PaulD
Nov-01-2004, 2:53pm
As I mentioned in another thread about Flatirons, I have a 1981 Flatiron 1SH that I was in the process of filing the frets after 20 years of "grooving" on it. As much as I've always loved this instrument, I've always thought that the action was a little high. Since it needed the frets reworked, I thought I would also play with the bridge to get the same action as my Gibson A model. Now I'm not as sure that's the thing to do.
I used a flat file and sandpaper on glass to level the frets, then colored the frets with a black Sharpie marker. I used a LMI fret file with the little concave bits to crown the frets until I had a narrow black marker line left on the top of each fret. I then hit the frets with various grits of silicon carbide sandpaper and used buffing compound on leather to polish them. I also scraped the fretboard a little to take some of the wear out of it, but I don't know if that's customary. I'm not totally thrilled with how evenly the frets are crowned, some seem to "lean" toward the nut, but it seems to play nicely and it's great to have it strung up again.
I was originally planning on sanding the feet on the bridge to lower the action until it matched my Gibson, but the reading I've done in the last year makes me wonder if I should maintain the higher string angle or risk losing the volume and "punch" this mandolin has.
My thinking if I decide to lower the action is to start by measuring the distance from the string to the 12th fret on each instrument and take the difference. I would take that number, double it to get the amount to remove from the bridge, and then leave a little extra material on the bridge to leave the action a little high (easier to remove more from the bridge later than add it back).
I guess I could cut a new bridge and make it lower before destroying the original, and see how it sounds. Your thoughts are appreciated, as I've never done this before and I would rather proceed cautiously.
Paul Doubek
From the shores of the Great Salt Lake
I used a flat file and sandpaper on glass to level the frets, then colored the frets with a black Sharpie marker. I used a LMI fret file with the little concave bits to crown the frets until I had a narrow black marker line left on the top of each fret. I then hit the frets with various grits of silicon carbide sandpaper and used buffing compound on leather to polish them. I also scraped the fretboard a little to take some of the wear out of it, but I don't know if that's customary. I'm not totally thrilled with how evenly the frets are crowned, some seem to "lean" toward the nut, but it seems to play nicely and it's great to have it strung up again.
I was originally planning on sanding the feet on the bridge to lower the action until it matched my Gibson, but the reading I've done in the last year makes me wonder if I should maintain the higher string angle or risk losing the volume and "punch" this mandolin has.
My thinking if I decide to lower the action is to start by measuring the distance from the string to the 12th fret on each instrument and take the difference. I would take that number, double it to get the amount to remove from the bridge, and then leave a little extra material on the bridge to leave the action a little high (easier to remove more from the bridge later than add it back).
I guess I could cut a new bridge and make it lower before destroying the original, and see how it sounds. Your thoughts are appreciated, as I've never done this before and I would rather proceed cautiously.
Paul Doubek
From the shores of the Great Salt Lake