Harley Benton MA-500 VS Bluegrass Series

This is a fine instrument - but it needs work to realise it's full potential.
The fret ends are not just badly finished - they are totally unfinished!!! They feel sharp and unpleasant and will need a lot of work with a fret file. Out of the box, the nut was too high and the action on the verge of unplayable. It looks like they just bolted it together and rushed it out of the factory. However!!! With work - reducing the height of the nut, lowering the action and setting the intonation, it starts to come alive. For a buyer not prepared or skilled enough to make the changes -- this instrument would be a big disappointment and would need an expensive visit to a luthier to get it right. If you have average skills and enjoy tinkering with instruments then you can make the basic improvements yourself. There's a great instrument in there --- it just needs bringing out. Apart from the playability issues, the standard of finish is exceptionally high. Better quality control needed on the frets, the nut and bridge saddles.

This isn't your typical "Losing my religion" mandolin. There isn't much in the way of acoustic sound to it, so having an amp is pretty much mandatory. Having said that, it's a really fun unit, and somthing you can use for the occasional mandolin playing in a live setting, where the lack of acoustic behaviour might actually be a benefit. Getting this to feedback will probably not be very easy.

You should be comfortable with doing a set-up of the mandolin. When I got it the strings were way too high for my taste, and the intonation wasn't really up to snuff, but that's nothing you can't fix with a couple of twists with the hex keys.

Look dude, it's $100. Go in expecting to do some work on this beast. The nut is a mess. It's impossible to keep it in tune out of the box. However, this is a great instrument to learn on if you want to start learning to do your own setups.

The pickups are microphonic and very low output, but if and when you are able to wrestle it into tune (the tuning machines are hot, bleeding garbage and should be replaced immediately) it sounds perfectly fine.

It's heavy for such a little thing -- you will totally need a strap to deal with this instrument. The back of the neck is raw, unfinished wood, so that may feel a little strange. The fret ends are a nightmare.

All that said, for the price, it's still worth learning to set it up yourself or having a tech do it for you. You'll likely still come out ahead. Don't shy away from the instrument just on those merits. But also don't take it out of the box, strum it and think you're ready to go on stage. You're getting a $100 instrument, and the quality of it will depend on your sweat equity.