Mandolin and other string instr for studio

[Petimar]

For mandolins, try one of the solid top Kentuckys, the s in the serial number means solid top (i.e. KM250S). If you get lucky, quite often the solid top Strad-o-lins can be very nice and can record great! I found a good Stradolin at Players Vintage Instruments a few years ago, they have them from time to time.

I would also check Ebay often for a Gibson Ajr or A0. They are built like the fancier Gibson As, but as they are less fancy, you'll often see these go for under 1000.00. These sound great if they get played a lot, don't sound good if they never get played.

My Gibson A2 sounds terrific with the back of a Royer R121.

As for Dean, I can only give you info about the mandolins. They are very inexpensive and are not worth that money. My bet is the banjo would be similar.

[espasonico]

I also wanted to have a mandolin around and wanted to go cheap so I bought the Martin Backpacker and it sounds like a mandolin to me . It keeps in tune well but the feel of the neck it´s a little bit weird.

I live in Europe and here we don´t have the same amount of brands on those kind of instruments.

[diamondjim]

Epiphone MM-50 F-Style mandolin is very nice. Under $500.
Got one last year and it sounds better than my 60 year old Gibson A-Style.

Diamond Jim
www.barnjazz.com

[T9c]

Check out the Mando Cafe msg board for some good deals on used mandos. The best bang for the buck price for a new mando is around $1000. They get much better around $2k!

Rick

[sonicdefault]

I have the Martin too and I like the sound. It's made from a solid piece of wood which is cool. It is a little challening to play though.

[Musiclab]

How about a tiple? Or a High Strung guitar?

[Pohaku]

Tiples are great -- kind of like the 12 string of ukes (although they only have 10 strings). I've got a Martin tiple and I love it.