How to Set Up and Enjoy a Mandolin - The Eye · 2020. 6. 22. · cleaner, fretboard conditioner,...

Written by Robert G. Meldrum Copyright January, 2012 of 46

How to Set Up a Mandolin Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Tools 3. Unpacking your mandolin 4. Setting up the bridge 5. Setting up the nut 6. Intonation 7. Undressing your mandolin 8. Other factors that affect your sound 9. Appendix A: Measurement charts 10. Appendix B: A make-it-yourself strap 11. Appendix C: The mandolins I used for this book 12. Appendix D: Adjusting the Truss Rod 13. Appendix E: Dressing the Frets


1. Introduction I wrote this book to help people get the most out of their mandolins. Learning to play the mandolin can be hard because the strings are under high tension. If the mandolin is not set up properly the “action” is too high and playing can be painful. In addition the mandolin will not ring out the way it should. Use this book to set up your mandolin - after spending a couple of hours working with your instrument you will have years of enjoyment playing it. I started this book after branching out to the mandolin (I have been playing guitar for over thirty years). I ordered an inexpensive mandolin to see if I would enjoy learning a new instrument. My instrument arrived in a barely playable condition: intonation was off and the strings were so high off the fretboard it hurt to fret them. I performed the setup you are going to learn and was stunned at the improved playability. Even more surprising to me was that this inexpensive instrument sounded quite good. Once I intonated it every fret was accurate all the way up the fretboard, and the mandolin was easy to play. I have since scoured the Internet and read many books on setting up stringed instruments. You would be surprised how much contradictory information there is out there, and the number of conflicting pieces of advice. I sorted through it all and have weeded out the opinions that were demonstrably wrong. I have also compiled the most complete setup available for you to learn to perform on your own mandolin. Most professional ($50 to $100) set up jobs will file the nut to a slightly higher than ideal height (in order to make sure there is no fret buzzing) and lower the bridge/saddle as much as possible. This book goes far beyond that and will address issues like lubricating the nut so that your strings tune smoothly, oiling the fretboard, polishing and waxing your instrument, and more. When you are finished with your set up, you will know that your mandolin plays as well as it possibly can. Read the bonus chapter on getting your best tone and projection and you will get the maximum sound out of your instrument. I wrote multiple versions of this book and over ninety-five (!) avid mandolin owners reviewed and critiqued my efforts. Writing this book forced me to evaluate every step of my mandolin set up process. One important review was establishing the most efficient way of performing the setup. The result was the process that follows in this book. I used to strip down and clean each mandolin prior to performing the set up. After each step in the set up I would need to wipe down and clean the mandolin again. This was clearly not the most effective use of my time. Instead of disassembling and cleaning the mandolin before performing the set up, we will set the mandolin up completely before we clean and polish her up.


Another big change was in setting up the bridge and saddle. For this book I purchased three of the most inexpensive mandolins available over the Internet (if you want to know more about the cheap mandolins I used, please read Appendix C). These mandolins shipped with bridges that were so tall that even with the adjustable thumbwheels lowered to their limit the saddle was too high to allow for decent “action.” In cases like this, every luthier I know or have read about sands down the foot of the bridge. This takes a lot of effort and if done badly can actually negatively impact the sound of the mandolin. As I was starting to work on the third demo mandolin I realized that the answer was not in completely reworking the curved foot of the bridge, it was in removing excess height from the saddle. You’ll learn more in Chapter 4. My reviewers prompted me to add information about really in-depth issues like truss rod adjustment and dressing frets. Others asked for a section on strings, picks, and other ways to enhance the tone of your mandolin. I’ve added those areas and enjoyed doing it. If you have more thoughts on how I can improve subsequent issues of this book, please e-mail me your ideas at [email protected]. Enjoy!


2. Tools Here is a master list of the tools you will need to work through the entire setup as described in this book. If you have ordered a mandolin and are waiting for it to arrive this is the perfect time to do your shopping. You can do your purchasing over the Internet or you can buy from your local retailers. I like to work with local businesses when possible. Many of them will price-match Internet prices from reputable sites. I find that working with local retailers makes exchanges easier if there is a problem with a purchase.

Here are the tools and accessories you should have:

• Blue tape. Don’t buy just any old tape that happens to be blue in color. Go to a paint store or hardware store and ask for blue tape used for masking off interior areas prior to painting. This blue tape has a special adhesive that won’t damage your mandolin’s finish.

• A guitar/mandolin cleaning kit. The two kits I am most familiar with are made by Dunlop and Gibson. I recommend you buy a kit that includes cleaner/polish, wax, fretboard cleaner, fretboard conditioner, and string cleaner. The kit will last you for years and years, even if you have several instruments.

• Electronic tuner. If you have an Android or iPhone, download an electronic tuner. There are many good free tuners, and I have read excellent reviews of the tuner that is part of the Guitar Toolkit app. You need a good tuner to measure and adjust the intonation of your mandolin.

• Feeler gauge set. Feeler gauges are used to set the gap in spark plugs. The feeler gauges will be used to measure the spacing at the first and twelfth frets, and we will also use the feeler gauges to make our nut-cutting saws. Harbor Freight (www.harborfreight.com) has a 32-piece set with a standard price of $3.99. Auto parts stores carry feeler gauge sets for under $10.00. Make sure to buy a full set of feeler gauges – again, I prefer a set with 32 gauges.

• Diamond files. We will use the files to make our nut cutting tools. These files will also be used to smooth any rough edges on our frets. Harbor Freight has a 5 Piece Diamond Needle File Set with a regular price of $4.99. In the future you can also use the diamond files to “dress” your frets.

• Replacement strings. Purchase at least two sets of replacement strings. Read the section on strings in this book, and do some research on mandolin-related websites (one great site is www.mandolincafe.com). I happen to like Martin and D’Addario strings. They are mid-range in terms of price, high quality, and I like their sound. There are lots of great options. I don’t recommend buying generic strings or knock-offs, as the quality

http://www.harborfreight.com/


can be terrible and there is no support from the manufacturer. I also don’t recommend buying large lots of the same string until you have determined if there is one particular brand and type that sounds better than anything else on your mandolin.

• Picks. Read the section on picks in this book. I bought a box of 100 mixed picks for about ten dollars at an Internet music store. There were at least twenty or so medium and medium-thick picks in the bunch. The more I play the mandolin, the more I like extra-thick picks. It makes a big difference in the volume I get, and it reduces the clicking noise I get from thinner picks. Experiment and find what suits you best.

• Wire clippers. I have a nice, heavy pair of expensive wire clippers that I use for electrical projects. I get nervous hefting the clippers around a mandolin. I purchased half a dozen pairs of inexpensive wire clippers over the Internet. They work fine for light-duty applications and I keep one set in the gig bag or case of each of my frequent-use guitars and mandolins. They are easy to grip and control.

• Vaseline™. You can use a generic petroleum jelly. We will use a small dab to lubricate the nuts prior to stringing the mandolin and also to lubricate open tuning gears if your mandolin has them.

• Pencil. Use a good quality #2 pencil. The pencil lead is actually graphite and we will use it as a dry lubricant for the string where it goes over the saddle. You can also use it on the nut, although it can discolor a white nut.

• Medium and fine grit sandpaper, and a sanding block. We will use the sandpaper to fit the floating bridge and to sand down the excess nut height after the nuts have been cut to the correct depth. The sanding block is just a flat piece of wood. Because the nut is very small, you need a small piece of wood, maybe one and a half to two times the length of the nut.

• Camera, videocamera, and digital recorder. Use the camera to document your journey. It is especially valuable if there are issues with your new mandolin. Use the videocamera to capture yourself playing your new mandolin right out of the box. Later on you can record yourself playing your properly set up mandolin. You will love to see and hear the incredible improvement you have made. Post your “before” and “after” set up comparisons. I would love to see how setting up your mandolin following this ebook has helped you!


3. Unpacking your mandolin Woohoo! Your brand new mandolin has arrived. The first thing to do is to unpack your mandolin and make sure that it has made it to you safe and sound. Have a digital camera ready so you can document any issues as soon as you see them. Make sure to keep your packing materials handy for a week or so. If you need to return your mandolin you’ll need to ship it back in the same materials used to send it to you.

When you unpack your mandolin check it over very carefully. After you have checked for the obvious (shipping damages) check for the less obvious. Is this the model that you ordered? If you were supposed to get “goodies” (picks, a strap, gig bag, book(s), pitch pipe, etc.), did you get the actual goodies specified?

