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 0 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.

Customer Video Review 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

For .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.