Hello all,

Longtine lurker here.  My trusty old Korean-made MCS-148 mando is toast.  I opened the hard case a few months ago, and, to my horror, saw that the bridge had disintigrated. 

I am not a very good mando player, and used my old one only occasionally at home and in the church praise band (2-finger chords only, preferably in the key of G).

I need a replacement.  I've been looking at the MM68-AX on Amazon and MF.  Questions:

1.  Have any of you bought one of these recently?

2.  How's the action?  I had to do a lot of sanding and filing of the nut and saddle, plus shim removal, to get my old one playable.  Even then, anything above the 5th fret was difficult.

3.  Country of origin?  I understand the AX is imported.  Fine.  I cannot afford a USA-made model.  I will accept a new instrument from any country except China (don't get me started!).

4.  Finally, if you were in my shoes, would you part-out the broken mando, or call CT and ask for a new bridge?  I could pull-off a repair, probably, but am not sure it's worth my time and money.

The black AX looks gorgeoous.  Am ready to pull the trigger, but cannot if it's chinese.

Thanks in advance for any insight!

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It looks like the earlier AX series of mandolins were Korean - but I believe at this point all new ones would be from China.

if you end up getting rid of it I might be open to buying your old exploded mandolin that is if Dan would be willing to guide me through rebridging, I am always up for some education, which he had given me in spades. Or he could guide you!