I currently have a Heiden A5 and a Kimble A4 in the stable. The Heiden is an exceptional mandolin and the Kimble is one of the best oval holes I've ever played. I haven't played a Collings oval yet though and I'm looking forward to the opportunity.

I got to play an Ellis A5 a few weekends ago and they definitely deserve all the praise they get. It was a really, REALLY good mandolin and well worth the $5k price tag.

I'm still a huge fan of Collings mandolins though. I think the represent a tremendous value in the mandolin world.

I play a lefty Heiden F (pics on Michael's website). It's a tremendous instrument, I ordered before Collings had varnish mandolins.
I agree with Shaun..The Ellis A is a great mandolin for a bargain. I heard both Tom Rozum & Sharon Gilchrist playing Tom's new Ellis F last fall. The Ellis are beautiful sounding instruments. Greg Boyd has an outstanding sounding Kimble 2 pt..I have had a Collings MT while waiting on my Heiden, & I think it is the best bargain out there in its price range

Started with a "no name emport" then worked my way up to a MK. The MK was the first mando that I could play past the 5th fret!! Then MT gloss-top wide neck option,pure heaven for me. MT2V just picked up the new oval MT2O one of the Honey blonde's. Alex, sold me on a MT2O with Englemann top and maple b/s should be at my place in 5 or 6 weeks. Has anyone played a Ratliff F-5? what did ya think? Phil

A Ratliff was my first "good" F5 mandolin that I bought. They are decent instruments for the price but don't compare to the consistency of Collings tone and fit and finish. If you really like Collings mandos I don't think you'd be very happy with a Ratliff.

ratliff has had some issues with his necks humping and he has had some intonation issues that resulted from shrunken fretboards, so i'd step lightly over these.

someone made a comment over on one of the guitar boards about getting a really good deal on a 9k mando used for 5k.........well, now all the mandos from this builder are worth 5k used. in fact there seemed to be quite a few of these mandos circulating.

there are some really good builders out there, but you need to pick around the bad ones.

there was an interview of tom ellis a while back in mandolin magazine. he was asked why he doesn't make an A-style. he replied that "collings does".
rick: sorry to hear that you sold your oval hole mando. i was getting ready to change the strings.

Tom Ellis does make an A-style now. I particularly like the art-deco version.
I think they're a bargain at 4.8K
Beautiful pics on his website

Mary, is Ratlif still making them only with trussrods? There is a nice thread over on the Cafe in the makers/repair section about the long term differences between the truss rod VS Carbon Fiber (CF). The makers that chimed in said that they only had about 1% of the CF neck mandolins that had trouble, compared to a quite higher % of truss rod mandos. One of the makers had made 300 CF mandos, and the other one had made 100 of them. Both said 'Only 1%'. People still prefer to get a truss rod mando regardless. I think everyone who does what we do (collect/play/enjoy talking about string instruments)remember the "Square Rod" Martin guitars and all the problems that they had having to go in for a neck reset every twenty years. That is for sure in a LOT of people's minds, especially if you are approaching the 50 years old mark. So the argument about mandolins is that the shortness (and relative stoutness)of the neck means that, a lot of the time, that the neck never moves anyway so... There were a few folks who chimed in saying that they have 80 year old Gibson mandos that have never had the neck touched. Those would be the Ebony "V shaped insert necks I would think. Truss rods came in in the 30s if I remember correctly. The 'CF' makers are under a lot of preasure to change over to a truss rod even though the success rates for the CF necks are better. What does everyone think?...Kerry K

I did'nt mean to hijack this thread. I started off with an 'El Degas' two point plywood mando, then started reading FRETS mag and heard about David Grisman having three Monteleone Grand Artists at his home. He was heavily flogging them at the time, and everyone in the industry seemed to be talking about them. I went and got the cash together to put a down payment on one and had it only a short three years latter. Good deal too as it turned out.I also have a "International Violin" F4 that I have made and several Emandos that I have both made and bought...Kerry K

kerry, i believe he uses truss rods, but there are a lot of issues with some of his mandos. and as an aside, i have owned both types of mandos- truss rod and carbon fiber.....both seemed fine. my mandola has a carbon fiber rod.

as for monteleones, i have played quite a few, but at $20k plus (david is having a new one made btw) the only one i was tempted to buy was a mandola that was built for grisman.

I started with a 1922 Gibson snakehead, then a (Mike) Vanden F5, followed by a Kentucky KM-Dawg. After a brief affair with a local builder's (Hughes) version of an F5, I played a Givens Legacy A6 for a few years that I got from Bob Applebaum. Before Collings started making varnish models, I went through two Gibson Master Models (and an F5-G) before trading the second MM for the MF5 that I've been playing for the last four years. This month I take delivery of a (Johann D) Brentrup PML (Poor Man's Loar), an event to which I have been looking very much forward, and about which I'm very excited!

I started with a lefty oval-hole mandolin made by David Newton, then got an A model Martin. Next, I acquired a lefty 1982 Monteleone Grand Artist. And last, I ordered a lefty F5 made by Doug Woodley.

Still, I would love to find a lefty Collings MT.

DJ