Broken Strings :(

[theCOOP]

So I took a little time today to mess with the mandolin, hoping to correct a little buzzing by putting a piece of felt under the strings at the tail piece (though i'm sure the buzzing is user-error, and not the mandolin)

As I was loosening the E strings, one snapped at the tuning peg. No worry, I figured one e-string would be good enough to mess with until I got new strings tomorrow.

So I was tuning the mandolin, when suddenly the second E-string snapped at the tuning peg :(

Is this somewhat normal?

Anyway, I couldn't play it now, so I removed all the strings after marking the bridge location and took the opportunity to clean the mandolin and do a little maintenance to the tuners.

I also took this opportunity to rework the foot of the bridge so it better fir the contour of the top.

Can't wait to put it back together once I get new strings.

Cheers,
Coop

[Big Joe]

It sounds like either you were turning the tuners the wrong way and they snapped OR they may have been quite old and brittle. It is not normal for them to break when removing tension, but any string will break at times. When two break it is a bit weird unless one of the above may have happened.

[fishtownmike]

I have had this happen on my mandolins that have been sitting for a long period on non use. You go to tune up and snap. Ages and corrosion can cause this. One thing i would check is for burrs in the tuner hole and edge. Over time a burr can form in the hole edge that will cause premature string failure by nicking the string. I touch up the holes with needle files...Mike

[theCOOP]

Thanks folks. I considered rough edges on the tuner holes, haven't looked yet.

The e-strings have been installed since mid-late December after one of my young neices broke a string on me.

On a side note, I had a Korg GA-30 electronic tuner. Before O loosened the strings, I checked the tuning. top to bottom (G-E): "1G, 2D, 3A, and 4E". But when retuning, I just couldn't seem to reach these indicators(?). I guess I have a feeling this Korg Guitar/Bass Tuner isn't quite what I should have, but it's what the guys at the store passed me.

Any thoughts? My instructor tunes my mandolin with his clip-on, but once it's set, those are the markings my tuner shows.

Cheers,
Coop

PS - started working on St. Anne's Reel. I picked up my own copy of Mandolin Picker's Fakebook, my instructor had been teaching me tunes from this book. So far, I've been playing/practicing 1) Angeline The Baker I, 2) Swallow Tail Jig, 3) Miss McLoad's Reel, and 4) Drowsy Maggie...still working out the bugs on this one.

[CES]

Hmmm...at first I was with Big Joe, in that the only time I've ever broken a string loosening it was on a friend's guitar...he'd been trying to adjust the truss rod and had been tightening it instead of loosening it (imagine that, the buzz got worse). I was loosening the strings to let some tension off the neck when it happened, but the strings were months old...

Check for burrs, and also make sure you were turning it the correct way. I accidentally broke one by tightening rather than loosening when I was first learning...like my friend with the truss rod I was just going the wrong way. If it becomes a recurrent issue, have a luthier or your instructor check things out...

BTW, I have a Korg chromatic tuner...it works fine except when I'm in a noisy environment...it was made to have a cable plugged in, I think, and just doesn't work as well with background noise. The same friend with the truss rod issue has a "guitar/bass" tuner. It works fine, as long as you're not too far off, but I like the chromatic better...

[fishtownmike]

Thanks folks. I considered rough edges on the tuner holes, haven't looked yet.

The e-strings have been installed since mid-late December after one of my young neices broke a string on me.

On a side note, I had a Korg GA-30 electronic tuner. Before O loosened the strings, I checked the tuning. top to bottom (G-E): "1G, 2D, 3A, and 4E". But when retuning, I just couldn't seem to reach these indicators(?). I guess I have a feeling this Korg Guitar/Bass Tuner isn't quite what I should have, but it's what the guys at the store passed me.

Any thoughts? My instructor tunes my mandolin with his clip-on, but once it's set, those are the markings my tuner shows.

Cheers,
Coop

PS - started working on St. Anne's Reel. I picked up my own copy of Mandolin Picker's Fakebook, my instructor had been teaching me tunes from this book. So far, I've been playing/practicing 1) Angeline The Baker I, 2) Swallow Tail Jig, 3) Miss McLoad's Reel, and 4) Drowsy Maggie...still working out the bugs on this one.

I suggest you buy a chromatic tuner. I had one of the korg you mention and it is specifically for guitar/bass. I recommend a clip on tuner. I have and like the Intelli IMT500 below in the link. i bought mine from ebay though this is an amazon link. It has a slow moving stable needle. It doesn't jump around like some tuners do. Non clip on tuners are hard to use because you have to either prop up the tuner or grow a 3rd arm to hold it up close enough to get a stable tuning.
http://www.amazon.com/Intelli-IMT500-Chromatic-Digital-Strings/dp/B002Q0WSO8

[theCOOP]

AARRGGH! Someone please shoot me!

I could NOT get the strings tuned to where they were (or at least where the tuner said they were), the G strings that is.

I broke a G, then I stripped a tuner knob end (pressed-on plastic knob, the other one was stripped when I got it), then I broke off the peg of the tail piece that the string hooks onto.

