Dean Guitars Mondo Mando Mandolin

I've had it for several days - This thing is a hoot to play! It's essentially a short necked guitar - It's like playing with a capo on the 5th fret (A). The first three strings are doubled and the low strings are single. You can get neck access all the way to the sound hole (20 frets?) - A really freak'n high F.

Sounds as good as many regular mandolins. Many of them sound boxy and this is maybe better than that. It really duplicates the mando sound but is MUCH easier to play.

Very nice finish. The sound hole has binding. The wood on the back is particularly nice looking - some kind of a birdseye? The neck is finished very nicely - clean fret ends. After tuning it up, the intonation seems very close (and that's after a boat ride from China! - Unless Dean sets up the guitars here in the States). No fret buzz.

The tuners might be the weakest part of these. Not that they suck, they just seem to be cheaper than the rest of the guitar. But they are closed back and will probably be fine. Otherwise, a very solid feel. It's hard to rate this since I haven't had it that long - But I have a Dean acoustic bass and a Squire Affinity Tele (both Made In China) and they both seem to be holding up just fine. So I'm guessing it'll be as good as any other $150 Chinese made guitar - which is probably pretty good.

Haven't had to deal with them.

I really like it. I'm planning on using it for recording and possibly playing live. There's not a lot of these out there. So finding any kind of a review is tough. I would recommend these to any guitarist wanted to play with the mando sound - without the hassle of learning mando tuning (those are tuned like a violin). If stolen I would definately consider getting another one. I did have a Kentucky Mandolin years ago. But I ended up selling it because of the tuning and neck width issues - it wasn't fun to play. This thing is.