Customer Reviews

Johnson Mandolin A-Style with F Holes Sunburst

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Not sure why purists froth at the mouth over this little fellow. It's meant to be an entry-level instrument...if you want a $500 Gibson this isn't for you. But for beginners or someone who wants a cheap mandolin to try it's ideal. Sound is pretty good, intonation is proper at the 12th fret and the stain and lacquer finish are high-quality, almost embarassing at this price.

The tall bridge is the only caveat, which makes the action way too high. So I used a dremel tool to grind the bridge lower as well as the back of the nut on the neck, with great results to the action. I also used a file across the frets to level everything out. I had never done this before but read how to do it online. So along with spending so little on it I learned how to be a mandolin luthier(!) Very satisfying.

For $39.99 you might as well get one. Here's some things to evaluate.
- The sunburst finish on the one I bought was awesome. It was better than some really high dollar mandolins.
- The action was higher than I like and there isn't much room to adjust. It's OK right now, but in months or years to come, this will probably get worse.
- There is NO adjustable truss rod. Once this baby goes out of whack, you're gonnas have to toss it or turn it into a project to try to retrofit an adjustable truss rod and get some more life out of it.
- As with any new mandolin, it takes a few iterations to tune it since once you get through the one pair of strings, then the previous ones need adjusting again until there is the right tension on the top via the bridge. But once it's in tune, it holds pretty well.
- The tuning keys are actually much better than I expected. Comparing to other beginning mandos, this is easier to turn the tuning hardware compared my more expensive beginner with the adjustable truss rod.
- the all important sound. It sounds good. it's about the same as the other more expensive beginner brand.

Comparing to the price of other beginner models, you can buy 4 of these for the price of the other popular beginner model. So, buy a few, use one and put the other in the closet. When one goes bad, ditch it an break out another one.

As an accomplished pianist and decent guitarist, I was not expecting much for forty dollars. It is a much better product than I expected. It has become a bit of a game having other musicians guess how much I paid for it. They consistently guess in the $150-$250 range. It has a beautiful finish and a good sound to it.

The only negatives were that the action was ridiculously high (what's the point of an adjustable bridge when the lowest setting is half an inch off the strings??) and the strings were a little dead sounding. With some aggressive sanding of the bridge and a new set of strings, it sounds good and plays great.

Length:: 1:01 Mins

I was strumming songs on this less than 5 minutes out of the box. The two finger chords make it easy to pick up, with so much room for improvement, it's also hard to get bored learning this thing. It is a beautiful instrument and holds a tune suprisingly well for such an inexpensive instrument.Johnson Mandolin A-Style with F Holes Sunburst

I've been playing guitar for 20+ years and I wanted to try something new, so I figured I would give mandolin a try. Knowing how much the quality of low-end guitars had increased over the past 10 years, I figured that for $100 I could get a good enough instrument to figure out if I wanted to play mandolin or not.

I spent $50 on one of these and I have to say it's served my needs. It looks and sounds like a mandolin. It's playable. It looks pretty nice as longs as someone doesn't know anything about mandolins. You can use it to learn once you set it up right.

Here are some of the cons:
- not set up out of the box. I had to set the intonation and lower the action
- no truss rod so if the neck warps, you are out of luck
- laminate top, so the tone won't improve with age
- thick finish
- tuners on my were of varing quality. Some work well, some bind or are very loose

I went to Musician's Friend distribution warehouse showroom since they are in KC. I thought how could you go wrong with 39.95? I looked at 5 of these and they all had necks that dropped down away from the strings where it joins the body. That made the action way too high. Volume sounded low and tone was not full. On a positive note, the finsh was nice. It was a nice looking "toy", but it was not worth playing. I left and found a Kentucky A type mandolin for $150. It had awesome tone and volume. Just goes to show you, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately, this Rogue isn't worth the $40 they want. I would pay $20 and give it to my kid, but it's not even good enough for a beginner.

All of the Rogue instruments I have looked at are very bad quality. The necks on all their acoustic guitars I have seen need resetting out of the box, unless you like playing with the strings an inch above the fretboard.

Spend the extra money and buy a real instrument. Stay away from these mandolins and buy a Kentucky if you are a beginner.

I've been playing guitar for a few years and wanted to try playing mandolin. I bought this one because I didn't want to spend too much money just in case I didn't like playing it. I was a bit weary buying it because I've read quite a few complaints about it, but I figured $30 was a small gamble so I took a chance. It paid off for the most part. The tone is good, it's very loud, and the finish is beautiful. My only complaint is that it doesn't stay in tune worth a damn so I had to spend another $15 to buy new tuners for it. I didn't have any problems with the bridge like some other people have. In fact, the action and the intonation was set up perfectly right out of the box, and there's room to make adjustments if needed.

Overall, I think this is a great value, good quality instrument, as long as your prepared to maybe have to spend a few extra dollars and cents on it.

I got this mandolin after i visited a friend who had recently purchased one. I tested his out for the weekend i was there and really liked the feel of it. I had never played mandolin before, but i have 9 years of experience on guitar and most of it translated over. As far as the action is concerned, both my mandolin, and the one my friend purchased, were fine. In fact its feel was fairly comparable to a $1500 mandolin i played at a music store, and im not missing a decimal point there. Obviously the expensive one had a slightly better feel to it, and a nicer sound, but for 30 times the cost, i would expect that. I rarely cheap out when it comes to instruments, i play a gibson les paul, but this one really holds up for the price.

I bought one of these for me to learn to play on. It was very easy to set up and tune. The sound is great! I've been enjoying picking on it daily for a few weeks now. Only thing is, in my research on this model I read that some of them have an issue with the "E" strings snapping. Well, I've been playing with 1 E string for over a week now. But at least the other one is holding.

I like this mando so much, I bought one for my sister.

Bought this mandolin recently to expand our musical playing options around the house.
First of all, well packed, that was almost $25.00 of packing...
We took the mandolin on a camping trip and it held tune after a day of retuning.
The workmanship was surprisingly good and the sound was good.....all in context of the price.
We are fully aware we did NOT buy a $400.00 mandolin, but it did give us a $1000 inspiration to explore
the next step...
We paid $40.00 for mediocre pizza and a salad on our camping trip........Put it all in perspective
and as frank Zappa said "Information is not knowledge.Knowledge is not wisdom.Wisdom is not truth.Truth is not beauty.Beauty is not love.Love is not music.Music is the best"

Cheers,
Hendrik.