I could just shoot myself now.

To fix or replace, that is the question.

This is an Epi MM30 doesn't even have a truss rod (Korea serial 94120010), been looking at Kentuckys

SIGH :(

[CES]

If it's this much pain to start with, I'd say replace. I have an ebay special that I've put enough into in repairs that I could have bought a much better mando starting out. If you're looking at Kentucky A styles, the KM505 is pretty sweet for the price (a little under 500), but their other A's, which come in at under 400 usually (and sometimes under 300), are also very workable. If those don't work for you, Rover's A styles (also Saga made) can be found for < 160 pretty consistently...

If you have any inkling that you might someday consider building or repairs, keep the Epi and you can try some stuff on it, even if it's just basic set-up stuff. You can also try ordering new tuners from Stew-Mac and changing them out yourself, but I really would avoid the temptation to sink a lot into the Epi.

Good luck!

[Coffeecup]

The only mandolin string that I've had break, an A, happened when slacking off the strings to adjust the bridge. The strings were what it was delivered with so no knowing how old they were. As it happens, this is on an MM30 too.

Mine had a buzz too. I traced it to the pickguard. The screw through the top didn't clamp the guard securely so a shim of plastic beneath it fixed it easily.

How high were you trying to tune the G strings to do that amount of damage? Even if the tuner isn't registering correctly your ears should be able to tell you if you are somewhere around the normal range.

[theCOOP]

Coffeecup, I guess it comes down to having the wrong kind of tuner. Before taking it apart, the Gs were reading 4G on the KORG GA-30 tuner, so that's what I tried to replicate.

When I got the instrument, it had a broken string, and was nowhere near in-tune. I replaced the strings and set the bridge per directions I'd read, and tuned it using this tuner and it sounded fine to me. Then I started lessons back in November and my instructor tuned everything up from where I had it, and that 4G is where he tuned the Gs to (according to my tuner, he used his own).

I removed my pic guard a while back b/c it was a piece of junk and the screw going through the top to hold the side mount was too long and hitting the top of the mandolin. Besides, it looks like hell.

This mando doesn't even have a truss rod. The NEW MM30s seem to be a different beast than this one.

CES, I'm leaning toward replace. Unfortunately my car decided to take the same week to develope a coolant leak...about the same time we got out first substantial, lasting snowfall (we've spent most of the winter to this point with absolutely no snw on the ground. We even got temps near 10 degrees celcious recently.

I think my best bang for my buck right now would be seem to be a Kentucky and I can spend somewhere around $600. I think it's a Kentucky oval hole KM-172 that I saw at the Folklore Ctr a couple days ago. They're the only place locally to find anything besides Epiphone of Fender mandolins.

I'm not sure what a decent set of tuners cost, or a tail piece. I paid either $150 or $175 for the instrument with hard case and I've messed with it for a little over a year, so I think that's pretty good. The local shop wants about $85 for setup, not including any parts it'll need, so it's not really worth fixing up unless I had the parts kicking around.

I don't think I want another Epi or a fender or anything like that.

[Sleepy]

Sounds like a good reason to pick up another Mando

[johnny]

I've broken 5 E strings on 3 different mandos in the last 3 months. I can't see what I'm doing wrong; I've just been tuning them to the correct E and SNAP! Only 1 of the strings was old, 1 was from a $35 mando for our school, but one was on my brand new mando. I've now got good strings on my 2 mandos so I'm hoping this was just a cheap string issue.

[theCOOP]

Well screw it!

I dropped by the local L&M Service Ctr. today because a friend told me he used to buy parts directly from them. No dice. I mentioned I might buy a new mandolin and the guy there told me that when L&M bought out one of the (other) local, there was a lot of inventory moved and that the local L&Ms might have this surplus stuf selling off at about cost...no dice.

So my last stop was Halifax Folklore Ctr. First I looked at a new tail piec, $15 or so, and new tuners, $17 or so. I'd want to get it set up this time, so parts, labour and setup was going to run about $200 after taxes, give or take.

In the end I came home today with a new Kentucky, KM-162 Amber Top A-style w/ F holes, all set up and ready to play. It cost a little more than I might've paid online, not sure b/c I didn't work out the exhange rate. Most online places I checked were out of stock. For another $75, I could've had basically the same instrument w/ oval hole.

I've been playing with it for about an hour now and I'm quite pleased.

In comparison, I'm surprised how well my Epi sounded (compared to the Kentucky) but the Kentucky is much easier to play.

Thanks for the help.

Coop

[theCOOP]

I have available to me a new, damaged, KM-150 (list $295.00), for $50.00.

Owner says it has a small crack "on the bottom", wherever the believe the bottom to be, and "easy fix", and wants $50 for it.

The mandolin is about a $20 (gas) round trip away. If the body is worthless, are the tuners and other hardware (for the broken Epiphone) worth the $50 and $20 gas? Or would they be no better than the $14-$17.00 tail piece and tuners available from the Folklore Ctr?

Thanks
Coop