junglejoe

[junglejoe]

The adjustment screws on my mandolin are adjusted all the way down. I might be able to remove the bridge and sand the bottom of the bridge to lower the bridge and then readjust the bridge up to get the proper tone. Is this a doable thing? I live in Costa Rica and have to deal with high humidity and low humidity. You can forget about a luthier who knows anything about a mandolin.

[frets1]

Jungle man, Try this; The adjustment screws on a mandolin bridge are approz. 3/8 inch into the bridge. You can use pliers and twist the screws up some. That will give you more height. BE CAREFUL NOT TO DAMAGE THE THREADS ON THE SCREWS. You can avoind this by wrapping the screws with some thick tape or something else

[Bob DeVellis]

I think the bridge needs to go down, not up. There are a couple of simpler options if the distance involved is not too great. One is to sand the bottom of the saddle (top part of the bridge evenly across its whole length to shorten its height. The other is to create clearance in the top and/or bottom of the bridge for the adjusting wheels by notching those pieces so that the wheels can actually fit into the notches and the top and bottom portions of the bridge can be made to come into direct contact with one another. Removing wood from the bottom of the bridge will require that you re-fit the bridge bottom to the arch of the mandolin top. That's not impossible by any means but is trickier than the other two methods. Method #1 is easiest if it will lower the action sufficiently without too greatly reducing the height of the saddle. If the saddle (upper bridge portion) has a tendency to wobble on the threded pins (i.e., the pins are a bit loos in the saddle holes), this may make matters worse. But if the pins fit snugly into the holes and the amount of wood removed is minimal (say, under 1/16 inch), it can be a quick fix.

[ourgang]

Have you tried a truss rod adjustment?? Tighten the rod about 1/8 turn which will act to straighten the neck. Then adjust the bridge saddle up to remove any fret buzz.

[mandroid]

I sugg: to remove posts find 2 hex nuts of same thread size and tighten them into each other on the same post,(perhaps use both thumbwheels, but nuts will be easier to use) you can unscrew the post from the base without any thread damage, with this jamnut technique. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif