Thomann Octave Mandolin M1087-P

I have been playing Irish trad for about 10 years, mostly fiddle and tenor banjo. At the 2019 O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat, I heard a bouzouki up close and personal and wanted to try one. I opted for the octave mandolin, because I couldn’t make the stretch on a longer scale length. Bouzoukis and octave mandos available in the US cost upwards of US$800, a bit much to spend to try out an instrument. Even with international shipping, the Hora octave mandolin was only a quarter of that price—worth the risk, even if it turned out to be a piece of junk, which it is most assuredly not. I showed it to my music teacher and to my luthier; both pronounced it a good instrument for the money. My take: fit and finish are beautiful. Sound is impressive with great resonance. Intonation is accurate throughout the scale length. Sound through the installed pickup sounds *just* like the instrument, only louder. Moving up and down the fingerboard is smooth. The workmanship of the instrument far exceeded my expectations. Shipping from Germany took about ten days to Texas, and it arrived in good condition. If you’re undecided, just buy it.

Thomann never ceases to amaze me as to how their products can be so cheap and yet so high quality. This mandolin has a really great sound, the pickups are worth 25€, but they aren't so good in comparison to more expensive pickups, which would be an unfair comparison. So there is that. The build quality was very good, but I saw some "mistakes" in the rosette, and some scratches in the headstock, overall nothing extremely bad, nothing even bad, mediocre at worst. But I keep on forgetting that this costed only 199€, it's so great. I have played various instruments, but octave mandolin never, and I am surprised for how good it is. I was met with various opinions that a 200€ guitar is higher (approximately "double") quality than a 200€ octave mandolin. Here, simply, the quality matched. For its price, it's really great. I really recommend buying this octave mandolin as a beginners one. 💖

I'm sure that Thomann used to sell Ashbury Octave mandolins a while back but now seem to have stopped. Having tried the M1087P against other Octave Mandolins ( including Ashbury) of a similar and more expensive price I can see why. True the neck is slightly long for an O.M but I have tuned it down a tone and use a Capo to solve the problem, it still sounds great with a nice Jangly tone. The tuners aren't perfect but they hold their pitch and I have seen worse on more expensive instruments. The set up seems also to be well done although at this price I would expect it to vary from instrument to instrument. All in all though I am very happy with this instrument.