"Rogue" mandolin

Trad Irish Music
1

Has anyone played one of these? Musician’s Friend is selling a guitar and mandolin set for $79. Are these actually playable, or strictly wall decor material?

2

There was some stuff about it in the Mandolin Cafe a while ago. The opinions seemed to be they were good instruments for the price.

3

Here are a couple of threads (i think there was another one, but i couldn’t find it):
One
Another one

4

Thanks Glauber! I was just over at the Mando Cafe checking it out. Consensus seems to be that they are servicable and a good deal for the price, some requiring a bit of setup. For $79 with a guitar thrown in it looks like I can’t go wrong.

5

Here’s the other thread i was thinking of: “Steve Perry”, 7 posts into the thread.

If you don’t expect too much, it will probably be ok.

g

6

I paid £70 for a mandolin looking very much like that one a few years ago. It was a little hard to play (high frets as I recall) but if I were better at adjusting the thing, I’m sure I’d have got it playable.

For $80 for that plus the guitar, I think you can’t go far wrong.

7

If you’re looking for a cheap guitar, I highly recommend the Troubadour Josquin Mandolin

For $150, I don’t think it can be beat. I bought one a few years back, and I can’t see EVER needing another mandolin (needing and wanting are different things of course). They’re sold by David Kilpatrick, and he used to have his own Web site, but it looks like he’s selling his instruments only on Ebay now..? Anyone know the story? Anyway, here’s a link to his shop: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Troubadour-UK-Musical-Instruments[/list]

8

That Troubador looks very nice, more traditional. If I have any success with mando I’ll upgrade to that. I’m concentrating on flute, and the mando is just to fool around on, so I think for now I’ll go with the cheepo.

9

I have a mandola version of the above. It’s a good instrument with a lovely tone, but has some issues. The first is fragility - I’m pretty careful with my instruments, but this one seems to accumulate an unreasonable amount of dings. The most critical issue is the lack of a truss rod.