Maybe you’re not entirely sure if you’re going to keep up with it, so you’re looking for a discount mandolin, right?
After all, who knows if you’ll still be interested in playing the thing a few months for now. There’s no point in spending hundreds of dollars on what’s basically an experiment.
Sorry, but that might be a bit short-sighted.
With a discount mandolin, you get what you pay for
Sure, I fully understand the desire to avoid committment. But remember that a good, mid-range mandolin holds a significant fraction of its purchase price when you’re talking about resale value. A used discount mandolin isn’t going to appeal to anyone.
Cheaply-made discount mandolins come from China
While most of the new sub-$1000 dollar mandolins are made overseas, you can be sure that a cheap mandolin is made in near slave-labor conditions by illiterate peasants somewhere in China.
So what, you might ask?
Well, if you care about mandolins (and string instruments in general), and you want to help advance the state of the art, it’s a good idea to patronize companies and makers that share your concerns and passions.
Chinese mandolin makers don’t learn skills, refine their craft, or innovate. Instead, they just do the same thing over and over, ripping off the folks who actually took the risks necessary to develop new and improved mandolin styles.
In the long run, cheap labor that works at slave-labor prices hurts us all.
Plywood mandolins
Low-cost mandolins fall apart easily
While this doesn’t automatically mean it sounds bad, it’s just not the sort of instrument a serious player wants. Check out What’s the best wood for a mandolin’s top for some more thoughts on the subject.
Are discount mandolins holding back your playing skill?
There’s no doubt about it. A low-quality instrument doesn’t perform as well as a properly-made one.
- It’s harder to tune and keep in tune
- It’s harder to set up when you change string gauge
- The neck isn’t as stable
- Frets are not set as accurately
- Ends of the frets are not dressed as nicely
- Sound quality — you get the picture
In another article — are cheap mandolins worth it — you can find a more in-depth discussion about the worth of a discount mandolin.
So while it seems like a good idea to test the waters without spending too much, if you really want to give your mandolin experiment a chance to succeed, I think you should get an instrument that’s playable. And that means spending over $100 at a minimum.