I once ordered a guitar that was advertised with Martin strings included. I received a guitar with obviously counterfeited copies of D’Addario strings that sounded terrible – I had to replace them right away. I called the retailer, explained the situation, and they mailed me a replacement set of real Martin strings at no charge. A friend ordered a guitar with a sunburst finish and received a blonde guitar. Make sure you receive what you’ve paid for. After all, it’s your money.

Most retailers want you to be happy. If there is something not right with your purchase get in touch with them as quickly as possible. The time to contact them is when the purchase is fresh in their minds. I am always amazed when someone writes that they took a month to unpack and set up their instrument, only to find the top was plywood, not spruce, the color was wrong, or it was a completely different model. If you don’t care enough to examine your new instrument when you receive it, how can you expect someone else to care to make your purchase right?

This is the perfect time to make your initial measurements (see Appendix A). Gently tune your mandolin up and play a few chords or scales. Make a video of yourself playing your mandolin straight from the box. Heck, make a couple of videos! These are your “before” videos. You will love having these videos to compare your mandolin after you complete the set up and it plays like butter.

By the way, if you are reading this before you order your mandolin, I strongly recommend that when you make your purchase you ALSO buy a couple of sets of strings and an assortment of picks. If you don’t already have one, buy a guitar maintenance kit with cleaning polish, wax and fretboard conditioner. Dunlop and Gibson both offer kits that you can buy through online retailers like www.musiciansfriend.com , www.music123.com , www.guitarcenter.com and others, or go to your local music retailer. Other nice-to-haves are a case or gig bag, a string winder, and a strap. Take a look at Appendix B for a fun make-it-yourself strap.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/

http://www.music123.com/

http://www.guitarcenter.com/


Check the tailpiece I just finished working on a mandolin that was giving me fits. Even after a thorough setup it had an annoying buzzing sound. Here are the steps I used to isolate and eliminate the buzz.

As I strummed the mandolin I put my ear up by the headstock and then gradually moved down the neck of the mandolin. The sound appeared to be coming from the lower part of the mandolin body and resonated through the body.

I double-checked by playing the mandolin strings open and then fretting them up the neck. If the buzzing sounds when the strings are played open, but not when they are fretted, then the issue most likely will be with the nut. In this case the buzz was persistent throughout, eliminating the nut as the source of the trouble.

I adjusted the strings higher off the fretboard to make sure I hadn’t introduced fret buzz. This can be an issue if you aggressively lower the bridge/saddle to get the fastest action. The problem remained.

The bridge was seated firmly on the top of the mandolin and I placed my fingers on the bridge while playing. This had no impact on the buzzing, so the bridge was not the source of the problem.

Finally, I looked at the tailpiece. The top cover of the tailpiece was nearly touching the strings. Frequently when mandolins are shipped from the factory the tailpiece cover can be pressed down so that it touches the strings. It should not touch them.

I removed the tailpiece cover, but the problem remained. Lifting the mandolin I carefully examined the tailpiece and found two issues. First, the tailpiece did not have a uniform 90 degree angle in the bend from the side of the body to where it sat over the top. The E string side did not lift enough to adequately clear the top.

Second, the lip of the tailpiece was not bent uniformly. The E and A strings did not make contact with the lip when in an idle state. When played, the vibration of the strings moved them enough to make contact with the lip of the tailpiece, introducing the buzz. Voila!

I removed the tailpiece and gently bent it into the correct angle, then bent the lip so that it made good, even contact with all of the strings. Problem solved. When an unwanted noise is driving you mad, slow down and methodically work your way down the mandolin. This way you can isolate, and then eliminate, the source of your problem.


4. Setting up the bridge/saddle Materials Needed:

◊ Sandpaper - medium and fine grits

◊ Blue painters tape

Most mandolins have a two-piece bridge/saddle. The bridge is the lower part that is in contact with the mandolin’s top. The bridge typically has two threaded metal posts onto which large round thumbwheels are placed. The saddle sits on those two thumbwheels. Guitars typically have a non-moveable bridge and a saddle that is inserted into the bridge. Guitarists usually refer to these two pieces as “the bridge.”

Throughout this book I will refer to the “bridge/saddle” when we are dealing with both pieces as a unit, and the “bridge” or the “saddle” when dealing with each piece individually.

Take two small pieces of painters tape and put one on the bridge and another on the saddle at the edge closest to the largest string pair of strings – your G strings. As we work on the bridge and saddle this will provide an easy reference so we can be sure we are reassembling the bridge and saddle properly.

Read the section on intonation. Adjust the intonation as well as you can so that when you are fitting the bridge/saddle you will be working in the correct area of the mandolin’s top. Prior to properly setting up the nut and the bridge your intonation will probably not be perfect, but get it close. After setting up the nut and the bridge/saddle your intonation will be excellent.


Figure 1 Here is a bridge/saddle with blue tape marked on the bass-side string area. The wood piece that contacts the mandolin's top is the bridge. The wood piece that sits on the thumbwheel screws is the saddle.

Place a piece of blue tape on the mandolin’s top next to each end of the bridge. Use a pencil to lightly mark the position of the bridge on the blue tape so you can put it back in the same spot each time.

Initial Adjustment of the Bridge The first step is to make sure the foot of the bridge makes good contact with the top of the mandolin. Hold your mandolin up and look carefully at the foot of the bridge from the rear and the front. Do you see any gaps? Some bridges will have gaps that are big enough for you to see light shining through under the bridge. If you can insert the corner of a piece of paper under a section of the bridge, you definitely need to address this issue.

De-tune your strings so that the string tension is fairly loose but there is still enough tension to keep the bridge from slipping around or falling off. Lift up the mandolin and look at the foot of the bridge again. With the tension of the strings relieved, the bridge will flex up a little and you will clearly see the specific areas of the bridge that need to be sanded down.


Note: The standard method for lowering bridge/saddle height is to sand down the foot of the bridge. This is a habit most luthiers developed from working with guitars, which only have one component that can be addressed (the bottom of the saddle). The typical two-piece mandolin bridge and saddle provides us a much simpler height adjustment by lowering the height of the wood saddle. By doing this, we minimize the amount of work we do on the bridge: we are going to just sand enough of the bottom of the bridge to allow the foot to make optimal contact with the top of the mandolin.

Insert a piece of paper where the bridge does not cleanly contact the mandolin’s surface. Move it sideways towards the edge of the bridge. When the paper stops you have identified the first area of the bridge to sand down. Make a light pencil mark on the bridge where the paper stops – this is where you will start sanding the bridge.

In my experience most bridges initially need their far edges sanded down just a little to greatly improve their contact with the mandolin. The first several mandolins I worked on I started from the outside edge of the bridge and worked my way in. This would result in a flared end on the bridge that was sanded down too much. Always start your sanding where your piece of paper stops, and sand a little bit at a time. You’ll be surprised how little wood you need to remove to get a great fit.

You should be able to push your index finger under the strings (you de-tuned them already, right?) and gently lift them. Lift the strings and tip the bridge/saddle onto its side and then remove it from the mandolin. Use your medium grit sandpaper to sand down a little of the area starting at your pencil mark. Lift the strings and put the bridge/saddle back on and see how much more sanding you need to do.

Take your time, and sand just a little bit each time. You will be surprised how little sanding is usually needed to fix the foot of the bridge. Repeat this process until the foot of the bridge is making good contact with the mandolin’s top.

Make sure the thumbscrews are at their lowest setting, then tighten the strings back to pitch. I like to do this gently, as the E strings don’t seem to appreciate being quickly brought to full tension. I have snapped a lot of E strings by tuning them too fast.

Now that the strings are tuned up, measure the height of the strings over the 12th fret. Get out your feeler gauges and make an accurate measurement. Use a calculator to add up the widths of the feeler gauges so you are sure you have the right height measurement. If you didn’t do it before, write down the current height of the strings over the 12th fret using the table in Appendix A.


Figure 2 Here is a set of feeler gauges. They provide an extremely accurate way to measure string height over frets, and we use them to make inexpensive custom nut saws.

With the saddle lowered as far as possible, our target is for the strings to be between .045 and .050 inches higher than the 12th fret. This will allow us to use the thumbscrews on the bridge to adjust our string height for the best action without inducing buzzing. We need to determine the difference between our actual height and our target height of .045 inches. This will be the amount we will be sanding off the bottom of the saddle.

Write down the height of your strings above the twelfth fret (in inches) in the chart below. Then subtract .045 inches from that number. The result is the amount of wood you need to remove from the saddle.

