RickPick - Posted - 02/08/2013:  16:37:23

Ten-year-old Kentucky's are not likely collector's items, but this seemed the best place to post. I understand that Kentucky mandolins have been made in several different off-shore locations recently, and that some of those locations produced better (or worse) instruments than others. And I think that individual  models of Kentuckys have their own manufacturing histories, just to complicate things further. So in short, does anyone know where a 2003 KM350 would have been manufactured, and -- even more importantly -- if that was a "good" vintage (or otherwise), wherever it came from?

TI_USER - Posted - 02/08/2013:  20:45:40

Kentucky mandolins were originally made in Japan, starting in the early 70's.  I don't know when the change took place, but at some point the changed production to Korea.  They are now made in China.  I know the quality suffered some in the Korea years but the are now making fine mandolins again.

All of the Kentucky mandolins, to the best of my knowledge, are made in the same factory, except for the top models, which are made in a separate factory from the lower production models.  Those would be the KM-900, KM-1000 and KM-1500.  They are built to a much higher standard. 

I'm not sure what you mean by "offshore", unless you consider China offshore.

You might be able to find out about the 2003 KM-350 by contacting Saga Musical Instruments in California.  They are the US distributor for Kentucky.  I'm thinking it is a China model, but I'm not sure.

RickPick - Posted - 02/08/2013:  22:12:14

Thanks for this. By "offshore" I merely meant "not on the NA continent." I had thought Kentucky perhaps had an original home in the US before it went toward the Orient, but it sounds as though I was mistaken. I had heard of the China/Korea/Japan sites, but didn't know any details.  Thanks for your help.  I'll see if \I can get in touch with Saga.