Product: Hondo HMAN10 Mandolin
Price Paid: US $130
Submitted
01/05/2006
at
05:19pm
by
anonymous
Features
:
6
"A" style mandolin with open tuners and black plastic pickguard. No accessories.
Sound
:
6
Wanted this for plucking around and listening to it with other acoustic instruments. Alone...a mandolin is not a very endearing sound... but with aguitar and violin it sounds real pleasing. Don't know enough about mandolins to critically evaluate the sound. This one is just twangy...the better ones are woody sounding with a sweet tone when single note phrasing and a bit punchy when chording on the counterpoint. This one doesn't really sound like that. Haven't developed the technique to get the most out of it yet.
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
6
Matte sunburst finish on a plywood top. Nothing fancy. Neck is straight. Intonation is OK after futzing with the bridge. Some buzzing at about the 8th/9th frets on the treble strings. That's OK...not skilled enough to go there anyway. Have 10 gauge fingers so above the 8th fret it's just mashing adjacent strings. Tuning this thing is a bear....but once dialed in it can hold it's tune through a jam session.
Reliability/Durability
:
5
Plastic nut cracked at the 1st string notch...had to super-glue it back in place twice. Too lazy to replace it. Finish seems durable enough...I bought a soft case for it. Don't think It'll break since it's pretty much played at the cabin or on camp-outs.
Customer Support
:
No Opinion
Haven't had to deal with them.
Overall Rating
:
7
Playing guitar 40 years...have lots of other stuff...but you are only interested in this mandolin. This mandolin gets played a lot...especially when several players get together. Getting my money's worth out of it. Thinking of getting a better quality mandolin in the U$350 range just because they are neat and they fit into many styles of music. Wouldn't lose any sleep if this particular one disappeared. Will always want a playable mandolin in the quiver.
