As a guitarist who occasionally wanted to play with mandolin, I didn't want to buy some kind of high-end mandolin, but something that will be Ok to play, has OK built quality and not too expensive. I ordered this instrument and must confess that it absolutely fulfiled my expectations. I 'd also like to say that one of the things that I really like about it is the dark wood color which differs this instrument from most of the others that are light wood color (of course that is absolutely subjective thing, but I wanted to say it). Also one great thing is that it has built in electronics, which is great for instrument at this price level. I'm satisfied with it, and of course all recomendations to Thomann.