____________________________ - .045 inches = __________________________

String height over the 12th fret Amount to remove from the saddle

Let’s say the strings are .095 inches higher than the twelfth fret, as measured with our feeler gauges. .095 minus .045 equals .050 inches that we need to remove from our saddle. On the


other hand, if the strings are .058 inches higher than the twelfth fret as measured with our feeler gauges, .058 minus .045 equals .013 inches that we need to remove.

Take the amount you need to remove from your saddle, as you calculated above, and use your feeler gauges to make a thickness equal to that amount. Now take the saddle and remove it from the bridge. Use your feeler gauges to measure the amount of wood to remove, and trace a line with your pencil on the front and back on both ends of the saddle. This gives you a target to shoot for when you are sanding.

Take a piece of medium-grit sandpaper and fold it over the edge of a piece of flat wood. When you sand the saddle sand it back and forth on its length. If you sand it sideways you will have tendency to rock the saddle and introduce unwanted curvature. Rub the saddle back and forth and remove enough wood so that you just reach your pencil marks. Do this on both sides of the saddle.

Now that the saddle has been sanded, put it back on the bridge. Does it sit cleanly on the thumbscrews, or does the center of the saddle hit the bridge?

Figure 3 When you lower the thumbscrews all the way, make sure the center of the saddle does not hit the bridge. This will prevent you from being able to lower the saddle as far as possible.


If the center of the saddle is hitting the center of the bridge, we will sand the center portion of the saddle. We want the saddle to sit on the bridge posts with a slight amount of clearance (with the thumbscrews all the way down).

If you find that after sanding down the center of the saddle the two holes in the saddle aren’t deep enough to allow the saddle to sit all the way down on the two posts, take an electric drill and drill enough of the hole out so that the bridge can sit all the way down.

It is so much easier to sand down the flat surfaces of the saddle than it is to sand down the curved foot of the mandolin’s bridge. I wish I had known this when I did my first setup.

Yes, I have worked on inexpensive mandolins where I had to make all of these adjustments! It is so worth it to get this set up done thoroughly – you are going to love your mandolin when you are finished.

Now that the bridge and saddle have been sanded down, gently lift the strings enough to slide the bridge/saddle in and under your strings. Make sure to put the bridge between the marks you put on the blue tape on the mandolin’s top.

Gently tune the strings back to pitch and double-check the foot of the mandolin. It should be making nice, even contact with the top of your mandolin. With the thumbscrews all the way down your string should measure less than .050 inches from the top of the twelfth fret.

We are ready to move on to adjusting the nut.

Checkpoint: Here is where you should be at this point:

• The mandolin has been inspected and any issues have been addressed with your retailer.

• The bridge has been adjusted so that at its lowest setting (screw wheels all the way down) the distance from the strings to the 12th fret is .05 inches (or less).

• The bottom of the bridge has been sanded so the bridge sits vertically on ( i.e., is perpendicular to) the mandolin’s top and there are no visible gaps between the bridge and the mandolin’s top.

Partnering the Bridge and the Mandolin I have found that most mandolins are built and then assembled with mass-produced bridges. There is nothing wrong with the bridges, but they have not been properly fitted to the mandolin they are now partnered with.

I have worked on bridges in which, even with the strings at proper pitch, a sheet of paper could slip between much of the bridge and the mandolin’s top. This will reduce the amount of


vibration transmitted from the strings to the mandolin top. This, in turn, will reduce the volume, or projection, that you get from your mandolin.

The careful sanding we have done perfectly mates this bridge with this mandolin. You will not want to swap this bridge onto another mandolin. If you buy a replacement bridge in the future re-fit it the way we just followed in this chapter.

This set up will allow your mandolin to perform to the absolute peak of its capabilities.

Replacement Bridges: Cutting Bridge/Saddle Slots.

If you have a new, or replacement, bridge, you may need to cut the saddle slots. This is a two-step process.

The first step is to measure and mark the correct places to make your saddle slots. Different mandolins require different measurements based on the width of the fretboard, so I can’t provide a one-size-fits-all measurement here. Check with the manufacturer of your mandolin and bridge/saddle to determine your measurements.

Once the saddle has been marked I like to start the slot with an X-Acto knife, or other very sharp knife. The bridge/saddle slot does not need to be deep, but it has to have the right width for the string gauge you are using. Once you have made a small notch with an X-Acto knife, get out your home-made nut saws and use them to cut notches in your bridge’s saddle.


5. Setting up the nut Setting up the nut of your mandolin is one of the most important, yet least understood, elements of a complete set up. The nut height needs to be set up in conjunction with the bridge height so that both ends of the string are in balance. This assures that your strings have the proper height from the frets for the entire length of the fretboard.

Figure 4 Here is a (blurry) picture of the nut on a new mandolin fresh from the factory. You can see that the string height over the first fret is too high. We're going to have to lower the string height at the nut.

The nut sits at the top of the neck. The strings come off the tuning pegs, over the nut, down the fretboard, over the floating bridge, and are anchored at the tailpiece.

The nut serves three purposes: it spaces and holds the strings the correct distance from each other; it holds the strings at the correct height over the fretboard; and, it provides a uniform edge for the strings to start their journey over the fretboard.

I have found that very minor differences in the nut can have a dramatic impact on the proper intonation of the mandolin. While editing this ebook I had a brand new mandolin that I was working on and I was in a hurry. There was a very slight difference in height between strings in one course (the pairs of strings on a mandolin are referred to as “courses”). When tuned to


pitch in the open position, they were not in pitch when fretted. And vice-versa, when the strings were in pitch while being fretted they would not be in tune when played open.

When working on the nut take your time and make sure your courses are adjusted identically. The correct nut height is one of the keys to having a mandolin that plays easily and sounds good.

If the nut and the bridge/saddle are both too high, your strings will be too high off the entire length of the fretboard and the mandolin will be difficult to play. Your fingers will hurt and it will be difficult, if not impossible, to get a nice clear sound when you are playing. This will be true on the lower frets and on the higher frets. This is a symptom of both the nut slots and the bridge/saddle being too high.

Excess string height off the fretboard will also have a negative impact on intonation. Try as you might, the mandolin will always sound out of tune on various chords and finger positions. With the correct string height over the entire fretboard you will find that your mandolin will play and sound fantastic.

Most mandolins ship from the manufacturer with both the bridge/saddle and the nut slots too high. This is by design, so the mandolin can be adjusted to the buyer’s preference. In the pre-Internet days a dealer would complete the set up for the buyer. Today, purchases of mid-range and budget-priced instruments over the Internet have driven profit margins down to the point where most dealers can’t afford to take the time to do a thorough set up on each instrument. It is up to you to do the job.

How to determine when the nut and bridge heights are correct If the nut slots are too high and the bridge is too high, you will notice this playing the mandolin on the lower frets. It will be hard to press the strings down and your fingers will hurt. Chords will not sound nice and clear. In the higher fret range (above the 12th fret) you will find that the mandolin is easier to play than on the lower frets, but the action is not as easy as you would like it to be.

If the nut slots are too high and the bridge is too low, you will have a hard time playing on the lower frets and the strings will buzz when you are playing on the higher frets.

If the nut slots are too low and the bridge is too high your strings will buzz when played open, but the strings will sound clear when fretted.

If the nut slots are too low and the bridge is too low your strings will buzz when played open as well as when you fret the strings anywhere on the fretboard.

Can you lower the nut and saddle too much? Yes! You do not want to lower the nut or the bridge/saddle below their optimum heights. If the nut is too low the strings will rub against the frets when they vibrate as you play them. You will hear an annoying buzzing sound. If the


bridge/saddle is adjusted too low, the strings will rub against the frets when you are playing in the higher registers. The buzz will be higher pitched, almost tinny.

Many guitarists and mandolin players like to play fast lead solos and want the fastest “action” they can get. Lowering the bridge/saddle will improve the action, but if you go too far you will hear the dreaded buzzing. Fortunately on the mandolin we can easily raise the saddle height with the screw wheels on the bridge.

So there are two elements to getting your strings at the right height for the entire length of the fretboard: the string height at the nut and the string height at the floating bridge. We have already adjusted the floating bridge and now we are going to work on the nut.

When cutting the nut slots the best way to measure the height of the strings is to measure the gap from the top of the first fret to the strings.

If set properly the height at the first fret should be .011 inches at the first fret for the E and A strings. We will use our feeler gauges to measure the exact distance from the top of the fret to the string. You will hold the feeler gauge on the top of the fret so that the feeler gauge is parallel to the fretboard. When the measurement is exact the feeler gauge will just barely touch the string. You may want to start by adjusting these heights to .013 or .014 inches initially to make sure you don’t cut the nut slots too deeply.

Figure 5 Measuring the string height over the first fret.


