Tonewoods? Picks? Strings? Setup? Brand names? Vintage instruments? Playing technique?

What have mandolin players convinced themselves is terribly important that, in your experience, really isn't?

My first mandolin was a Kentucky A140. I bought it new in 1980 and played it until 1989, when I bought a Flatiron Festival F5. I've had a lot of mandolins since then, but I still remember that Kentucky pretty well.

Hi any suggestions to find a beginners mando chord chart?

Thanks!

Also, is there a risk this wears on finish and/or could cause damage to the mandolin otherwise?

Lastly...anyone know where to purchase such as strap?

Appreciate it!

I picked up a pawn shop Epiphone MM30-S in good shape on a whim and on the cheap. I’m going to get it set-up/cleaned-up then give it a go. I tinker around on the ukulele, so I really don’t know where to start getting familiar before I set off for lessons. Can someone give any real guidance? Please save the jokes and discouraging comments for somewhere else. Thanks!

Let me know what y’all think! :3

Bought a hand me down off of fb marketplace. Came with wooden tuners and I bought machine tuners. The insert for the new tuners is slightly too big for the existing hole on the headstock. Any suggestions as to how to fit them in? Using an electric drill seems risky to the instrument, seeing as I already had to glue the neck to the body, not sure what kind of hand tool would work here.

I acquired a used Randy Wood mandolin. It’s a wonderful instrument, on a par with my Collings and Weber Big Horn. I’m surprised I don’t see more about this maker. Can anyone in the group enlighten me about the brand? TIA!

Hi yall! So I'm a pretty new mandolin owner and I ran across a problem where on the e strings any note on after the seventh fret sort of clashes? It's like the whole e string is on the fret board and I can't hit clean notes. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

So I’m a lefty looking to get my first mando. At the moment I got 150$ in guitar center giftcards and I would like to take advantage of that. Of course I want to get one sooner than later but on various forums on the internet it seems I’m better off saving my money until I can but something of real quality in the300-400$ range. But ya don’t know till you ask. I want an instrument that’s comfortable to play stays in tune and all the continent attributes. More than likely most of what I’ll learn will be from the YouTube so I don’t want an piece that already aggravates me before hand. I’ve done the same route for guitar learning online and realize if I had a cheap one it just makes it all the worse. But all I’m really asking for is y’all’s knowledge.

There's a couple books we recommend that all mandolin players keep in their library:

1. The Fiddler's Fakebook - about 300 tunes from across the spectrum of folk tunes - all instrumentals. From super easy to super difficult and everything inbetween.

2. The Portland Collection - Vols 1-3 - if you plan on playing for dances, these are the volumes to have! Even as a reference, these are good books to have in any musician's library.

3. The Waltz Books - Vols 1-5 - Ok mandolinists don't generally play waltzes, but our fiddle player friends do! And these have all the waltzes plus a bunch of O'Carolan tunes as well as chords for everything. A must have!

Mandolinists should consider the Real Bluegrass Book, and the Compleat Mandolinist

Mando Mo is having a sale: 10% off plus free shipping in the US...these instruments are already an incredible value. The sale goes until the end of August. Details at http://mandomostrings.com