I bought a new mandolin yesterday, a 1986 Landola. Despite the fact that it’s more than 20 years old, it looks brand new. The guy I got it from bought it in the early nineties, played for a couple of months and then lost interest. It’s been sitting unused and forgotten in his parents’ attic ever since.
Now, this is probably not a pro-grade instrument or anything. But it’s a whole lot better than my old mando, to say the least…
Congratulations West! That looks like a real beauty! They’re made in Finland, aren’t they? Looks to be in excellent shape. It doesn’t look like twenty years in an attic did any harm. How do you like the back of it? It looks like an arched-back flat top model. I’ve heard they project very well. What sort of strings would you choose or it?
Thanks Tim2723!
Yup, they are. To my knowledge, Landola doesn’t make mandolins anymore though, only very expensive guitars.
Not the slightest bit. The action is a bit high but the neck isn’t warped or anything, so it probably only needs a tweaking of the nut/bridge.
Yeah, it’s quite loud but has a warm, singing tone. I think it sounds great.
I’m not sure. The current strings are ancient and needs to be replaced of course, but I think I’m gonna go for a wee bit lighter gague. As mentioned the action is kind of high, so I’ll try lighter strings before I attempt any more radical adjustments.
For a flat top I think lighter gauges are wise. I was told that archtops are structurally better equipped to take the extra down-load from the higher string tension of heavy strings. Seems to make sense.
Looks like an interesting mando. I hope you have fun with it. 
That stands to reason, yes.
Oh, I am. I used to play quite a bit in the past, but I got so sick of my rattly old wreck of a mando that I eventually lost interest. This new one is very inspiring though.
Using lighter strings is very wise. The average set of meduim strings (around 0.011 to 0.040) exerts nearly 50 pounds of downward force on the soundboard of an arch-top mandolin. That’s been described as having a fifth-grader stand on your instrument. Arch-tops are constructed for this. The lower break angle found in flat-tops reduces the strain quite a bit, but a flat top is usually not as robust geometrically as the arch.
I would recommend measuring the strings you have and using that gauge set. After all, it survived 20 years under that strain, so there’s no guesswork or risk.
