But leenia, trying it out on a guitar isn't a fair test of pickaphobia or pickaphilia. There's those great big gaps between the strings on a guitar, where your pick slides down in and gets stuck, twangles up your fingers, and spoils your beat. Not anything like a mando, where the double course strings just glide the pick right over them - smooth as silk.

'Sides that, most gitarists (beginners at least) are just twangers and only know how to power chord one way. With a mando you gotta learn that back n forth, sorta like face-slappin' a rugrat, that just automatically leads you into smooth and easy playing.

But I will agree with the previous couple of posts, that a free trial beats paying up front for something you might not enjoy like you thought you would; and the more you know about where you're going, the more likely you'll end up somewhere you like being and will want to stay a while.

John