Because the D and G strings are thicker (the inner portion of the string is wound with metal in order to lower the pitch) they need a slightly higher distance from the first fret. The height from the top of the first fret to the D and G strings should be .013 inches. You may want to start by adjusting these heights to .015 or .016 inches initially to make sure you don’t cut the nut slots too deeply.

Once the nut is set up properly it will not need to be adjusted in the future. It is worthwhile to take the time to do this just right.

Many people think that setting up the nut is a difficult task best left to a skilled luthier. This is not necessarily so. In fact, I once paid a luthier $100 to set up an expensive guitar and the nut was ruined – the string guides were cut out with a Dremel bit, and were far too wide to hold the strings properly. In addition, the height was incorrect, which caused the strings to buzz. I had to buy another nut and set it up, and I was out $100 for the crummy set up job on top of that. Sure, a good luthier would have done a better job but using this book we will be able to equal or better the job that most professionals can do.

As stated earlier, most mandolins ship from the factory with the nut and the bridge heights too high. This is so the mandolin can be set up by a technician. In this case, we will be the set up technicians. It always bothers me when I see someone criticize a mandolin because it was shipped to them with “bad action.” As I just noted, this is intentional. It allows the dealer (or the owner) to set up the mandolin.

Making your nut saws You can buy nut saws (some people prefer to call them “nut files”) from a luthier’s website. I just checked out one website selling nut saws for $8.98 per saw! We’re going to make our saws using feeler gauges and a diamond file. Ideally you should have feeler gauges that are the exact width of the strings you will be using on your mandolin.


Figure 6 Custom .011 inch nut saw. If I were making a new set I would make my cuts closer to the end of the feeler gauge (towards the left in this picture) to minimize the chance of hitting the headstock when sawing the nut slots.

When you cut your nut slots, the width should be based on the gauge (or width) of the strings that you will be using. It is important to cut each nut slot to match the gauge of the string that will sit in the slot.

If the nut slots are too wide the strings will slop around as you play them and you will lose tone quality. If the nut slots are too tight the strings will grab while you are tuning them, causing difficulty getting and maintaining the proper pitch. Have you ever tuned a guitar or mandolin and after several turns of the tuning gear the string makes a creaking sound and jumps up a pitch? That is because the nut slot is too tight (and it also needs lubrication).

In extreme cases the strings can grab on the sides of the nut and snap. We are going to make sure each nut slot width exactly matches our string gauge.

If you know what strings you will be using, use those string gauges when following these instructions. Look at the front of your package of new strings and you will see the string gauges listed. Otherwise, use these standards: a common E string gauge is .011, A strings are .014, D strings are .024 and G strings are .038 inches.


Description Common String Gauge My Strings:

E strings .011 inches

A strings .014 inches

D strings .024 inches

G strings .038 inches

To make the E string nut saw we take our .011 inch feeler gauge and the three-sided diamond file. Remove the feeler gauge from the “stack” of the gauges. Use the diamond file to cut three small notches in the feeler gauge. Make the cuts close to the end of the feeler gauge: this will help prevent us from scratching the finish of the headstock with the end of the feeler gauge.

If you have a vise (or “vice” in the United Kingdom), you can clamp the feeler gauge in the vise to hold it securely while you work on it. I don’t have a vise, so I hold the feeler gauge in my left hand on a flat surface and file it holding the file in my right hand. You can use vise grip pliers (also called “mole grips”), but be careful not to harm the thin metal feeler gauges. We are going to make three small cuts in the feeler gauge, and we are going to space the cuts as close together as we can.

Starting the cut is the hardest part for me. I usually need three to five downward pulls to get a slight cut started, then it takes about a dozen or so back-and-forth strokes on the file to get a nice small cut in the feeler gauge. Once I have three cuts completed, my custom E string nut saw is complete!

Do the same thing to make nut saws for the other strings. Use a .014 inch feeler gauge for the A string nut saw. Use a .024 feeler gauge for the D string nut saw.

When you get to the G string size, you will find that you don’t have a feeler gauge big enough. Simply take two smaller gauges that add up to .038 inches (I use the .018 and .020 gauges). Use string, a piece of wire, or a cable tie through the holes in the two feeler gauges and tie them so they are held tightly together. Then file the three cuts just like you did for the other custom nut saws.

Cutting the nut slots At this point you should have the bridge and saddle installed and all eight strings put back on. Go back to the end of the last chapter and make sure the strings are on, set into the correct notches on the saddle, and there is enough tension on each string to hold the saddle in position. The strings should not be tightened enough to be at or near correct pitch.


NOTE: When I first started working on mandolins, I would begin with the high E string and work my way in. I finally realized that when starting with nut slots that are too high it is more efficient to start in the center and work my way to the edge of the fretboard. The fourth and third strings are both A strings. If I first work on the nut slot for the A string that is closest to the center of the fretboard (the fourth string in, counting from the high E string), the too-high strings stay out of the way of the strings needing to be adjusted.

Use blue tape to mask off the headstock below the nut. This will protect the finish while we are cutting the nut slots.

Starting with the A string that is closest to the center of the fretboard, re-measure the distance between the first fret and the string using the .011 feeler gauge. Remember, our target distance is .011 inches, and we don’t want to go lower than that.

If you want to leave yourself a little room for error, add .003 inches to the targets I am using. From now on I will refer to our target height at its optimal height – you can adjust that number at your discretion.

The difference in height between our target (of .011 inches) and the actual height is the amount we will cut into the nut slot. Don’t try to go the whole distance at once. We are going to trim a little bit out, measure, trim some more, measure, and gradually get down to the correct height.

NOTE: If you cut the slot too deep there are some ways to re-fill the slot using sanded-out material and Super-Glue, but in the worst-case scenario you will have to replace the nut. To avoid this take your time, go slowly, and get a feel for using your new nut saw.

For the A string nut slots we will use the .014 inch nut saw we made. Remember, matching the width of the slot to the string width ensures that the string will be held tightly enough to sound best, but not so tightly that it will bind in the slot while we are tuning it.

As you cut into the nut slot, angle the saw so that it matches the angle of the string going to the tuning peg. The string should bend right at the edge of the nut closest to the fretboard so that all of the strings bend at the same position relative to the fretboard. This will ensure that we will be able to accurately intonate the instrument later on.


Figure 7 You can see that the nut slot angles down here. Note I have begun filing the top of the nut for the E strings.

Take the fourth string (the A string) from the edge, and lift it out of its slot and put it over the other A string in the third slot. This is a handy way to temporarily park the string while we cut the slot. After you trim a little way into the slot just lift the string back into its slot in order to re-measure the distance to the first fret.

Using your .014 inch nut saw, cut a little bit into the nut, say two or three strokes. Remove the saw, put the string back into the slot and measure it. You should be a little closer to the .011 inches we are striving for. You’re starting to get a feel for how much the saw takes out when you pull it back and forth. Depending on how far you are from our target of .011, lift the string back into the other slot and saw another two or three strokes. Put the string back and measure it again.

Keep doing this until you are at .011 inches from the first fret. Your feeler gauge should just fit into the gap. We have just seven more strings to go. Use the same nut saw to cut the nut for the other A string which sits in the third slot. Remember to keep the angle of the slot matching the angle of the string as it goes to the tuning peg.

When you have completed the A string course, examine them closely to make sure the slot heights are identical. I put on reading glasses to help my eyes focus on the very small slots.


Even the smallest differences in nut slots can have a dramatic impact on your instrument’s intonation.

After you have completed the A string nut slots, do the same with your E string nut slots. Remember to use the .011 inch nut saw tool to cut these slots. I like to consciously put each saw away after I complete each pair of nut slots to make sure I don’t accidentally cut a nut slot with the wrong tool. Start with the second string from the edge of the fretboard (E string) and gradually cut the nut slot until the string is .011 inches from the first fret. Do the same thing for the first E string nut slot.

OK, we’re halfway home. Now put away the .011 inch feeler gauge/nut saw. Get out the .013 inch feeler gauge. We will use this to measure the distance to the first fret for our bottom 4 wound strings.

Get the .024 inch nut saw to cut the nut slots for the two D strings. Start with the fifth string nut slot (counting from the high E string) and repeat our nut-cutting process until the string measures .013 inches between the first fret and the string. Do the same with the other D string.

Now put away the .024 inch nut saw and get out your custom .038 inch G string nut saw. This is the one we made using two feeler gauges tied together. Start with the seventh string and follow our process to gradually cut the nut slot until your clearance at the first fret is .013 inches. Do the same thing for the final (eighth) string.

