I bought a mandolin! NOW WITH PICS!

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:44 am

Well, on ebay... so it won't be here for a few days.

I bought THIS ONE. I was originally going to wait until I had more extra money to buy a more expensive one, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about grabbing one. So I saw that Music 123 had a "Or Best Offer" option on their ebay page for this Rogue mandolin. And I made an offer for $30 not thinking they would actually accept it, and thinking that for only $30 with free shipping I couldn't go wrong! They INSTANTLY accepted it! Basically right after I made the offer I got the bill for it! I'm really excited, I don't expect it to be amazing by any means, but seriously for $30 it will be fun to have around to jam on, and then when I have more money if I still want to upgrade I can. The reviews for these are pretty decent and most say that with a good setup they sound, feel and play pretty well.

I'll post pictures when I get it!

Ankhanu · Post by **Ankhanu** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:34 am

Pretty similar to mine.
Mandolin is a wicked fun instrument to play... but it does kill your fingers; it requires a lot more pressure than guitar or bass. Have a blast!

Stuart · Post by **Stuart** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:06 am

looks identical to mine apart from the name but given the identical price point it might have been made in the same factor and badged up differently. Mine sounds nice but is a beggar to keep in tune, although that might be my playing style.

After having it about six months I took off the pickguard and thought it improved the look of it no end.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 5:53 am

i think it will be a fun 30 bucks.
me mum got me a cheapo mandolin once, and it's just depressing, because it's the worst instrument i've ever played. but i think the Rogue will be better than that, and easily worth the 30 bucks.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 12:53 pm

Welcome to the gang club whatever.

deadonkey · Post by **deadonkey** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 3:54 pm

for 30 bucks you can't go too far wrong. I love mandos, absolutely the insturment for me. I hope you take to it well.

Loar F-700

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Wed Jun 15, 2011 4:14 pm

Deaddonkey, your mandolin is beautiful! I'm really excited about the mandolin I'm getting, especially the price!

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:57 am

I have been playing my Aug-Fender recently. 4 strings makes for light work.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:17 am

It got here today! It plays pretty decently right out of the box, and it sounds pretty good too! It could definitely use a little bit of setup work, but I'll do that on a day when I have a little more time for that. It looks nicer than I expected it to also. The pictures on websites make it look like it's really yellow, but it's more subtle in person, and there's also some decent looking wood grain showing through too. The neck has some weird, thick, dark grains in it, but it still looks pretty awesome. It definitely is cheaply made. There seems to be some glue residue on the body, a few scratches/scrapes, some wood fuzz around where the f holes were cut, and the fretboard has some glue residue that some sawdust stuck to. But for $30 I really can't complain, it looks pretty nice, sounds decent, and plays pretty well right out of the box! I'm going to order some new strings, and when I change them, I'll run some steel wool over the fretboard to clean it up. I'm really excited about it, I've been playing around on it all day and I love it!

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:06 pm

You can't buy a pickguard for less than that.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:27 am

Mega-score of the week!

Sure enough a necessary setup and some fret polishing is a given on most cheapo models, but you really can't go wrong with a deal like that. Welcome to the club!

I was honestly a quite disappointed with my funky-looking Fender FM62SE for razor sharp frets and noticeable dust under the clearcoat, but it sounds so good plugged (as long as the tone pot is rolled all the way off) in that I really couldn't care less how it looks up close. Weird shape, but it sounds great just going thru a DI to the board, and I'd recommend it later on to whoever would consider an unorthodox upgrade later on.

Here's me and the band goofing off at a music festival early last month. I was a little out of tune before we jumped into these songs, but it really didn't sound half bad for a piezo pickup.

[youtube][/youtube]

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 8:25 am

ultratwin wrote:Here's me and the band goofing off at a music festival early last month. I was a little out of tune before we jumped into these songs, but it really didn't sound half bad for a piezo pickup.

Sounds good. Actually, I'm amazed by the quality of the recording - is it actually from that hand-held camera?.

ultratwin · Post by **ultratwin** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:54 am

NickS wrote:
ultratwin wrote:Here's me and the band goofing off at a music festival early last month. I was a little out of tune before we jumped into these songs, but it really didn't sound half bad for a piezo pickup.
Sounds good. Actually, I'm amazed by the quality of the recording - is it actually from that hand-held camera?.

I'm guessing so, probably a fan with a camera or phone...the engineer who exclusively does Seung Hwan's live shows has notoriously kept me low in the mix over the years, but I was surprised how audible I was this time around.

NickS · Post by **NickS** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:10 pm

ultratwin wrote:I was surprised how audible I was this time around.

You featured quite a lot in the footage, too, especially compared to the guitarist!
I would guess camera rather than phone because of the stereo?

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Fri Jun 24, 2011 6:54 am

Ultra, I could definitely hear you really well in that video! The mandolin is a really fun instrument! I've been having a blast with it. So far I've just learned a bunch of zelda songs, and the tetris theme song... I've only had it a few days and for some reason those were the first things I wanted to learn to play on it!