This thing is alright. It's hard to find a tailpiece I had to get one and drill the center hole to make it bigger. Get a new pickup immediately if your planning on playin electric. Get new tuners also.

Actually, I'm just commenting on the "need" for a second strap button as mentioned immediately below. You don't need a second strap button. You can use something along the lines of a shoe lace to tie the strap to the headstock. However, I use the "Planet Waves Quick-Release Guitar Strap System" on my "A" type mandolin. It works great and offers a good deal of convenience. Musicians Friend does sell it and it's inexpensive.

I wanted a beginner mandolin for my son, and decided on this one. Even with the Epiphone name, I was still a bit nervous buying a Chinese import.

In summary, I am extremely pleased with the quality and the sound verses the price I paid (mandolins get really expensive really quickly).

The finish is great (I got the blue one), and the quality is certainly good enough for what we'll use it for. I will say that the tuners are pretty cheesy, but they do the job.

It was playable out of the box BUT we had a really hard time fretting notes on the first fret because the nut was way too high (i.e. hard to press the strings down). I loosened the strings, filed the back of the nut to make it shorter, and glued it back on. I also lowered the bridge about as low as it would go. Those 2 steps made it much much easier to play. I was pleased that all that lowering didn't introduce any fret buzzing.

I also noticed the pickguard was buzzing against the body on certain notes, so I took it off and glued a very tiny piece of thin foam near the vibrating edge - no more buzzing.

It sounds like I'm complaining a lot, but the above were fairly easy for me to do, and maybe others wouldn't even notice. Also, I played a couple of $2000+ units at the local music store, and they didn't sound much different than this one, however, keep in mind I am guitar player, not a mandolin player.

Lastly, you will want to add the second strap pin (near the back of the neck joint) so you can use a strap. A-style mandolins are like holding little greased watermelons. You really need a strap to be able to hang onto it properly.

This mandolin is really great for the price. I was looking for a beginner mandolin, wanting to switch things up from playing guitar. For the price this mandolin has great tone, the spruce top has a really nice sound (much better than maple, used on cheaper mandos), and the acoustic volume is surprisingly loud. As far as the electronics go, they're nothing special, but putting it through a boost pedal or eq should improve the volume and control.

My mandolin came with the strings completely slack, which I am actually thankful for, because UPS and weather changes can sometimes cause trouble. After a set up and a new set of strings my mandolin plays beautifully.

Bottom line, for the price, this is a really great mandolin. Good for beginners, or anyone who wants a good mandolin to drag around and not worry too much about.

I purchased this mandolin for my son, who already plays guitar and violin and wanted to cross over. The first one I received was destroyed by our friends at UPS. It looked like a tree fell on it. After waiting weeks for a replacement (these things are apparently popular because they were back ordered each time) we finally got another instrument. It seemed fine at first, but after some comparisons I realized it is not. The tone is terrible compared with instruments I played in my local shop. It also has no electronic controls - no tone or volume. At our band rehearsal, we plugged the thing into the board with a d-box and also through an acoustic amp, and the amplified tone is GOD AWFUL. It feeds back, and has some serious hissing going on. It sounded like a blown speaker, but was not. The piezo pickup in this thing is junk. Total crap from China. I am sending this back and going back to my local music shop to find a quality instrument.