"Mark Knecht" <markknecht@xxxxxxxxx> writes: > Hobgoblin looks like an intersting site. May I ask - did you buy the > instrument over the net or do you live somewhere near them? I went to their shop in Crawley (a couple of hours' drive from here), since I wanted to try out the instrument before I bought -- and it's a good thing I did, since I was originally planning on getting the similarly-priced Ashbury bouzouki, which turned out to have a fingerboard far too narrow for my fingers. ;) They had a really impressive selection of instruments when I went (including second-hand), and were quite happy for me to sit there for a couple of hours trying out all of them until I found one I liked -- the local music shops here in Canterbury only have a few mandolins in stock, and don't sell bouzoukis at all. I have bought strings and bits from Hobgoblin over the web, and been very happy with the service. I don't think I'd want to buy an acoustic instrument without playing it first, though -- there can be significant differences even between instances of the same model... -- Adam Sampson <ats@xxxxxxxxx> <http://offog.org/>
