Buying a mandolin to send to Afghanistan

[anading]

My boyfriend is currently deployed in Afghanistan and wants me to send him a mandolin.  There isn't much to do during their down time and he wants to learn to play.  I need some advice.  While it doesn't get terribly hot in the region he lives, it is very dry and will get extremely cold this winter.  What would you recommend as a good mandolin for a beginner and what will he need besides the instrument?

Thanks for your help!

Ashley

[landshark]

My boyfriend is currently deployed in Afghanistan and wants me to send him a mandolin.  There isn't much to do during their down time and he wants to learn to play.  I need some advice.  While it doesn't get terribly hot in the region he lives, it is very dry and will get extremely cold this winter.  What would you recommend as a good mandolin for a beginner and what will he need besides the instrument?

Thanks for your help!

Ashley

A Mandolin and case can be purchased on line, a tuner, some picks, and if he has a laptop he can either take lessons on line or you can purchase books off the internet. Pretty easy to get him set up really. Yer a nice girl to do that for him, very sweet

[bluegrass bill]

your also going to need a few sets of strings.....I'm sure ther are not a lot of music stores there...

[Pen]

I'd recommend a Mid-Mo mando.  They're out of business now - but not usually too hard to find used ones.  They pop up frequently on Craigslist, Mandolincafe & ebay.  I often see them in the $350-$400 range.  They are solid wood and sound great.

Is he interested in a certain type of music? 

[anading]

Thanks for all the replies!!!  He really likes bluegrass.