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| Site last updated . This particular page was created 05/12/2004 and last updated 13/11/2005 Site updates |
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About branding
"Branding" is an important keyword if you're looking for a decent budget-priced instrument. In short it means that the same instrument is sold under different brand names through different distributors. Sometimes there are huge price differences, so keeping track of which instruments are basically identical can save you quite a lot of money.From the buyer's point of view branding might seem like a bad idea at first, but there is at least one big advantage. Since the various distributors offer instruments that are basically identical, their only chance to compete is to cut the price down as much as possible. And since the manufacturer can mass-produce instruments on a much larger scale than if they had stayed with just one brand, production costs are much lower - especially when it comes to relatively rare instruments like the mandola.Korean-made brands
When it comes to mandolas there's one Korean-made model that's sold under a huge variety of brand names. The ones I've managed to identify so far are:
Some of these brands may offer more than one mandola model. If so, the "generic brand Korean mandola" is usually the cheapest one in their catalogue.
One important thing to keep in mind is that the various brands aren't necessarily absolutely identical. There may be minor design differences and there may also be some quality differences depending on how good the distributor's quality control is. It would be interesting to know the rejection ratios they operate with, but there's not much chance anybody will ever tell us that.
Similar looking instruments
At least one brand makes their own mandolas that looks very similar to the Korean:- Minstrel
There are also "generic brand" Korean-made octave mandolas and Irish bouzoukis that are virtually identical to the mandola except for the scale length.
How good is it?
The Korean mandola is quite a decent low-priced instrument; a good design, made from good wood and built with a very stable production quality. It can't match a top-quality handmade instrument of course, but that's not a fair comparasion at all.No matter what name there is on the peghead, this is a decent beginner/intermediate mandola with a solid spruce top, solid maple back and sides, rosewood fingerboard, gloss finish and a slim, playable neck. It can't compare to a professional, hand-built instrument of course, but for less than 500 dollars it's well worth the money. (I've heard of them being listed for up to $750 though, and that is daylight robbery!)