SurfCity Gypsy King Octave Mandolin

SurfCity Gypsy King Octave Mandolin. Cheap, and built to stay that way. But, I *like* it. Loud, resonant, not tinny, good tone. Go figure.
posted by Brian on Monday, October 30, 2006 - link to this photo

1 Comment

Mon, October 30, 2006 - 8:01 AM
Yeah, I had one just like it, the $89 that Lark in the Morning used to sell. Good sound, though the low G course tended to buzz and wobble a bit. Still, for the money, it was a great little octave mando for knocking around with on the porch or around a campfire ... until I tried stringing it as a mandola (CGDA); the Lark catalog plainly said that it could take such a tuning with the appropriate strings. I even bought the mandola strings from them. The extra pressure of the tuning actually collapsed the top, but Lark never returned any of my emails and letters afterward. To this day, they STILL recommend the mandola tuning in their catalog, the bastids. Beware! Don't monkey around with the tuning too much!

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