Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F vs Gold Tone Grandmaster: F-Style Mandolin Tone Test

Jeremy played three F-style mandolins priced from $2,419 to $3,999.99 back to back, and each one feels and sounds different in your hands. That's the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F vs Gold Tone Grandmaster Elite question he settled on camera: after the play-through, he named two things he likes and two things he doesn't about each one. Here's what he said, next to the specs from our listings.

If you're stepping up from a first F-style and your budget tops out somewhere under four grand, these are the three we'd put in front of you. They don't sound alike, and the differences are the useful part.

The lineup: price, top and neck at a glance

Here's the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F vs Grandmaster Elite lineup on paper, pulled from our Shopify listings rather than the video captions:

Read the nut width row closely. The three sit within 1/16" of each other, and that small spread is behind most of what Jeremy says about the necks below.

Hear the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F tone test

The play-through runs from the top of the video to about 1:16. Jeremy's take on the Eastman starts at 1:23, the Bourgeois at 2:24, and the Gold Tone at 3:54. Hear the play-through first, then see whether your ear picks the same one his did.

Eastman MD815: the first stop for an Adirondack top

At $2,419, the MD815 sits at what Jeremy called the early mid-range, and he led with the top. In Eastman's lineup, the 800 series is the first level where you get Adirondack spruce, and he pointed out that's true of most mandolin lines. What Adirondack buys you, in his words, is a lot more punch and volume.

His second like was the trim. The MD815 is bound on the top, back, fingerboard and headstock in ivoroid, with a pearl flowerpot inlay on the peghead. You get the look of a top-line package without the top-line price.

"It's got all the appearance stuff that you would look for in a topline package in a much more affordable price." (Jeremy)

He had two complaints. First, it's voiced tight. Jeremy owns an MD815, and he said his took a while to open up. Adirondack has that reputation: right out of the box it can sound a little held back, without the full punch it grows into. Second, the neck. It runs a little deep on the back, and at 1 3/32" it has the narrowest nut of the three. Jeremy plays a Sam Bush model Gibson, which has a wider nut but isn't as big around on the back, so the MD815 feels chunkier to him than the numbers suggest.

If you want to see how the MD815 steps up from the rest of Eastman's F-styles, our MD615 vs MD815 comparison covers that ladder. You can see the current Eastman lineup on our Eastman mandolins page. We're the #1 worldwide dealer for Eastman guitars and mandolins, so if there's no MD815 on the page when you look, call us and ask when the next one arrives.

Bourgeois M5-F: aged wood and the best hardware here

The M5-F Jeremy played is our shop-exclusive Cordovan Red finish, at $2,935, still just under the $3,000 line. His first like: everything that vibrates is aged. The Adirondack top, the European maple back and sides, and the maple neck all go through Bourgeois's Aged Tone treatment. He said it bakes out some of the weight, and you can actually feel that when you pick it up. The wood feels more open, more like an older instrument.

His second like was the hardware, and it's the best of the three. The M5-F carries a custom engraved Bill James tailpiece and Waverly Golden Age tuners. Jeremy called it a big upgrade in the hardware overall, and nothing else in this lineup matches it.

On the dislikes, the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F comparison runs close, because the complaints rhyme. The neck is a little deep on the back for his hand, although he does prefer its wider nut, and at 1 5/32" it's the widest of the three. And it's tight out of the box. Jeremy played one for quite a while and heard it open up, but the bigger point was voicing:

"I think they're just voiced to be more like Dana likes, a more even balanced tone all the way across the instrument." (Jeremy)

Jeremy looks for more bass and midrange in a mandolin, so to him the M5-F is maybe a little too balanced. That's a preference. A player who wants every string to sit at the same level will hear that as the selling point. Our full Bourgeois M5F review goes deeper on this model, and the in-stock TAS Exclusive M5-F-CR in Cordovan Red is the one to look at, or see every model on our Bourgeois mandolins page.

Gold Tone Grandmaster Elite: full and woody on day one

The Grandmaster Elite is the newest of the three, and it's the one Jeremy liked right out of the box. His first like was tone. Where the other two need time, this one already has the fullness he looks for.

"You strum on this, you chop on it, it just jumps right at you." (Jeremy)

He said mandolin players would call it woody, with a deep, full tone. The build lines up with that: an aged, thermo-cured Swiss and Italian spruce top over 4A North American maple, under a hand-applied nitrocellulose lacquer that Gold Tone keeps thin so the top can resonate.

His second like was the neck. The nut is slightly wider at 1 1/8", and the back of the neck is a slight V, so it doesn't feel clubby. It isn't as small as some early Gibson necks either. Jeremy called it an in-between shape, and it was the best fit of the three for his hand.

The two dislikes are simple. He's not a fan of pickguards, though Gold Tone made this one easy to remove with two screws, so you can take it off or put it back without altering the mandolin. The other is price. At $3,999.99, it runs about $1,065 more than the Bourgeois and about $1,580 more than the Eastman. Jeremy's verdict was fair: you get what you pay for, and it's hard to nitpick this one in its price range. See it on our Gold Tone mandolins page, or look at the in-stock Grandmaster Elite in Honey Amber.

Which F-style mandolin fits your hand and your ear?

All three are serious instruments, and the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F vs Grandmaster choice comes down to three things. Work through them in this order:

1. Your budget. The spread is $2,419 to $3,999.99. If the Grandmaster is out of reach, it's Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F, and $516 separates them. If even the MD815 is a stretch, our Loar LM-700 vs Eastman MD315 comparison covers the F-styles a step down.
2. Your neck preference. Narrow and deep (Eastman), wide and deep (Bourgeois), or slightly wide with a soft V (Gold Tone). If you can, hold all three before you decide. Neck shape is the thing a spec sheet can't settle.
3. How long you'll wait for it to open up. The Eastman and the Bourgeois both start tight and grow with playing time. The Gold Tone is full from the first chop.

Here's how we'd call the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F vs Gold Tone decision:

• Choose the Eastman MD815 if you want an Adirondack top and full binding at the lowest price here, and you're happy to play it in.
• Choose the Bourgeois M5-F if you want an even, balanced voice across all four courses, aged wood, and the best hardware of the group.
• Choose the Gold Tone Grandmaster Elite if you want bass, midrange and a woody tone right away, and the neck feel matters more to you than the extra $1,065 over the Bourgeois.

If you're earlier in the search, our guide to what makes a great mandolin covers the basics, and the full F-style mandolin selection shows everything else on the wall.

Related reading

• A-style vs F-style mandolins: an in-depth comparison
• Bourgeois M5A Blacktop: the A-style sibling of the M5-F
• Mandolin under $1,000: PCH M104 vs Eastman MD305

What comes with any of the three

Whichever one you pick, it goes through our 23-Point Professional Inspection before it ships. Every mandolin in this post is over $1,000, so every one is covered by the Dread-Not Guarantee. That means a 1-year trade-in credit worth up to 90% of your pre-tax price, less round-trip shipping, on top of a 30-day in-home trial. That matters most in an Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F decision, since both start tight: if the Adirondack voice doesn't open up the way you hoped, you aren't stuck with it.

Still weighing the Eastman MD815 vs Bourgeois M5F, or wondering if the Grandmaster is worth the jump? Give us a call with your questions. You can also see our whole range on the mandolins page.