Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin
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Brilliant tone at a price you can handle!
The Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin boasts a solid spruce top that will actually improve in tone over time—a highly-prized trait of better acoustic instruments.
Traditional heritage
Since a humble start in Sparta, Greece in the late 1800's, Epiphone founder Anastasios Stathopoulo was commited to detailed quality, later with his sons he took their bureoning Manhattan family luthier business into a world-renown fretted instrument maker and innovator. In fact, some of the original "A. Stathopoulo" round-back mandolins are some of the most prized, rare vintage mandolins in exhistence. In the late 50's, another famous fretted instrument company known for mandolins, Gibson, purchased Epiphone and assured the continuance of Anastasios' mandolin expertise' legacy.
Traditional Epiphone craftsmanship
The Epiphone MM-30SE is an easily recognized "A" style or "teardrop" mandolin, expertly constructed with a Mahogany body and set, Mahogany neck, providing warm acoustic tone. The "bite" if the mandolin's sound is from its solid spruce top, which will only sound better as it matures. It also features the traditional floating Rosewood bridge, Rosewood fingerboard, Gold hardware and Tortoise pickguard emblazoned with the iconic Epiphone "E" and comes in Antique Sunburst finish. It is "electrified" with a built-in, passive bridge piezo pickup with a 1/4" output jack. Made by Germany's Shadow Company, this SH900 pickups provides real acoustic tone by capturing not only the string tone but by also capturing the natural acoustic tone of the body.
Solid top, solidly backed
The solid-top MM-30SE mandolin is protected by the Epiphone Lifetime Limited Warranty featuring Gibson 24/7/360 Customer Service and guarantees the instrument against defects in materials or workmanship.
Features
- Body material: mahogany
- Top material: solid spuce
- Neck material: mahogany
- Neck shape: traditional
- Neck joint: glued-in, set neck
- Scale length: 14"
- Fingerboard material: rosewood
- Fingerboard radius: flat
- Nut width: 1.06"
- Hardware: gold
- Machine heads: vintage-style open
- Bridge pickup: Shadow SH-900 piezo bridge pickup
- Bridge: adjustable floating rosewood
- Tailpiece: gold mandolin
- Other: tortoise pickguard
Great for the mandolin player on a budget! Call or click to order today!
Review Snapshot®
by PowerReviews(based on 27 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
Most Liked Positive Review
Hopefully not skewed
I?m not one who writes reviews a lot simply because reviews often tend to be skewed and I would probably be just as guilty of doing the same. In this case ill will risk...Read complete review
I?m not one who writes reviews a lot simply because reviews often tend to be skewed and I would probably be just as guilty of doing the same. In this case ill will risk it. Out of the box my mandolin was set up great. The finish on the guitar was spotless as far as I can tell and the gold hardware looks amazing. I had trouble getting the packing foam out from under the bridge but after I took the strings off and raised the bridge it was a piece of cake.The intonation is fine if you will take about a minute when you put new strings on to tune, stretch the string, and then retune before proceeding to restringing. I may be more lenient on the intonation simply because I play classical string guitars which are never perfectly in tune.The action is relatively good and easy on the fingers especially if you?re a beginner. It won?t be as nice as Weber or a Washburn but as most people live on a budget it will prove to be just fine. Regardless I would highly suggest using elixir strings. This is a rare example in life where you get what you pay for. They will at least give you twice the life of a pack of Martins.The Piezo pickup can be a little sketchy and temperamental. I tried it out for the first time over at a friends house Christmas day and it had some terrible feedback at first before settling down. It also didn?t quite have the same sound and twang as it does acoustically. However since then I?ve played it through my friends soundboard at school and it played beautifully and sounded like a mandolin. My guess is that my friend?s amp was simply old and shot. Its one drawback is a lack of control knobs. But an amp or sound system can easily compensate for that. As I said above it sounds great acoustically and because it is a full body wooden instrument it will actually begin to sound better with time provided you take good care of it.First if you are uncomfortable ordering online (as my parents are) please realize that product number does not correspond with the color of the instrument and you must specify which you would prefer to have. Second if you are ordering the antique sunburst it is not as cherry red as the pictures appear to be on line according to Epiphone?s web site. It in fact has more of a tobacco or antique finish rather than sunburst. Features (7) because of a lack of control knobs.Quality (8) because it sounds good but hardly top of the line.Value (10) you can?t beat the price when it comes to the return.Overall (8) It is well made, versatile, and with a little tweaking perfect for a starter.
VS
Most Liked Negative Review
Lacking
The instrument delivered was not a good buy for beginners because the action needed work. Two of the frets "buzzed out" so badly there were no notes produced at those frets....Read complete review
The instrument delivered was not a good buy for beginners because the action needed work. Two of the frets "buzzed out" so badly there were no notes produced at those frets. The buzz went beyond annoying. It resulted in an unplayable portion of the neck. Therefore, the action was raised to alleviate the issue. The intonation was not quite right. It also needed work. The 1/4" instrument jack is poorly done. The cable does not lock in. It sort of just slides in. You cannot move around with this thing plugged in and expect to keep a signal.Bright spots: I'm not out too much money. The finish and hardware look nice. The tuning gears seem fine. The installed piezo sounds ok. I Summary: I would not recommend this instrument to anyone. Not being a mandolin expert I cannot give a fair assessment of its tone relative to other mandolins except to say that it records well (I use it as a background instrument and "filler"). Lastly, an inexpensive instrument is only a good deal when it can be played. I realize that you should not expect "exquisite" tone from an inexpensive instrument but I do expect it to be 100% functional. This is not the case with the mandolin I received.
