A friend of mine let me hold his mandolin one night and showed me how to play a few chords. To my surprise I realized that I could(with practice) play AND sing at the same time. As someone who adores singing but can’t accompany myself on whistle I’m tempted to explore strings again(I had a brief foray with bass guitar during my punk phase).
So I was wondering if anyone had a cheap mandolin that they might want to relinquish for a low price…or possibly loan me in exchange for the loan of a whistle?
There is a shop in town that repairs and sells folk strings so I might be interested in a fixer-upper if it’s not too bad.
When I got the 8 stringy itch I went to one of the national chains and bought an asian “A” style with and American name for about $100. It was a package deal. Sounds pretty good and has a decent action. Although I’m on a fixed income I figured it was worth it to find out what it was like. I’ll never be a star but I enjoy messing with it. You might find a deal for less but much less will probably be useless junk. (IMO) Try out the fret board one of the more expensive ones and find a cheapie that feels similar.
You might want to check out some of the advice threads on Mandolin Cafe.
They talk a lot about Mando’s that cost as much as a medium sized sedan but occasionally admit it is possible to get a usable instrument for much fewer bucks.
What he said on all counts (except the fixed income). Especially the playign more expensive ones to see what good is. But you really can get a good mandolin for cheap, especially if you go to a store and try it out. My mandolin cost me about $207 counting tax- it was on sale, but was less than $300 at normal price. Oscar Schmidt OM12B. EVERYONE comments on how nice the tone is. Sure it has some issues, a bit of buzzing occasionally, but it sounds wonderful.