steve at acousticmusicworks.com always tries to stock a left MT he told me.

What about a builder in Georgia that makes "BULLDOG" brand? Has anybody on the forum got any info? Any help is greatly appreciated. Phil

phil, take a look around the mandolin cafe. i've heard some good things and some not so good.

As always thanks bunches M.2! Phil

Barry Kratzer builds the Bulldog mandolins. A friend of mine bought one oh his two points. It's a pretty decent mandolin, especially for the price. Fit and finish is nice and tone is decent. He's been selling F5s for around $2500. I think that's a pretty good bargain for his work.

if you look over the cafe you will see there was a thread where someone bought one of his mandolins second hand that had a hump in the fretboard. sometimes it is not what happens, but how a builder handles his reputation that tells the story.

i have seen builders like ben wilcox go out of their way to make things right for folks and then i've seen builders implode their business in public over things that would have been best served behind the scenes.

There's always two sides to a story. If you're not the original owner, you should expect to pay for any repair work. But there are a lot of folks out there that want to try and get something for nothing!! I've owned two mandolins that developed humps. One was a Gibson Fern and the other was an A-style by a pretty well known builder. I didn't get either repaired for free!

I have no financial interest in Bulldog mandolins. But I do think he makes a decent mandolin for a good price.

i'm not saying fix it for free, but have some pride. getting on a forum and dressing down someone in front of the whole mandolin community does nothing for your reputation.

that said, i've bought mandos from a few of the "bargain" builders and ended up spending $$$ on fret and neck work without any reparation from any of them.

I just wanted to post a comparison I came across on youtube between a Weber Fern vs. Kentucky km1000. The player owns both, so there is no bias, and he has enough experience to really let the 2 be compared well. I can't believe how strong the km1000 is for a pac-rim mando. I don't have much experience with mandolins, but I really have liked the sound of this Km. The Weber Fern is also like a $6000.00 mandolin and the Km1000 is about 1500.00 new. Anyway here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvbTSVuCI8A

As a life long guitar player, who's been at the mandolin the last ten years, I'll be the first to admit that it took me quite a while to really get the complexities and subtleties of the mandolin "sound." Loudness is a very small part of that sound. In addition to the "sound" of the mandolin, there is the question of build. Does the mandolin emit the range of its sound to a light touch or does the player have to hit it hard. It is of course hard to tell what a mandolin really sounds like from listening to a youtube recording. Since we're on the Collings forum, I'll say that the Collings MT at under 2K on the used market is a great value capable of wonderful sound on a very consistent basis. I couldn't make that statement about every new small shop builders mandolins, or about pac rim instruments. You should also address the fact that mandolins have quite a different cost structure than guitars. You don't get a lot of F style mando for 2500, just like you don't get much of an acoustic guitar for 1K.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Doc Holiday,

I really like the Collings A-style mandolins. I have a D1a and have always been impressed with Collings guitars as well. While I have heard the Collings M or MT mandolins, I haven't been as impressed with their F-style as much. They seem to be less bright or less powerful sounding to me. I am real new to mandolins right now and have my sights on something cheaper, like the km1000, but I think for a step up mandolin in the future the MT might be the one.

quote:

Originally posted by pauljcat:
I really like the Collings A-style mandolins. I have a D1a and have always been impressed with Collings guitars as well. While I have heard the Collings M or MT mandolins, I haven't been as impressed with their F-style as much.

I love my MT - can't recommend it highly enough. I haven't played enough of Collings F-style mandolins to have an opinion, though someone who has recently said they think the MFs are the least consistent instruments in the Collings line. I've only played one, and I loved it. Must have been a good one.

I sold my Mowry F style a couple of weeks ago to raise money for an Ellis F that a friend was selling. I'm feeling pretty blessed to have both an MT and and Ellis F to chose from. The Mowry is a gorgeous instrument, but I've coveted that Ellis from the first time I laid eyes on it.