Depending on how high your initial nut slots were, you may feel like your nut slots look like the Grand Canyon. If you go ahead and tune your mandolin up right now (make sure to get your saddle at the right height first), you will frequently hear a funny sound when the strings are played open. It’s not really a buzz, like when a string is contacting the frets, but it’s a “dampened” kind of sound. This is caused by the excess height of the nut dampening the natural vibration of the open string.

Filing down the nut In order to make the strings sound perfect, we need to remove the excess height from the nut. Ideally the slots should be deep enough for the bottom half of the wound strings to sit in the nut slot and the top half of the strings should be exposed above the nut slots. This allows the strings to vibrate freely and produce the best sound possible.

The unwound E and A strings are very thin, and it is adequate for the nut slot to be the same depth as the string. Our goal is to have the nut look like this when our work is complete:


Figure 8 You can see the A and D strings are very deep in the nut slots. I will file down the nut slots as I have for the E strings.

When I first started setting up mandolins I would sand down the nut with a wood block and coarse sandpaper. The problem was that it was difficult to get the accuracy I was shooting for. I realized the answer to my needs was with one of the other diamond files that came with my file kit. I now use the flat diamond file to file down the nut for each course of strings, and then use fine-grit sandpaper to finish things off. You can also use an emery board (the kind used for fingernails) if you prefer.

By using the diamond file I can file down the nut one course of strings at a time. This allows me to achieve maximum accuracy for each nut slot course. Remember, our goal is to let our mandolin sound the best that it possibly can. I like to sand parallel with the neck and headstock to minimize the back-and-forth pressure on the plastic nuts that inexpensive mandolins typically have.

Start with the E string course. Loosen the E strings (a lot!) so that you can move them over to the A string slots and there is no tension on them. Now your E string slots are exposed.

Hold the file so that it has the same angle that the strings make going from the nut to the tuning pegs. I like to file down the nut using the same angle I used to cut the slots – following the angle


of the strings to the tuning pegs. As when we cut the nut slots, file just a little bit at a time, check to see how much you have removed, then file away a little bit more.

Keep a clean towel or diaper to wipe away any nut dust created by your sanding efforts. Some people like to use a vacuum cleaner with a soft bristle attachment to remove the dust.

Carefully file the nut, check the amount removed, then file a little bit more. Stop when the slots appear to be about the depth of a string. Take each of the two strings, one at a time, put it into its slot, and gently push down on it at the end of the fretboard. This will put enough tension on the string to see how it sits in the nut slot. Our goal is to file away the nut so that the top half of the string is exposed.

With just that much tension you’ll be able to see if you have filed down enough of the nut. When the strings are about halfway into the nut slot and about halfway exposed, you have achieved your goal. Continue filing until your first course of nut slots is perfect.

Now is the time to lubricate the nut slot for this course of strings. Use your Vaseline or graphite and put a little lubricant in the nut slots that you have just filed down. My personal preference is to put a dab of Vaseline in with a toothpick.

Now that you have lubricated the two nut slots, put the E strings back into their respective slots and slowly tighten them to a modest tension – not to pitch. We’re not ready for that just yet.

Now loosen up the second course of strings, your A strings, and move them over to the D string slots. As before, carefully file down the nut slots until the top half of the string is exposed. Make sure to get the angle correct, following the angle of the strings to the tuning pegs. Once the height is correct, lubricate the two slots and put the strings back in. Tighten the strings so there is a little tension on them.

Now do the same for the third course of strings, your D strings. After filing the nut down remember to lubricate the nut slots before putting the strings back into their slots and slightly tightening the strings.

Now file down the nut slots for the fourth course, your G strings. Loosen them (a lot) and position them over your D strings. I don’t like to hang the strings on the side of the neck of the mandolin because I don’t want to risk scratching the finish on the neck. File down the nut, get it just right, then lubricate the slots and put your strings back.

With the nut height lowered and the nut slots cut conduct one more inspection to make sure the nut slots for each course of strings are identical.

Wipe the neck and headstock clean. Remove the blue tape from the headstock. Your strings are all on. Now it’s time to intonate your mandolin.


Chapter 6: Intonation We are almost complete. In this chapter we will de-mystify proper intonation and complete the final steps for setting up our mandolin. In order to properly intonate your mandolin you will need an electronic tuner.

Make sure you acquire an electronic tuner that accommodates mandolin string pitches. If you have an iPad, iPhone, or an Android-based tablet or Android-based phone, there are many wonderful tuners that you can download to your device. I like these because in many cases they are more accurate than a moderately-priced dedicated tuner.

Even better, many of these programs include metronomes, drum machines and more. Shop around and download the software that best suits your needs. Some tuners are free, and others are available at a very modest cost.

NOTE: Do not try to intonate your mandolin by ear. An electronic tuner is far more precise than the human ear. Use it.

Intonating is the process in which we assure that the mandolin stays in pitch as we play the strings all the way up the fretboard. If the saddle is positioned so it is too close to the fretboard the notes will sound too sharp as you play up the fretboard, with the amount of sharpness increasing as you play higher and higher up the fretboard.

Likewise, if the saddle is too close to the tailpiece, the pitch will go flat as you move up the fretboard.

In preparing to intonate the mandolin, put the bridge/saddle in its approximately correct position. In a mandolin with f holes, the bridge should be centered between the widest part of the f holes. A good starting point is placing the bridge about where it was when you received your mandolin. If your blue tape is still on the mandolin’s top, line up the bridge/saddle, and then remove the blue tape.


Figure 9 The bridge/saddle will usually sit near the center of the F holes. You will adjust the position to get accurate intonation.

Put all of the strings on, under loose tension. Make sure the bridge/saddle is vertical and making good contact with the top of the mandolin. Look at both the front and rear of the bridge to make sure it is contacting the mandolin properly.

Check to see that the strings are centered on the fretboard. Move the bridge/saddle as needed until the strings are centered perfectly.

Tune all of the strings to pitch, using your electronic tuner. I like to start with the two center courses (the D and A strings), get them to proper pitch, and then double-check the bridge to ensure it is still seated properly. Then I do the E and G strings and again check the bridge seating.

If your strings are new you may need to retune them once or twice. New strings usually need a day or two get stretched out and stay in tune.

Some people intonate their mandolins by only tightening the first and eighth strings. They leave the other slings slightly slack so they can quickly adjust the bridge, test it, adjust it, and test it again. This is certainly faster than my method. I have found that the pressure of all eight tuned strings can have a slight impact on the accuracy of the intonation.


I prefer to tune all of the strings to pitch so that the pressure on the bridge/saddle is exactly what it will be when using the mandolin. Once I have intonated my mandolin I never move or remove the bridge/saddle. When I change the strings from this point on I change the strings one at a time so that I don’t need to re-intonate my mandolin. I only need to intonate my mandolin again if I use different string gauges and the intonation is off with the new strings.

With all of the strings at pitch, start with the E string and fret it at the 12th fret and play it. At the twelfth fret you are playing an octave, so you are measuring a fretted E note that is one octave higher than the open E string’s note. The intonation is perfect if your open E string note and your fretted E note are exactly in tune.

If your tuner indicates that your 12th-fretted note is perfectly in tune with your open E string’s note, then you are properly intonated for the high strings. I have never been that lucky.

Write down whether the E string is flat or sharp at the 12th fret. If it is flat, we will move the bridge/saddle forward – that is, closer to the fretboard. If it is sharp, we need to move the bridge/saddle back towards the tailpiece. Don’t make the adjustment yet!

Now check your lowest string, the G string. As before, fret it at the 12th fret and check your tuner. Write down whether the string is flat or sharp.

If both the high and low strings are flat when tested at the 12th fret, you will be moving the bridge/saddle forward toward the fretboard. If the high strings are more flat than the low strings, you will move the high-string side a little more forward than the low string side.

Likewise, if both the high and low strings are sharp when fretted at the 12th fret, you will be sliding the bridge/saddle back towards the tailpiece. If one set of strings is more sharp than the other, that side will be moved farther back towards the tailpiece.

Before you move the saddle, detune all of your strings. Then move the saddle, tune back up, and test the pitches again. It may take two or three tries before the intonation is spot-on. When you have the intonation just right, re-measure the height of the strings from the 12th fret to see if you need to adjust the bridge height.

Remember, once we get this set up done perfectly we will never have to do it again. Take your time and do a thorough job of this. You will enjoy the results for the rest of your mandolin playing life.

Now try playing each string up the fretboard, from the open string all the way up to the top fret. You should not hear any buzzing at all. If you hear buzzing, detune the strings and raise the bridge height just a little, and test again. Usually I will hear no buzzing with a .059 inch height from the 12th fret to all of the strings.

