I ordered this F5 Harpsicord you speak of via a musician shop. however, when it came via Parcel Force (great company, I VIGOROUSLY recommend their EXCELLENT, heavy-duty cardboard packaging), it came to my attention that it was not a harpsicord, but a "mandolin". I thought "oooh, what the hey" and pursued my quest. This is an excellent mandolin, and the strings are among the finest in the business. However, 6 months, 2 days and 3 hours ago, I broke the upper left string, which also broke my heart. I complained to the harpsicord/mandolin (oh poo, i'm so confused!) shop and they suggested I order a new one. And so I did.

I play in a death metal tribute band called 'KorPz', where we play a truly voluminous, substantial, super colossal, commodious, barn-door broad range of music, from hair jazz to moon rock. After playing this "mando-harpsicord" for eleventeen years, I became fed up and dissapointed that it could not product any good distortion (hence why this product erected a '1' rating in the quality section of this review), so I promptly had an EMG 81 pick-up fitted in the neck and a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge fitted for those goold ol' times warm flanger tones. Now, everynight after a gig, I have chicks wanting to buy me exotic and expensive goodies, and I am in the best moon-rock-band-with-a-mando-harpsicord-player-ever'.

This is a great mandolin, its finish is beuatiful but i dont agree with the price AT ALL! defentaly not worth that much.

I've played mandolin for almost 30 years now, and I believe I've developed a good ear and eye about mandolins. Though living in Germany, I've played about 12 original Gibson Loars (and post-Loars) in my life and decided that this would be the ultimate mandolin, though they were all a bit different, of course. A Loar has always been out of reach for me, so I've owned several copies by various makers in the past, the last one being a '93 Gibson Custom F-5 of already great quality. However, my dream came true, when I realized that Gibson now finally started making a Loar, which is so amazingly close to the original in all respects. The sound, for me the most important thing, of my recently purchased "Distressed Master Model" is just great having all the qualities I've always been looking for: Very easy to play (well responding and loud without having to play hard), a very beautiful treble and mid-range sound with still enough bass, ideally suited for playing in jam sessions and over a microphone. Another Master Model I tried had a bit more bass response, but both instruments were plain superb. My mandolin also looks just beautiful, with the old-style flowerpot (They also make a modernized version.), and the triple side binding. (Only about one out of ten has this Monroe feature.) I honestly believe that my Distressed Master is as close as you can get in a Loar copy (And I'm very picky.), including the tiny little imperfections in the (oil-based)varnish, the sunburst and inside (hide) glue seams. Being an instrument maker myself (pipe organs, though), I believe I know very well, how labour-intensive the making of a great-sounding instrument really is. Hence, even if the price seems a bit high at first sight, my Distressed Master Model is absolutely worth the money. Highly recommended!

I am a seasoned musician with some cash to throw around. Besides edison, i don't believe anyone has actually touched, let alone played one of these. I was definatly sceptical of what my wife would say, but it was worth it for the incredible tone and feel. I love it. I would sell my car to buy it if I had to. I don't know whether it's worth 25Gs, but it's the best by far.

Over the past few years ive been searching for the perfect mandolin. One day i walked into a music store and asked the guy for his best instrument. He then brought me this piece of amazingness and asked me to try it out. I played it and sounded like better than i ever have in the past. The only reason why i cant purchase it right now is because of the huge price. I definitely suggest this to anyone who knows how to play the mandolin and has a few extra thousands. Overall, an AMAZING instrument.