Actually the cheap (ish) ones dont sound that bad if you get a decent acoustic amp/ I have a an Ozark one(about £150) which sounded really cranky through amps i borrowed i always had to have the trebles right down. Now i bought a Marshall Acoustic 80 for band stuff and it sounds loads better. It cuts through but not through your head. You can get feedback trouble when you stop if you are too close to the amp but thats the same with any hollow body i think
I would like a better one myself but i will wait until a decent seond hand one comes along cos i am a bit accident prone and wouldnt like to smash abrand new one. ( Well its not just my beeing accident prone. My 3 year old did a Paul Simonon with my first mandolin and i had to get the neck fixed back on)

Cheers, Low :)

[quote="th3clash1977"] Any manufacturers you would recommend?[/quote]

The GODIN A8 seem to be good value for money, though with no soundholes they are not useful for playing unplugged unless you're practicing alone. That was the preferred model by my old mandolin teacher (Rev. Ken Ramsden, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) ("Rev" of the Church of the Open Bottle, what i assume was a reaction to the local Church of the Open Bible). But i would recommend you start by wasting your spare time on this page:

http://www.emando.com

where you will see all sorts of stuff you cannot possibly afford but love to drool at, but also find the reliable more mass-market items that you could actually, like, afford. There's a review section on there, too:
http://emando.com/reviews/reviews_instrument.htm

Check out the gibson solidbody em200, in black, and tell me that's not the sexiest mandolin you've ever seen:
http://emando.com/builders/Gibson.htm

It's also useful to cruise ebay for "electric mandolin" to get an idea of what the prices are for different models. And to do some drooling.

I can tell you from experience that the cheap electric mando's are a hard bitch to amplify.

[quote="Low D"]well it all depends... acoustic, acoustic-electric, or solidbody electric? and what sort of music are you into playing? different body shapes have different tones going on.

in general, i would advise buying used, because you get better value for your money (ie: for what you would pay for a crap new mando, you can get a pretty decent used one).[/quote]

I was looking for an acoustic-electric, and was gonna want to figure out some Pogues (among other songs), and eventually start working out some songs on it. Any manufacturers you would recommend?

well it all depends... acoustic, acoustic-electric, or solidbody electric? and what sort of music are you into playing? different body shapes have different tones going on.

in general, i would advise buying used, because you get better value for your money (ie: for what you would pay for a crap new mando, you can get a pretty decent used one).

I'm considering purchasing a mandolin in the near future, and was wondering if anybody here had any advice or suggestions, such as what kind to get, or where? I was looking at a couple of 150$ Epiphones on Guitar Center.com.....would that be the way to go?