If you don’t have any buzzing at all, you can improve the action of your mandolin even more. Try lowering the saddle so you have .050 inches of clearance at the bridge and check again for


buzzing. Remember to play each string on every fret to check for buzzing. I can usually get the height at the 12th fret down to .050 inches with no buzzing – this provides excellent playing action.

Lowering the saddle will improve your “action,” but don’t lower the saddle so much that your strings buzz.

Once you have this completed, your mandolin has been set up.

Congratulations! Your mandolin has been set up better than any professional will do it. Please make another video of your mandolin with you playing it, and post your “before” and “after” videos on the web.

Final Note on Intonation: After I have set the intonation at the 12th fret I like to use my electronic tuner to test the pitch accuracy of every string at every fret. In this fashion I can identify if any individual frets are off. Usually this can be remedied by using a file and/or sandpaper to move the point of inflection where the string leaves the offending fret.


7. Undressing your mandolin Now that you have your mandolin set up, take a little more time to make her look as good as she plays. Start by making sure you have a piece of blue tape on the bridge and saddle. Put a piece of blue tape on the mandolin’s top at each end of the bridge and use a light pencil mark to note where it should be when you return it. Loosen all of the strings and remove them.

Put the bridge/saddle in your staging area. If you are replacing your strings with new ones, you can toss out the old strings. I like to keep one set of used strings in my mandolin’s case so that if I break one string I have a backup ready. If you have a cat, I have found that our cat loves to play with old mandolin strings.

Now remove the tailpiece. Usually it is held in with three screws. On the inexpensive mandolins I used for writing this book I found that some of the screws were bent a little. My guess is that a worker with a high-speed drill put them in too quickly and the stress bent some of the (cheap) metal screws. I took one of the screws to my local hardware store and bought a dozen stainless steel screws in the same size and when replacing the tailpiece I use those screws.

Next, remove the pickguard. Make sure to keep all of the pieces together in your staging area. Use your cleaning polish to clean off the mandolin. Take some pictures – it’s amazing how different the instrument looks without the pickguard, tailpiece, bridge/saddles and strings.

Thorough cleaning and inspection Now that we have removed all of the various pieces, this is the time to thoroughly inspect our new mandolin. Look into the interior (as best you can). A flashlight is useful as well as a dentist’s mirror if you happen to have one. Is there any debris in there? If so, turn the mandolin upside down and gently shake it until the debris falls out of the sound hole(s). You may need to use tweezers or a small vacuum brush attachment to remove any debris. Be careful not to scratch your mandolin’s finish.

Gently wipe off any surface dust with a terrycloth towel or (better yet) an all-cotton diaper that has been laundered a couple of times.

Now look at the finish on the top, bottom, sides and headstock. Your mandolin should be free of scratches, nicks, cracks, or blemishes. On the very inexpensive mandolins I have set up, I will commonly see minor finish imperfections, especially around the sound hole(s). After you finish cleaning, waxing, and reassembling your mandolin these will be almost unnoticeable.

My feeling is that if you are paying less than a couple of hundred dollars for a mandolin you can not reasonably expect perfection. You *can* reasonably expect it to be free of serious flaws, especially cracks in the wood or loose/improperly glued internal braces.


On the other hand if you are paying a thousand dollars or more for a mandolin you should expect it to be perfect. In fact, if your very expensive mandolin fails our end-product set up measurements you should complain vigorously about the set up you paid for!

Most of the least expensive mandolins have laminated tops and sides. Some purists disparagingly call them “plywood.” In order to keep costs low they are made with high-grade laminated wood, which is a lot less expensive than using expensive solid woods. The use of laminated wood makes for an affordable entry-level instrument. Another potential advantage of using laminated woods is that laminated wood is less sensitive to variations in temperature and humidity than solid woods.

I like to call inexpensive mandolins (and guitars) “campfire” models. You can take them camping and sit around the campfire without worrying about damaging them. I happen to like the tone of most laminated tops. I find that they are a little less “shrill” and more “woody” than some solid spruce tops. But now we are straying into very subjective territory. Time to get back to our set up.

Assuming there are no significant structural problems, let’s clean our baby up.

NOTE: If there are significant issues (shipping damage, cracked wood, scratches, gouges or dings on the mandolin, loose or improperly glued pieces inside the mandolin, tuning gears that don’t work properly, strings or screws broken or missing), call or e-mail your retailer right away. Take pictures with your digital camera for proof. The longer you wait to contact the retailer the less likely you are to get satisfactory support.

Clean, polish, wax Have you purchased a cleaning kit for your mandolin? These kits are usually labeled as guitar cleaning kits, but they work just fine on mandolins, too. A few years ago I bought a cleaning kit made by Dunlop. I’ve seen a similar kit sold under the Gibson brand name. Most of these kits cost around $20.00 and they provide enough of the products to last you for years of use even if you own half-a-dozen instruments.

Clean your mandolin using the cleaning solution, following the directions on the bottle of cleaning solution. The cleaning solution is for the painted surfaces, not for the fingerboard or floating bridge. I like to use a soft terrycloth towel that has been laundered a few times. Other people swear by using soft cloth baby diapers that have been laundered.

Once your mandolin is nice and clean it is time to polish it. Most cleaning kits use a Carnauba wax. If you think you can save money by using Carnauba wax that you bought for your car, don’t. Many of these products are “cleaner” waxes and contain abrasives that can damage the finish on your instrument. Please, please buy a cleaning/polishing kit designed for guitars (and other stringed instruments like your mandolin) and use it.


I like to spread the wax on using my fingertip. I find that using a cloth absorbs a lot of the wax. Using my fingertip allows me to feel the surface and make sure I haven’t missed any spots. I wax one section at a time: first the back, then the sides, then the headstock and the back of the neck, and finally the front, or top, of the mandolin. Again, do not wax the fretboard or the bridge and saddle.

Let the wax dry to a light haze (this usually takes a few minutes) and then buff the wax off with your clean towel or diaper.

With your cleaning kit, you should have gotten some fretboard conditioner. We are going to apply the conditioner to the fretboard in just a minute.

NOTE: If your fretboard is maple, do not use standard fretboard conditioner. Use only a conditioner designed to work with a maple fretboard.

Most fretboards are made of rosewood or ebony. The wood will dry out over time, which can cause the frets to come loose. Some people apply the conditioner with a toothbrush, over-saturating the wood, and then toweling off the remainder. I prefer to apply the conditioner with my finger, rubbing it into the fretboard one section (the space between two adjacent frets) at a time.

You can feel the wood soak up the conditioner, and you can feel when the wood has absorbed all it needs. If your finger can not reach all the way up to each fret, that is a good time to use an old toothbrush.

After applying conditioner to the entire fretboard use a small clean towel to wipe off the fretboard and any residual conditioner. At this point your mandolin should be nice and shiny. Why don’t you take a couple of pictures of your undressed baby? It’s fun to compare that to the finished product later.

Dress her back up Re-install the pick guard first. Remember to make sure the little wooden shims are where they are supposed to be. This is a good time to tighten the nut and bolt that hold the pick guard to the metal bracket (if there is one on your model). The bolt and nut should be centered over the “f” sound hole if that is the style of mandolin you have.

Take your time and work very carefully. One slip with a screwdriver can put a big scratch on your mandolin that you’ll be staring at for the rest of its life. Easy does it right now.


Figure 10 Once the pickguard is in place, make sure to tighten the nuts and bolts so they don't buzz.

Now re-install the tail piece. Use the three thin screws first. I like to start all three screws partway in before tightening any of them all the way. Then screw in the strap button, or push it in if it is the traditional style strap button.

NOTE: If you want to use a strap, there are two methods you can use to attach the other end of the strap. Lots of people buy an extra strap button and screw it into the base of the neck, either on the back of the neck or on the “off” side of the neck (the part you can’t see if you look down at the neck while playing the mandolin). I can’t bring myself to do that – plus you can risk damaging the truss rod if your mandolin has one. I tie a piece of leather shoestring or small braided rope in a loose loop around the headstock, behind the nut and under the strings. I then tie the strap onto the loop when I want to use the strap. No muss, no fuss, and no additional screw holes in my mandolin!

If you have an F style mandolin, many players loop their strap through the “curlicue” on the top of the mandolin body.

Once the tailpiece is on, you can put your strings back on. Before you do this, I recommend taking some petroleum jelly and using a toothpick put a small dab in each nut slot before tightening the strings. This helps to prevent the nut slots from gripping your strings too tightly, which can cause them to break prematurely.


