Ovation Celebrity DLX Mandolin  

Very nice features.  On-board active EQ is a plus.  Ball-end strings are a minus, only because it's hard to find them sold in stores as a set.  However, most music stores will let you assemble a set from singles.  Also, Internet/mail-order is a supply solution.  Related to this is the fixed bridge.  No adjustable saddles means no adjustable intonation.  This is bad.

Fairly robust construction, it seems.  Dealing with the trap door to get to the interior (including the nine-volt battery nest) is a bit tricky at first, but one can get used to it.  Except for the intonation, I'd give it higher marks for quality.

I can't get past the intonation issue to answer this question.  I wish I got a different instrument.

I bought one of these products because I wanted a mandolin that looked cool and could be plugged into a PA system.  It's  certainly a handsome instrument, and its active EQ features are  serviceable. Electronically, it's okay.  I understand that bluegrass  purists give it a collective thumbs down, if not for the deep-bodied  plastic back construction, but for the absence of chirp and sparkle that  a traditional mandolin offers.  Unamplified, this instrument does not cut  through an ensemble like the "real" thing.  But since I'm using this for  pop/rock/alternative applications, I was content with the tone and  other features.  What disappoints is this product's truly lousy  intonation.  Simply put:  it does NOT play in tune up and down the  neck.  Tuning it means balancing the apparent pitch achieved between  open positions and, say, the fifth or seventh frets.  I am already  seriously contemplating a replacement.