I am a guitar/bass/tin & low whistles player and i am looking forward to buy a GOOD mandola to play some irish music with my new band.
I am looking for a good instrument, i don’t mind about the price
So please can you tell me if there are some GOOD mandola makers/sellers?
Cause all the instruments that i found were just for beginners, not more than 150 euros; i would like to find an instrument that i can keep for all my life…
I don’t know how easy it will be to find one of these in Europe, but if you don’t mind paying for shipping, and aren’t on a tight budget, Weber is one of the better makers of mandolins, mandolas, octave mandolins and the like here in the States. These are considered to be a good step above the Gold Tone, Trinity College, Johnson, etc… I expect it would cost between $2000 and $4000 US.
A Chiff forum member posted a mandola for sale in November - you might want to ask him if he still has it.
Flatiron 2MB Mandola, flat top pancake/army/navy style with hard case. All solid woods, beautiful bird’s eye maple back and sides. Good condition, sounds great, very good volume. These have become rather hard to find. $650 via paypal plus shipping and insurance.
If you’re looking for a new instrument, Eastman has a line of violins, guitars & mandolins that have been getting some respect. It’s an american company, but they’ve trained up a corps of skilled luthiers in China, so they can afford to do a lot of handwork without a high-end price.
I wouldn’t dismiss some of the lesser priced instruments just because they cost less. A lot of the Asian made instruments are quite excellent at a fraction of the cost of a custom one.
I have a Trinity College octave mando that I simply LOVE which I bought used for about $300 USD. There is no way in the world that I can believe that a luthier made one for $3000 plays 10 times better.
Granted, a hand made instrument is not an exact dollar for dollar equation (or I’d never sell a single whistle ) but do yourself a favor and try to play some good quality mass produced instruments before you spring for the big bucks. You can always upgrade later if you feel the need and probably get back most if not all the cost of the “lesser” instrument.
As regards $300 instruments vs. $3000 instruments, you need to keep in mind this rule:
“Better” gets progressively more and more expensive the further away from “crappy” it gets.
The last 10% of improvement will cost you the most. The trick is to know how much you really need to go after. Pro players who are getting everything out of their boxes and are questing for that last little bit should be prepared to pay for it; beginners probably don’t have the ability to coax out that last bit of performance and might do better to go for a lesser instrument.
Either way it’s more complicated than 10x price = 10x better. That doesn’t, however, erase the justification for a $3000 instrument, especially for those of us who could never really be satisfied with anything from Trinity College.
Also be aware that the unwary can pay big money for a heap of sh*te. A big price tag is no guarantee of good quality. A low price tag is no guarantee of poor quality.
Sorry, buddhu, but I just don’t understand your comment about Rob’s post. To me, it was the most useful piece of advice to date on this thread. As his advice often is, provided you’re willing to actually read it. Re-read it. It’s where it’s at.
OK, in the light of your perspective, the post is edited to remove reference to how I perceived the message to which I was referring. My comment was about the tone, not the facts contained therein. I agree that the correlation between price and quality does exist, with exceptions.
Meanwhile, as regards expensive heaps-o’-sh%te, if the prospective buyer hasn’t got the ears/hands to tell the difference between a nice axe and a glorified cigar box at ANY price level, then God help him. Caveat Emptor.
You know, my first cittern (a lamentable lark in the morning rip-off) was bought when I knew enough to hear that the sound was OK, but not enough about stringed instruments to know that bad tuners matter. Every craft has its mysteries.
I’ve played and worked on loads of these things down through the years, from Chinese (unintentionally) folding models to the finest hand-made instruments, even built a few myself, and I’ve come to a curious conclusion: more so than the guitar, it’s easy to build an Octave Mando or Bouzouki that wants to put out sound. What gets harder is to make one that sounds refined instead of just loud and crashy. That’s where the luthier’s craft really comes into play, tuning the sound to please the ear. Depending on who’s driving the chisel, this can get expensive. Have a look at a few of your favorite CD covers and you’ll see that most of the pros are turning to the best luthiers in their quest to find the tone they desire.
On a personal note, the single best Octave Mando I’ve ever played or heard, hands down, is a Steven Owsley Smith owned by a mate of mine. It’s 100% hand-made, features exotic woods (carved koa back!), and is a frightfully expensive instrument. This thing is killer on a whole 'nother level from anything else I’ve seen - worth the price, in my opinion.
Now, ask me if I took a few discreet measurements…
Every one of those SOS citterns is gorgeous, too. I’ve never heard one, but they LOOK delicious. And unless he’s changed the way he works in the past few years, every one was very different from the last.
But btw, the Harmony Monteray I posted about is due for conversion into an 8 string. I notice that its got a body about as deep as largish guitars, and deeper than any bouzouki/mandocello I’ve seen. Is the difference made by body depth something than can be described in simple terms?