An alternate way to lubricate the nut slots is to take a thin mechanical pencil or a good quality #2 pencil and rub it inside each slot. Pencil “lead” is actually graphite and it is a good dry lubricant. The only thing I don’t like about using graphite is that it discolors a white nut slot. But a lot of great players do this, so you get to make your own choice here.

This is a good time to use your pencil to dry-lube the saddle. Rub a little pencil lead into each slot in the saddle. This will help your strings glide through the saddle when you are tuning them.

It can be difficult putting new strings on a mandolin. One tip I learned is to take a guitar capo and after you loop each string on the tailpiece pull it hand-tight and capo it on the fretboard. This pressure will keep the string on the tailpiece while you wind it on the tuning peg.

Since we have removed the bridge/saddle you should start by putting on one E string and one G string and leave them loose. Gently put the bridge/saddle under the strings and put enough tension on the strings to hold the bridge/saddle in position. Put your other strings on, but don’t tune the mandolin to pitch just yet.

With all of the strings at a modest tension (enough to not buzz but not at pitch), hold the mandolin and make sure the bridge is back in your “perfect intonation” spot. Check to make sure the bridge/saddle is perpendicular to the mandolin’s top.

When you start with no strings on the mandolin, tightening the strings can cause the bridge/saddle to shift out of its correct perpendicular position. Check and double-check as you put the strings on.

How to string your mandolin: I have been playing guitar for over forty years, and restringing my guitars was a real pain in the neck. I would wind the strings around the tuning peg several times before tuning up the guitar, and removing the strings later was difficult due to the multiple wraps around each tuning peg. A little while ago I found a great article at www.frets.com about how to restring a mandolin (or guitar).

If you want to see the full explanation with pictures, go the www.frets.com and search for the article on stringing a mandolin. Here is how I do it.

Remove and replace your strings one string at a time. As you complete your in-depth mandolin set up you will see we spend a lot of time intonating the mandolin (as you will learn, this is a big term that essentially means we find the perfect spot for the floating bridge). Once you have found that perfect spot you don’t want to lose it. By replacing the strings one at a time we assure ourselves that the bridge/saddle never move.

Remove tailpiece cover (or open it up if you have a hinged tailpiece cover). Loosen the first string until you have plenty of slack to lift it off the tailpiece. Once it is off, remove it from the tuning peg.

http://www.frets.com/



Many people use a pair of wire cutters and cut the string in half in order to save some time. If you are going to do this, loosen the string first so it does not snap and potentially scratch your mandolin. I don’t like to cut the strings for two reasons. First, I don’t like to have the wire cutters that close to my instrument. One slip and I might damage the finish on my mandolin. Second, I like to take my old strings, put them in their packing slip and keep them in my gig bag. That way if a string breaks I can easily replace it with a pre-stretched, used string and keep playing.

Take your first new string. Insert the pointy end of a #2 pencil into the loop in the string and make it nice and round. This will make it easy to put the string onto the mounting post on the tailpiece. Some mandolins have different mounts on the edge of the tailpiece. If your string needs to be bent, bend it gently in the middle of the loop.

Lay the string over the bridge/saddle, over the fretboard, over the nut slot where the string will sit, and run the end of the string through the hole in the tuning peg. The string should be on the inside of the headstock, as seen in the picture below.

Here is the clever part. Gently pull the string until you have an inch or so of slack when you lift the string above the body of the mandolin. Take the end of the string and bring it back towards the center of the headstock and around and under where you inserted the string into the tuning peg.

Loop the free end of the string back over the inserted part of the string, and bend it down. Now tune the string up to pitch. After you are certain the string is holding its position, use wire cutters to clip off the excess portion of the string. I like to leave about half an inch of string showing.

If you have trouble with the string popping off the tailpiece during stringing try holding it down with one hand, and then as you lay the string along the neck keep a little tension on it to hold it on the tailpiece. Even easier, take some blue tape and tape over the tailpiece section after you place the new loop on. When the string is tuned up, remove the blue tape before putting on the next string.


Chapter 8: Other factors that affect your sound In this chapter I’ll provide a few thoughts and opinions about how to get your best sound from your mandolin. Sound and tone are very subjective areas to delve into, and as you play more you will develop your own feelings about what is best for you. I think the information and forum exchanges on www.mandolincafe.com are incredibly helpful. Check them out.

Strings Using different strings is an easy way to dramatically change the sound of your mandolin. I’m a fan of D’Addario and Martin strings, as they are mid-priced and well-made. Lots of people like other higher-end strings and if I had the money I’d probably try a different set of strings every month.

I think all mandolin players will agree that buying cheap, no-name strings is a mistake. Badly-made strings can sound “dead” even when they are brand new. They won’t sound right and they won’t intonate properly. Don’t bother with them. By the way, that’s why most people immediately replace the strings on a brand-new instrument, especially an inexpensive instrument.

Heavy gauge strings will sound “bigger,” and will have more volume. They will also have a higher tension, which means they will be harder to play, will make your fingers sore faster, and will add stress to a poorly-constructed instrument or an older instrument that may have weakened glue.

Light gauge strings will have less tension, making them easier to play. “Fast” players typically like light gauge strings because they fret with less effort and allow for faster fingering. Light gauge strings can sound “thin” and do not have the same volume projection as heavier gauge strings.

Medium gauge strings are, as you would suppose, a blend of the strengths and weaknesses of light and heavy gauge strings. On my mandolins I like to use medium gauge strings. On my Martin guitar I use medium-light strings, as the guitar provides plenty of oomph and I can afford to use lighter gauge strings.

The other component of strings is what they are made of. Brand new strings sound “bright” and different metals sound “brighter” than others. Most players agree that bronze or nickel-wound strings can sound “brassy” or very bright. Some players like that sound while others find it to be a little too much. Phosphor-bronze strings still sound nice and bright but to my ear are not as overly bright as bronze or nickel strings.

I recommend that you read what other players have to say. Play other people’s instruments (if they’ll let you) and see how their strings sound. Buy different types of strings and compare them. You may want to keep a notebook, because after a year or two of trying different strings your recollection may get a little fuzzy on what you liked or didn’t like a while ago.

http://www.mandolincafe.com/


Picks Picks, or plectrums, can make a huge difference in your sound. I feel that mandolins require thicker picks than guitars in order to get a similar volume. I like to use a thick pick on the mandolin. In order to experiment I bought a box of 100 random picks. Nearly half of the picks were thinner than I care for, so I carry them around in my guitar gig bags and cases and when someone I’m jamming with needs a pick I give them out freely.

I use the medium thickness picks primarily with my guitars, with medium-thick to extremely thick picks (try saying that three times fast) being my choice for the mandolin.

I bought that hundred pack of picks I mentioned above for less than twelve dollars. That allowed me to learn a lot for not much money. Picks can cost more than fifteen dollars each (no, I didn’t get any of those in my hundred-pick assortment). Experiment for yourself and see what you think.

Technique How you play your mandolin will have as big an impact as what equipment you use. Let’s start with holding the pick. I was shocked to find that changing how I hold the pick dramatically increased my mandolin’s volume and projection. When I play guitar I hold the pick lightly between the tip of my thumb and my index finger. My “go-to” guitars are big dreadnoughts and they project beautifully even when I’m finger-picking.

If I hold the pick the same way with the mandolin I get a very soft tone and modest projection. In order to maximize my tone I hold the pick with the meaty part of my thumb against the first knuckle of my index finger.


I use a tighter grip so that the pick becomes an extension of my hand. It takes a little getting used to but you will get an incredible boost of power in your tone and projection.

I like to use a strap when I’m playing the mandolin so that I am not cradling it with my body. In my mind I am giving the small body of the mandolin “room to breathe” and to freely project to the best of its abilities.

The Instrument Itself I’m going to tread lightly here. Remember, I am expressing a personal opinion. Everyone gets to have one of those. The more you play, the more developed your own opinions will be. When I was young I picked up a dusty baritone ukulele at my neighbor’s house and was entranced. They let me take it home and for two weeks I couldn’t put it down. I asked for a guitar for my birthday. My father bought me an inexpensive knockoff of a Gibson Hummingbird. “Right now,” he said, “this guitar can do anything you ask it to do. When you reach the point that the guitar isn’t good enough for you we will buy you something better.”

That guitar was good enough for me through high school and college. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties that I reached the point where I replaced it (with a gorgeous Martin D-35). I think it is fine to start with moderately-priced starter instruments to determine your ability to develop your skills and then to upgrade when you are ready.


The key in buying an inexpensive instrument is to make sure that it is playable so a beginner can learn to play without becoming frustrated because the instrument’s pitch is off or it is nearly impossible to fret the instrument cleanly.

