Northfield Mandolins NFB-F5A Big Mon, Adirondack Spruce Top New

Our best-selling Northfield mandolin hands down, and chances are after just a few minutes of playing this one you’ll hear why. It has the traditional 2-bar bracing under the carved Adirondack spruce top, and delivers single-note sparkle and chord-chop rhythm with authority. Thanks to the very slightly enlarged body (compared to a traditional F-5) the player can get fat, bubbling volume with little effort and there’s plenty of headroom so it never sounds like you’re bashing it.

The name of this model comes from Bill Monroe’s tune of the same name which was the first song on his “Bluegrass Instrumentals” LP recorded in the late 1950s, an album widely credited with upping the game for bluegrass pickers who followed.