| A few words about this list |
| Surf City Gypsy King Octave |
| It looks awful cheap and probably sound and plays that way too (I don't know anybody who's tried one). But then again, it is cheap, and at least it has a solid wood top. You can pick one up at Ebay for less than a hundred dollars! If you're really, really short on money, you can get it with
laminate top too, but I wouldn't recommend it. Even in this price range a solid top makes a significant difference. This Chinese-made design can be found under a bewildering variety of brand names, with solid or laminate top and in different sizes (mandolin, mandola, octave mandola and possibly others). While I wouldn't possibly recommend the mandolin or the mandola to anyone, the octave madola is a different issue, simply because there doesn't seem to be any other instruments available in this price range. |
| Lark in the morning Short Scale Bouzouki |
| - Lark in the morning Short Scale Bouzouki
- Available from: Amazon
- Price: USD 235 ( Checked 12/14/2004 )
- Also available from:
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| Musikalia Octave Flat Irish Mandola - mahogany back |
 | Italian-made octave mandola with a nice, mellow tone and a slightly longer scale than "the generic brand Korean-made 'Irish' octave mandola". It takes capoing very well (not always the case with large mandos) which makes it a very versatile instrument. |
| Tyler Mountain Octave mandolin |
| One of the generic brand Korean-made "Irish" octave mandolas sold under a wide variety of brand names. It's a decent beginner/intermediate instrument made from solid wood (no plywood here!) and with a short and slim neck that makes it very easy to play. |
| Trinity College Octave mandolin |
  | One of the generic brand Korean-made "Irish" octave mandolas sold under a wide variety of brand names. It's a decent beginner/intermediate instrument made from solid wood (no plywood here!) and with a short and slim neck that makes it very easy to play. |
| Ashbury AM-325 Octave mandola |
 | One of the generic brand Korean-made "Irish" octave mandolas sold under a wide variety of brand names. It's a decent beginner/intermediate instrument made from solid wood (no plywood here!) and with a short and slim neck that makes it very easy to play. |
| Gold Tone Octave Mandolin |
  | Irish style octave mandolin (octave mandola).
The Gold Tone OM-800 features a solid spruce top, curly maple back and sides, bone nut and saddle, 20 1/4" scale, and dot inlay. Its design and spesifications are similar to "the generic brand Korean-made 'Irish' octave mandola" although it's supposedly assembled in the USA from parts imported from AsiaI don't know much about Gold Tone's mandos, but their banjos are very decent instruments for the price. Production quality might vary a lot, but the factory's always quick to repair or replace any less successful instruments. Some banjoists complain about the Gold Tones having too light an action, but for a less experienced players that's often an advantage, and it's easy to change anyway. |
| Ozark OMD 2000-S Octave mandolin |
| One of the generic brand Korean-made "Irish" octave mandolas sold under a wide variety of brand names. It's a decent beginner/intermediate instrument made from solid wood (no plywood here!) and with a short and slim neck that makes it very easy to play. |
| Fender Octave mandolin |
  | An Irish style octave mandolin from Fender???
It's not that surprising really. Fender's been filling up the lower end of their acoustic range with Korean "generic brand" instruments for a while so in a way it's only natural they've also looked at those affordable Celtic style stringed instrument they build over there.At first sight octave mandola is very similar to the ones sold under dozens of different brand names and is probably built at the same factory as the others. There are two very important differences though: Fender's model has a built-in (not very good) pickup and (apparently) a considerably shallower body. In effect that means this is an electric instrument and you can't expect nearly as much acoustic sound from it as from the others. (I still don't understand why they build it with such a short neck. It seems the argument is that it makes it easier to play for beginners, but it does reduce the sound significantly and most people seems to have no problem handling even a guitar with a much longer neck than any octave mando has ever had.) - Fender Octave mandolin
- Available from: Musician's Friend (USA only)
- Price: USD 479,99 ( Checked 12/04/2004 )
- Also available from:
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| Morgan Monroe Octave mandolin |
| One of the generic brand Korean-made "Irish" octave mandolas sold under a wide variety of brand names. It's a decent beginner/intermediate instrument made from solid wood (no plywood here!) and with a short and slim neck that makes it very easy to play. |
| Hora Short Scale Bouzouki |
| Octave mandolin in the same style and quality as Hora's Portuguese mandolins. Natural high gloss finish. |
| Soares'y Tenor mandola |
 | Soares'y is a small Portuguese manufacturer who builds small quantities of a number of really cool and unusual stringed instruments at very pleasant prices. They have so many different options to offer one may wonder if they've ever built two exactly identical instruments, and this picture is just an example of their products. |