It does nothing about the bracing or the low grade spruce and maple. Sure, it’s sort of like polishing a turd as the old saying goes. My theory is that a thin top will increase the energy from the strings adding more overtones and tonal richness. After stripping the finish, I want to thin the top by sanding and scraping. This is one reason some instrument makers use satin finishes or hand polished, rather than thick lacquer. This alone will allow it to breathe and might increase the resonance. I am thinking about stripping the finish from the top and possibly the entire body. Since I haven’t invested much into the mandolin, I’m willing to take some chances. Combine these structural mistakes with low grade materials, results in poor tone. By keeping the tops thick and the bracing sturdy, many of these student instruments resonate poorly. All wood varies greatly in hardness, moisture content, and other characteristics that should determine it’s ideal dimensions and uses. Each soundboard comes from a unique material. I imagine the robots that cut out the parts are setup to make wooden instruments durable, rather than a customized dimension that would yield the best sound. It’s been my experience that most cheap instruments are heavily built, therefore they don’t sustain or have a rich tone color. I found chords and scales took less effort to play and I’m happy to have it playing closer to it’s potential.Īfter completing the project, I have been considering making more modifications in the future. The mandolin took a jump in volume after fitting the bridge and the action is good considering the quality of the instrument. I then tuned up the strings to get an idea of the results. I glued the nut back into place with a small amount of wood glue. If I want to be more precise, or check my progress, I use my string action gauge from Stew Mac. Having played myself for 20 years, I can almost use my eyes and touch to get the height dialed in. I like a medium high action which allows for comfortable fretting and louder dynamics. It seems that everyone has a different action preference for how they play their instruments. I used a marking knife to sketch a line across the bottom and in a few minutes achieved the proper height.
I used a small wooden block to brace against it’s edge and one small hammer tap broke the glue and it was ready to be sanded down. I then scraped, filed, and sanded the marks repeating the process until the bridge matched perfectly. When test fitting, I rubbed the bridge against the top and any high spots would show up as smooth marks on the base of the bridge. I used a wood planing technique to check for high spots. It took a lot of small shavings and test fittings to join the two surfaces. I had never previosly fit a curved bridge before. I clamped my card scraper in a vise and after making some rough marks began to remove material. I removed the strings and when no tension was on the bridge, it was very high in the middle. The bridge screws were also in their lowest position and still the action was high.
Upon further inspection, I noticed that the bridge wasn’t fitting tightly against the top.
Normally I would begin by adjusting the neck, but my mandolin does not have a truss rod. It made the instrument difficult to fret, especially long stretches and chords across the fingerboard. The first thing I noticed was how high the action was. I hope to continue to learn the mandolin and having it play properly is the first step. The guitar and mandolin really don’t have much in common other than strings and frets. Since then, I’ve been offered gigs doubling on guitar and mandolin which has helped me get a better handle on the basics. Although I didn’t feel qualified, I had little choice, and I soon found myself using my music background to dive into this new puzzle. I was asked to teach Mandolin at a music school that I work at, which had no mandolin teacher. The universe has gravitated the mandolin toward me over the past two years. Ironically Kentucky Mandolins are made in Asia, as are almost all inexpensive instruments. The instrument is a student model made by Kentucky. I spent my Saturday afternoon setting up a Mandolin I purchased used about 6 months ago.
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