Reviews
Reviewed by 27 customers
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Pros
- Good Tone
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
This mandolin sounds very nice and is easy to tune. The finish looks excellent and I've had no problems with anything. String replacement isn't difficult and overall I am quite pleased with this instrument.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
A good value for the price. A lot of bang for the buck!
I just picked one up and I am very pleased with it. I am beginning on mandolin and wanted a playable instrument. This instrument is not only playable but the tone is great for a inexpensive mandolin. I jammed with a few friends tonight and thoroughly enjoyed playing this instrument. The finish is greatand the action is good. The tuners are a little cheap but functional and it stays in tune well.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
This thing is alright. It's hard to find a tailpiece I had to get one and drill the center hole to make it bigger. Get a new pickup immediately if your planning on playin electric. Get new tuners also.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
Actually, I'm just commenting on the "need" for a second strap button as mentioned immediately below. You don't need a second strap button. You can use something along the lines of a shoe lace to tie the strap to the headstock. However, I use the "Planet Waves Quick-Release Guitar Strap System" on my "A" type mandolin. It works great and offers a good deal of convenience. Musicians Friend does sell it and it's inexpensive.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
I wanted a beginner mandolin for my son, and decided on this one. Even with the Epiphone name, I was still a bit nervous buying a Chinese import.In summary, I am extremely pleased with the quality and the sound verses the price I paid (mandolins get really expensive really quickly).The finish is great (I got the blue one), and the quality is certainly good enough for what we'll use it for. I will say that the tuners are pretty cheesy, but they do the job.It was playable out of the box BUT we had a really hard time fretting notes on the first fret because the nut was way too high (i.e. hard to press the strings down). I loosened the strings, filed the back of the nut to make it shorter, and glued it back on. I also lowered the bridge about as low as it would go. Those 2 steps made it much much easier to play. I was pleased that all that lowering didn't introduce any fret buzzing.I also noticed the pickguard was buzzing against the body on certain notes, so I took it off and glued a very tiny piece of thin foam near the vibrating edge - no more buzzing.It sounds like I'm complaining a lot, but the above were fairly easy for me to do, and maybe others wouldn't even notice. Also, I played a couple of $2000+ units at the local music store, and they didn't sound much different than this one, however, keep in mind I am guitar player, not a mandolin player.Lastly, you will want to add the second strap pin (near the back of the neck joint) so you can use a strap. A-style mandolins are like holding little greased watermelons. You really need a strap to be able to hang onto it properly.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
This mandolin is really great for the price. I was looking for a beginner mandolin, wanting to switch things up from playing guitar. For the price this mandolin has great tone, the spruce top has a really nice sound (much better than maple, used on cheaper mandos), and the acoustic volume is surprisingly loud. As far as the electronics go, they're nothing special, but putting it through a boost pedal or eq should improve the volume and control. My mandolin came with the strings completely slack, which I am actually thankful for, because UPS and weather changes can sometimes cause trouble. After a set up and a new set of strings my mandolin plays beautifully. Bottom line, for the price, this is a really great mandolin. Good for beginners, or anyone who wants a good mandolin to drag around and not worry too much about.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
I bought this mandolin about a year ago and overall it's a great mandolin. It needed a little neck work, but nothing that you can't fix, and if your just starting out as a musician you probably wouldn't even realize it.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
I purchased this mandolin for my son, who already plays guitar and violin and wanted to cross over. The first one I received was destroyed by our friends at UPS. It looked like a tree fell on it. After waiting weeks for a replacement (these things are apparently popular because they were back ordered each time) we finally got another instrument. It seemed fine at first, but after some comparisons I realized it is not. The tone is terrible compared with instruments I played in my local shop. It also has no electronic controls - no tone or volume. At our band rehearsal, we plugged the thing into the board with a d-box and also through an acoustic amp, and the amplified tone is GOD AWFUL. It feeds back, and has some serious hissing going on. It sounded like a blown speaker, but was not. The piezo pickup in this thing is junk. Total crap from China. I am sending this back and going back to my local music shop to find a quality instrument.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
I just started playing mandolin about 5 months ago, but i play violin and guitar so i do know music. This Mandolin sounds very good through my guitar amps, and good acoustics. it is very easy o play and i am very happy with it.
Comments about Epiphone MM-30SE Acoustic-Electric Mandolin:
This mandolin (MM-30E)plays great right out of the box. I had a little trouble with buzz on the open G string but i adjusted that and it sounds fine. It sounds great in an amp unlike some Acoustic-Electrics I have used. Overall this is great for everything from Flogging Molly to Led Zeppelin, especially for the price.