When I bought my first mandolin I had been playing guitar for a long time (well over thirty years). I had no idea whether I would take to it or not and wanted to minimize my investment. I ended up buying a “Rogue” brand mandolin.

Rogue is the house brand for Musician’s Friend (www.musiciansfriend.com ). I have no affiliation with Musician’s Friend, I’m just passing along my experience. I ordered a black mandolin for around fifty dollars, delivered. It arrived in about a week, and it looked very nice. However, it played very badly. The action was way, way, way too high, the intonation was off, and the strings weren’t very good.

I couldn’t see spending fifty to one hundred dollars (the going rate in my area) for a set up on a fifty dollar instrument. Since I didn’t have much money sunk into the mandolin I decided to perform my own set up. That was the genesis for this book.

After going through all of the steps outlined in this book I have a mandolin that plays very nicely and sounds wonderful (to me). Since you have gotten this far you will understand when I tell you that at the first fret my strings are .011 and .013 inches off the fret, and at the 12th fret all my strings are .050 inches and I have no buzzing on any string at any fret.

The Rogue, like many other very inexpensive mandolins, has a laminated wood top. Laminated wood is used on inexpensive instruments because it is less expensive than using solid spruce for the top and other solid woods for the sides and back.

On the positive side, good laminated woods can be more forgiving of temperature and humidity changes than solid woods. I find that my Rogue has a mellow, “woody” tone that I am comfortable with. It is not as loud as more-expensive mandolins, but I usually play by myself, so projection is not an issue for me.

The tuners on the Rogue are inexpensive, but they work just fine. The bridge was far too high and did not fit well, but it was made of rosewood and the slots were properly cut. After I sanded it down and fit it to my mandolin it works very well. The finish on my black mandolin is very nice, although it wasn’t perfect around the sound holes.

If I were buying a mid-range instrument in the range of $500 to $1,000 I would expect to find high-quality tuning gears, like Grover, Schaller or the like. I would expect to have name-brand strings like D’Addario, Martin, or Elixr. I would expect a quality bridge and saddle fitted to the mandolin, with decent action as delivered from the retailer. Finally, I would expect excellent fit and finish throughout the instrument.

If I were spending over $1,000 on a high-end instrument I would expect perfection, and if I found anything that did not meet my expressed desires I would expect them to be addressed.



In short, whether you’re buying an inexpensive Rogue, Johnson, Washburn, Epiphone or others, expect to expend some personal labor getting it set up the way you want. If you’re buying a Kentucky, Eastman, The Loar, or other mid-range instruments, ask your retailer to set it up and string it to your specifications. Anything above and beyond that, you should get exactly what you want.


Appendix A. Measurement Charts Description Target Measurement Initial Measurement After Set up

E String to first fret .011 inches

A string to first fret .011 inches

D string to first fret .013 inches

G string to first fret .013 inches

E string to 12th fret .059 inches

A string to 12th fret .059 inches

D String to 12th fret .059 inches

G string to 12th fret .059 inches

Intonation measurements: Tune your mandolin using the best electronic tuner available to you. If you have an iPhone, Android phone, or other “smart” device there are lots of inexpensive (some are free) tuning apps you can download and use. Starting with the E string, tune each string until it is exactly at the right pitch. Fret the string at the 12th fret and check your tuner. Is the note sharp or flat? Ideally the octave note (played at the twelfth fret) should be right on pitch when compared to the open note.

When you check the pitch on your tuner, write down the result. Remember to specify whether the fretted note is sharp or flat as well as what percentage it is off by. For example, my initial E string measurement looked like this:

E String Target 0% Initial Measurement: Sharp 5%

Description Target Measurement Initial Measurement After Set Up

E string

A string

D string

G String


Appendix B: A make-it-yourself strap. Coming soon.


Appendix C: The mandolins I used for this book I started writing this book using my memory. It helped me start to get my thoughts in order and to get most of my processes into the computer. In order to double-check everything I wrote, I bought mandolins in order to complete set up using the step-by-step directions and to take pictures.

Over the course of writing this book I have bought a total of three mandolins. In order to keep my costs down I chose the Rogue RM-100A mandolin. Rogue is the house brand for Musician’s Friend (www.musiciansfriend.com and I have no financial interest in Musician’s Friend). By using the least-expensive mandolin available I figured I would have the opportunity to see the most difficult set ups around. In that respect I was not disappointed.

Every mandolin I received required significant set up before it would play well. Initial bridge and nut heights on every mandolin were so high as to make them virtually unplayable, and intonation was never good. In two cases it was so far off it hurt my ears listening to the first chords I played.

What I did not expect to see, however, was the overall quality of the mandolins I received. The paint finish was extremely good on every mandolin. The inside of the F holes needed some touching up on one. The binding looked very nice, with just a few details on each instrument that weren’t perfect. The tuners were just OK, but after lubing them and then using them for several days they were stable and functioned smoothly.

Two of the mandolins I bought as ridiculous deals. They were just $39.95, shipping included. One came as a beginner’s package with a very nice gig bag and two (pretty skimpy) introductory books. The gig bag is for sale on their website for $24.95. So if you need a decent A-style gig bag, it’s like getting the mandolin for $15.00! <NOTE: The $39.95 deal that includes gig bag and books has been re-priced to $89.95 as of November, 2011. So I really did get a good deal!>

The other mandolin I bought as part of a guitar/mandolin package. That deal is still available as of this writing. An acoustic guitar and a mandolin for $79.99 delivered. The guitar I received was the RA-100D (dreadnought), which sells on their website for $79.99. So in a sense I got the RM-100A mandolin for free! And, yes, the guitar needed a full setup as well.

After a complete set up, each mandolin plays well and sounds good. An instrument’s sound is a very subjective issue and I make no claims as to an under-$50.00 mandolin sounding as good as a several-thousand dollar handmade instrument. However, each one has sufficient volume and projection to be heard over two guitars and several singers in my weekly jam group.

I think the Rogue RM-100A is a perfect mandolin for someone who is learning to play, or for a good player who needs a traveling/campfire mandolin.



Appendix D: Adjusting the Truss Rod When I started this e-book I intended it to be for conducting a thorough set up, but I had no intention of digging into the fundamentals of truss rod adjustments and fret dressing. Several readers of my pre-release copy asked me to specifically address these issues.

As a long-time owner of several Martin guitars I have never had the need to adjust a truss rod. The Martin Company does not use truss rods in their instruments’ construction. And most inexpensive mandolins don’t have truss rods either. But for those of you that do have truss rods, here is my recommendation.

First of all, I am a big fan of playing with a straight neck. A straight neck intonates well and any other issues are relatively easy to identify and address. When you introduce “relief,” and the neck is slightly bowed intonation can become a little sketchy.

Most people intonate their mandolin on an open string and then at the 12th fret. Once I intonate an instrument I like to check pitch accuracy of each string at each fret. That is why I love the electronic tuner apps I have downloaded on my iPad, iPhone and my Android tablet. It is easy to identify intonation issues.

If you need to address your truss rod, go to www.frets.com and read up on the subject thoroughly. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to make very minor adjustments, let the neck settle, check it, and make another minor adjustment if necessary. It is easy to do harm if you are not careful.



Appendix E: Dressing the Frets This is another area that is really beyond the general level of this eBook.

Go to www.frets.com for more information, or www.stewmac.com for tools to help you get the job done.


http://www.stewmac.com/


Appendix F: Checking Your Current Set Up After I wrote the initial version of this Ebook I offered it for free to people in exchange for their comments. This final version encompasses a nearly complete re-write and lots of polishing and editing.

I was surprised at the number of readers who wrote that they learned a lot but were going to pay someone to do the set up for them. On reflection I can understand their feeling. If you have never done this, you may not trust your new skills enough to work on an expensive instrument.

Use the information in this Ebook to measure the action on your mandolin so you can verify that the set up was properly completed for you. Check the string height at the first and 12th frets. Download an electronic tuner and verify that the intonation is accurate.

Make sure the nut slots have been angled properly and that the tops of the nuts have been filed down.

Make sure the tuning gears have been lubricated. If the strings bind when you are tightening them (when you turn the tuning gears the string doesn’t change pitch smoothly, but jumps in pitch), lubricate the nut slots.

Check that the tailpiece makes consistent contact with all of the strings.

Doing all of this will help you to ensure that your mandolin is the best it can possibly be. I hope you love making music with your mandolin!

Rob

How to Set Up and Enjoy a Mandolin - The Eye · 2020. 6. 22. · cleaner, fretboard conditioner,...

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