My son and I have been taking guitar lessons for over a year now. He has also forayed into the piano and also takes an interest in almost all the instruments on the wall at our local music shop.

One day when I came out of my lesson, my son with a mandolin in his hands and a large smile on his face said, Hey Dad! Look what I learned!. He then proceeded to play the beautiful intro to Led Zeppelin's Battle of Evermore. I could almost hear Sandy Denny's voice. While I was in taking my lesson, he learned a song on the mandolin! Since then he wanted one of his own, and for his birthday, the one we chose was the Kentucky Km-700 Mandolin. It is what is called an "F" style Mandolin because of it's shape. An "A" style mandolin has a teardrop shaped body, while the "F" style looks like the picture here. A mandolin has 8 strings, paired in twos. Like a 12 string guitar, you are meant to pluck the strings two at a time.

A bit about the Kentucky Mandolin

First of all, this really is a beautiful looking instrument. It has a natural finish spruce top and maple back and sides. The neck is also maple and it is joined to the body at the 15th fret. The fingerboard is ebony with mother of pearl circle inlays indicating the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th and 15th fret. (2 dots for the 12th, one for all the others). Small black dots are also on the top part of the side of the neck.

The whole body of the mandolin has a highly lacquered finish and has a two tone sunburst look. The mandolin is hollow with F shaped holes on each sideof the body. The tuning keys, an emblem and the words Kentucky on the headstock are all mother of pearl too. The tail piece, and the tuners have a gold finish, and the tail piece has a fancy inlay also featuring the word "Kentucky".

Even the Case is beautiful!

This comes in a beautiful fitted case with a black alligator style pattern on the outer side, and red furry felt on the inside. A small pocket is under the neck with a leather tab for opening it. The case is not locking.

Sounds as Beautiful as it Looks

This is a purely acoustic instrument, there are mandolins that are electric, but this isn't one of them. The tone is not loud, this must be played in intimate settings or amplifed. However, the gentle sounds of this instrument are really magnificent. Even when I just strum simple chords on my son's mandolin they have a golden tone to them.

Ease of Playing

This portion of my review is based mostly on my son's experience, as I purchased this mandolin for him. He finds the action on it to be quite good and reports that it is easy for him to hold down the double sets of strings on all of the frets. He didn't have any problem making the transition to placing his fingers onto two strings instead of one. (We both have noodled a lot on various 12 strings guitars at the music store, but we don't own one). The ease in which he learned a few pieces and played them was testament to how easy this is to pick up and play. Of course, since a mandolin is not much bigger than a violin, there is no issue of weight, even small hands can easily pick up, hold and play a mandolin. You can't say that about a stand up bass, or even a Gibson ES or Les Paul.

I have picked it up and strummed it and noodled around on it, but only to play some basic chords, not actual songs. (Note that mandolin chords are NOT the same fingerings as they would be on the guitar, a Chord chart for the mandolin can be purchased for just a few dollars). The neck is smooth, and the action is very nice. Since the fret board is much thinner than a guitars, I didn't have any problems reaching anything with my fingers. I still have problems with some stretches of 4 or 5 frets on the guitar. If I could find some Mandolin Tab online, I may even learn a few songs on this myself!

Comparisons

My son and I also looked at an Alden "A" shaped mandolin, and an Epiphone Mandobird (an electric 4 string mandolin that looks like a miniature Gibson Firebird guitar). We also saw one by Fender that looked like a miniature Telecaster. Although I thought the Mandobird was cool, my son definitely wanted traditional, and the Kentucky won out on sheer beauty.

Value

This particular model retails for around $600-700 dollars, however we were able to get a significant discount buying preowned. Like guitars, mandolins can vary widely in price, some vintage Gibson mandolins price in the tens of thousands.

Summary

This is a beautiful instrument to look at, play and hear. Five stars.

You may also want to check out

Introduction to the Mandolin for Beginners (an instructional DVD)

Recommended: Yes