help. I bought a strap, a chord book and a chip case for it at the store and I offered to pay for them to set it up for me. They did so without charge which I thought was nice. Ten minutes later the owner comes out strumming my mando and it sounded wonderful! Another clerk was a mando player and said he owned a Kentucky (even though they didn't sell them at their store) and he said mine was a lovely quality and better than the one he had. They didn't have to say that- so I think they were very impressed.
So tonight, with my chord book and big fat fingers, I am learning the chords and found the action easy and with some of the two fingered chords, sound pretty darn good for the first time around. It will take weeks to build up my finger calluses, but I can tell you, being the sound snob that I am, this is a lovely, lovely instrument!!
I highly recommend getting a digital tuner ($20 +) as each set of two strings must be tuned exactly. I think the owner tuned mine by ear. When I got home I tested the tuning against the tuner and he was a little flat. I easily tuned it to match the tuner and the instrument sounds even better! I still have finger memory for guitar chords so that is my biggest hurdle, re-routing my brain for mandolin playing. Update: After having it one week and giving my fingers a days rest, I was surprised to hear the mando out of tune. After going on some mandolin forums, I understand this is a very common personality quirk. Therefore a tuner is a must have!!!! Some professional players tune their mandos after two or three songs!!
You do want a strap. Everyone who plays mandolins recommends this. They are small instruments and having a strap helps hug the mando close to you so you are more free to maneuver your hands-important for students who are arching and stretching their fingers.
Don't let the Made in China deter you. It is beautifully made. Sadly, if it were made in Kentucky, this would be a $800 mandolin- the money saved is in labor, not quality. Someday when I get better, I will try an American F-style bluegrass type, but I don't think I will ever get rid of this!!!
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Every Kentucky mandolin is meticulously hand-crafted from the finest materials to produce the best possible instrument for players of every level.We have upgraded the 100 series throughout and added new color options for every taste.
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