i just picked myself up a POS starter mandolin from the pawn shop/music store in my town a few hours ago. i honestly had zero interest in playing one of these things until i played a $1300 breedlove mandolin at another music store today. so i just went and picked one up...its sooo fun! once you get past the whole 7-fret spacing rather than the guitar's 5-fret spacing between strings, you can shred it up! plus, its a beautiful instrument for folk music, espcially old irish songs. ive been zipping through quite a few of them, just picking up on some interesting chords and whatnot. i think im going to quit guitar! :rolleyes:

but in all honestly, what a rad little instrument.