I needed a mandola for a tour, where we were going to play a few irish songs. I looked around on the market, but couldn't really find anything to a reasonable price, so I took a chance, and ordered this. I was really positively surprised about the quality. The only thing that makes this instrument look a bit cheap, is the headstock, if that would have been done like the rest of the instrument, perhaps with a veneer on the headstock, you would think you're holding a 1000 EUR instrument. The tuners aren't the best on the market, but I didn't have any problems at all tuning all the strings, and the precision of the tuners is good enough, so no issues. Soundwise - it gives you that lovely mandola/bouzouki sound.
If you also want a mandolin, you could make it easy on yourself, and buy a capo for this instrument, as you automatically have a mandolin then. I've used it as both mandola, and mandolin with great success.
A great buy.
