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The mandolin reviews database is here to help educate people before they purchase an instrument. Of course, this is not meant to be a substitute for playing the instrument yourself!

89 reviews in the archive.

Stagg M50-E Mandolin Reviews

Submitted by irishbanjos (see all reviews from this person) on 1/4/2011

Where Purchased: Klavier Alicante (Spain)

Year Purchased: 2008
Price Paid: 132 ($US)

Sound

The sound is good, though not the best.
Sometimes, the tailpiece touches the D strings or something like that, and it makes a weird vibration-like sound when you play the D strings.

Anyway, you can fix this by taking the tailpiece off and putting it on again.

Sound Rating: 8

Setup

It was well set up. The only problem were the strings. They weren't very good, so I had to change them.
The pick-up doesn't seem to be very good, though.

Setup Rating: 7

Appearance

It looks beautiful, though I think it would've been more beautiful if it was 100% acoustic (the pick-up and the pickguard make it look a bit uglier).

Appearance Rating: 7

Reliability

The strings were very poor, except the A strings, that lasted for almost a year.
The pick-up doesn't amplify the sound as much as I'd like to (I have to put the volume at the highest on the amplifier and it still doesn't sound very high...).
The finish is what bothers me the most. It's nice, but when you've cleaned your mandolin, it gets full of dust in minutes. The worst is that when you clean it again it has more dust in less than a minute...

Reliability Rating: 5

Customer Service

The people at the music store were very nice.

Customer Service: 10

Components

The strings should be upgraded, as well as the pick-up.

Components Rating: 7

Overall Comments

Good mandolin for starters. It sounds good when playing unplugged.

When you plug it to an amplifier it doesn't sound as loud as desired to play at a bar, for example.

I think the price was a bit high for that mandolin...

Overall Rating: 7