I am a music major. I am majoring in the tuba with a minor in strings. I am very active with the guitar, violin, and ukulele. I get very excited and eager to learn new strings. I bought this Mandolin and could not wait to get it and play it. I waited 5 days and finally got it and was VERY DISAPPOINTED! It was dirty, dusty, and the strings were a little rusty. I tuned it and started to push frets down to realize it needed a neck adjustment. I started to tune down the strings and the high E broke. With in an hour I called musicians friend and told them I want a better mandolin. I sent it in that day and I'm waiting for my new one. I am hoping it is at least half the quality of this mandolin.

I bought the Rogue FM-80E Acoustic-Electric Mandolin used to save a coulpe of bucks. It is absolute junk. It was listed in condition 2 supposed to be "like brand new" If thats the case I wouldn't buy a new one either. It has buzzes all over. 12 notes on 6 different frets. The bridge will not stay centered and the neck has horrible wood work defects. Not worth buying at any price.

I purchased this mandolin, received it yesterday, and returned it today. I'm no mandolin expert, but this mandolin sounds terrible. First the intonation is way off. I spent hours trying to fix the bridge and make it sound good and it still didn't. The strings that you get with it a just awful. They are already tarnished and sound bad. When I plugged in the mandolin to my amp, all I got was feedback and the only way it would stop was to turn off the volume on the mandolin or turn off the amp. Cheap mandolin, cheap sounding, and not even worth the price.

This review is for a Rogue FM-80E Electric Mandolin. I am a longtime guitarist, this is my first mando. In fairness to the product, I purchased a blem; however there wasn't much wrong with it other than some nicks in the neck binding. A few comments that might help a purchaser be more satisfied with the product:

1) The mandolin as received wasn't set up completely, the bridge height was right but the intonation was way off, which in this case means the bridge needed to be moved forward about 1/2". This could be frustrating to someone who has not worked on stringed instruments before, but was a quick job of someone who is. 2) The strings that were on it were starting to corrode. They appeared to be medium strings, I replaced them with a set of Elixr Lights which was a good move. Much more comfortable for a beginner to play and they have a better ring to them. 3) The magnetic pickup that is on it is mounted almost flush to the pickguard, thus it is way too far from the strings to be effective. Had to crank the gain on the amp to get anything out of it and it sounded weak and tinny. This really bummed me out at first because the ability to play through an amp is why I chose this over the much less expensive acoustic model. But I found that this issue is easily remedied by removing the pickguard, taking out the 2 springs that are mounted under the pickup, replacing the pickup without the springs, and raising the pickup position as far as possible using the existing screws. This puts the pickup magnets up near the strings, the result of which is that the gain of the instrument is then pretty acceptable through a standard guitar amp. Not a bad sound either.

Overall the look and construction of the instrument is pretty pleasing, the sound isn't bad and the price is right. The machine heads on mine are tight and hold tune well. Get one, tweak it a little and enjoy it.

When I decided to add the mandolin to my hobby I decided on this one. Not having much knowledge or experience on mandolins, I find it hard to compare it with others. However it seems well made, has good tone both plugged in and unplugged, the fit and finish is more than acceptable. The set up is actually quite good on the one I received. It was shipped with the strings very loose and initial tuning took the better part of a day until the string "stretched" into place. Since then, it holds tune very well. Based on the one I received, I would highly recommend it to anyone as an entry level or intermediate mandolin.

Oh, don't try to put batteries in it. It doesn't need any.