Rosalie Has Arrived!

Calloo, callay, Gentle Readers, I chortle, for today is a frabjous day! I picked up my mandolin at the post office this morning, not being able to sleep the night before out of sheer excitement, and I thought, why wait for them to deliver it when the post office is a ten minute drive? So I called as soon as they were open, and sure enough, they had it and would keep it back for me to pick it up, which I did. And I am very glad I did, oh Readers, because if I hadn't, she would have had to stay outside in weather just above freezing, getting rained on and chilled. What a way to treat an instrument! By picking her up she never had to brave the elements, always a nice bonus.

I took my mandolin home and unwrapped her, and here she is! Let me introduce you to Rosalie (whose name, of course, I explained in a previous blog post. To give you a short recap, she is NOT named after the recent Great Big Sea song in which Rosalie features prominently. No. She is named after the red-headed cartoon hillbilly girl that was in a Bugs Bunny lo, these many years ago.)

That box she is in is her original Stagg box -- but the people I bought her from, who are in Missouri, had wrapped her in ANOTHER box, plus more shipping materials. It was totally a mandolin coffin. There was quite a lot of bubble wrap involved too, lol. I stripped all of that off, and snapped this pic. You can kind of see some of the packing material behind her headstock and the lid of the box. Don't worry, she's not really that red in real life, more of a nice chestnut color. I am already calling her 'my little redhead' -- more on that later!

This next snap is her sitting more or less upright (at a big angle, lol). Don't worry, those orange blotches are not actually on the finish, that is a reflection of the overhead light in the room! My camera's flash occasionally does some weird things. Now, those of you who have seen mandolins before may notice that Rosalie looks a little different. Your eyes are not deceiving you. She is in fact a left-handed instrument and unlike many if not most other current mandolins (or, for that matter, most stringed instruments, like my guitar!) she was specifically designed and built from the ground up as a left handed machine. And I can tell you already, being a specific instrument for a lefty has made all the difference. I have only learned 4 chords (in ten minutes!!!) but I assure you, she's not fighting me nor is she trying to be something she's not.

Here are some closeup shots, the first one is of her soundboard:

You can kind of see the scratches here and there, particularly on the pick guard, which I am not too happy about. Yes, she is a cheap mandolin and yes she was built in China (sigh) but there's no need for such sloppy work. She is brand new and I am the first person to play her. More on that later, too!

This is a closeup of her headstock. Yep, she's a Stagg, an M20 L to be precise. Rosalie came to me totally detuned (and then some!) so if you're wondering why all the tuners are flat, that's why. I did finally manage to get her in tune, but it took me a full 70 minutes. Yep, you read that right. SEVENTY continuous minutes.

And yes, those are cheap ass nasty strings. They sound like shit and they have no play whatsoever, they are dead, dead, dead. I'm going to get those changed asap, probably when I get her setup, which with luck will happen in the next week or so. She came to me completely innocent -- absolutely nothing had been done to her. I doubt she'd even been taken out of her Stagg box from the Chinese factory where she was made, ever. I have tuned the strings as best as can, all things considered, but I'm going to go get her properly set up soon. Right now, her action is a little high and as you go up and down the fretboard, her intonation is a tad wobbly. I believe a bridge adjustment will fix both issues.

She is laminate, unfortunately, even if her body is basswood entirely. Her neck is nato/mahogany and her bridge is maple. Her bridge is adjustable, thank God. She is completely acoustic and hasn't got anywhere for anything electric to get plugged in or installed . . .but somehow I don't think volume is going to be an issue, see below.

Sound wise Rosalie is not nearly as bad as I was led to believe that any mando under $1000 sounds. Hell, I only paid $99 for her (list was $150). That said, she is NOT the sort of mando a professional would want for a gig. She's not even the kind of mandolin a serious amateur or semi-pro would want or need. She is a student class mandolin. BUT. She's a whole lot better than she was described online. Yes, she's tinny, but not too badly. And she's a redhead, all right, there's not a drop of mellowness in her. She's bright, loud, and very out there -- I will never have to worry about not being heard in a session. On the other hand as she's being brought to life (out of the box, tuned, first chords played, etc) she is developing some decent undertones as well as a bit of bass and the classic sweet mandolin tone *is* there, even if you have to listen hard to hear it. Her sound is acceptable to me now, and after she's set up with some better strings, I'm sure she'll get better. I am also hoping that as she ages (as my guitar did, 8 years later) she'll start to chill out and grow into an adult voice. My guitar sounds fabulous now, having lost all of the "OMG I'm a rock star and I'm LOUD and BRIGHT LOOKIT ME" it had when I bought it, haha. I suspect that Rosalie was built in the last 12 months. She's really young sounding :)

Rosalie's a keeper, that's for sure. As I get better and start moving from 'totally new and learning to play' into 'playing for others and learning songs, not notes' I will definitely want to move up to a mando that is just, well . . . *better*. Solid body, for one thing. Higher quality materials -- and better craftmanship. A more mellow, sweeter, richer sound. And, because I am a girl and do, rarely, have girly moments, here's hoping I can find one that's a little bit, well, *pretty*. Rosalie is functional but she's sparsely decorated.

All in all, I am very pleased with my purchase and am now going to learn some beginner things about how to play this mandolin that I've bought. Practice makes perfect!