KentuckyKM-150 Standard A-model Mandolin - Sunburst

***edited to include valid links to the videos***A little background: I'm a long time musician. I've been playing 35+ years. I play primarily guitar and bass, with the occasional stint on keys. I grew up in a bluegrass/old time music family.I met my wife one night in 1984 while playing the banjo. She agreed to marry me if I sold the banjo. Recently while listening to some music she suggested I get another banjo. I thought about it but thought a Mandolin might be more fun. I looked at all of the mandolins on the music sites. I read reviews of all of the different brands. I haunted the mandolin discussion boards and came to a conclusion: A lot of folks don't think you can get a worthwhile instrument for less than $2000. I think they are wrong.I have several Fender guitars and considered the Fender mandolins, but everyone I have talked to said that their build quality was sketchy at best. I looked at the washburn mandolins, and the Epiphones. Several people had a discussion going around these instruments at mandolincafe.com and the overwhelming majority agreed that I would be happier with the KM-150 than the others, so I bought one.Several reviewers have given this instrument very low marks, but I think they are missing the bigger picture:1. The instruments are made in China: Yep, Most of the entry level instruments are made in China, but that's not a deal breaker as much as it used to be. Some very good stuff comes out of China. Doesn't Apple have a manufacturing operation in China?2. The bridge is not attached: There is a very good reason for this. In order to keep the costs down, manufacturer's mass produce mandolins, and mass produce bridges. The best way to do it would be to hand fit the bridge and saddle to the instrument, but that would drive up the cost to the point many of us would be out of the market. Expect to have the bridge/Saddle setup on any mail order instrument. You can do it yourself in an afternoon, or you can drop $50 and have a local music shop do it.Many of the folks reviewing the instrument are not the end users, and have no commitment to the instrument. If you are interested in playing Mandolin, and are committed enough to spend a little time on your instrument, I think you will like this mandolin. I have included a couple of videos showing what you get out of the box, and what you get after a little adjusting/sanding.How she was out of the box: http://youtu.be/wojn6cyapJsHow she is now: http://youtu.be/b_KZzCvuCnwThis mandolin is definitely worth a look.

Beautiful sound, beautiful to look at. Never owned a mandolin although, I have owned over a dozen guitars these past 50 years. I'm not a professional musician because nobody would ever pay to hear me sing. It keeps my wife happy though and she enjoys it.So my opinion about this mandolin? I've plucked a lot of other mandolins in the past 50 years and finally decided to get one for myself. I read a lot of reviews and finally decided on this one, in large part based upon the previous review. It is everything that fella said, and is prettier than I expected. Here is my own 2-cents; It is spruce and maple, and that much wood still makes the best sound. I have a laminate Baby Martin guitar which is very good, and although solid wood will always sound better, the new laminates sound very good.A lot of lower priced mandolins are now at least partially composite laminates, but don't call them plywood. The modern "engineered woods" are more stable and stronger than equally thin slices of the solid woods. Do they sound exactly the same? Of course not, but they do sound great and have very fine resonance. The sustain on my new mandolin is excellent compared to an equally priced solid wood example from 50 years ago. Its all subjective anyway. For my money I'm glad I spent less money on this one. I just can't justify $1200 for my first mandolin. The finish is glossy and the grain is beautiful. Action is light and the bridge was easy to adjust. It took me a couple of hours to set the bridge and adjust the string height, but after that the tuning fell right into place.It may help some people to know that, the distance from the nut to the 12th fret must be equal to the distance from the 12th fret to the middle of the bridge. After reading many reviews, it seems that this may not be obvious to some. When you are done the bridge will be in the same spot as shown in the picture above (Hope they haven't changed it!) Get a plastic ruler and measure from the middle of each. Also, the left-right position of the bridge, and the squaring of the bridge can be measured from the sides and bottom of the body. It's really easy.

I've been a guitar player since my early teens. Around the time I started playing guitar, my dad bought me a fender mandolin. I loved it and learned the basics chords but all of my buddy's played guitar so I focused in learning the guitar and sold it. Last year in my birthday my wife surprised me with an ibanez mandolin and I couldn't put it down. It was great but I wanted a nicer model since. I shopped around and after hearing so much good things about the km150, I bit the bullet and ordered it. It came set up, all I did was tune it up. I couldn't recommend it enough. Unless your buying above 1000, your bot gonna find a better mandolin than this one. As soon as I picked it up and played it, the difference i felt in the construction of it leaps above my ibanez. And it sounds incredible. It's the nicest mandolin I've ever played. I've bought quite a few now, but I'm not buying anymore until I'm ready to get one for a few thousand or so, because I'm not gonna find another one better then this one for anywhere near the price.