Son of a ........

[Chris Keth]

I was restringing my newly arrived mando (my first!) and I dropped the bridge. The saddle section fell off and the thumbwheels moved and it took me forever to reset the intonation and bridge height. It felt even longer since I was excited to play it.

That is all.






So how's everybody else doing this beautiful Saturday?

[JEStanek]

My basement flooded. Seriously. The past 6 hours have been spent sucking up water, and carrying out wet flotsam and jetsam. At least it's warmer here today.

Don't brand new strings feel great once you're all done, though.

Jamie

[Chris Keth]

Originally Posted by JEStanek

My basement flooded. Seriously. The past 6 hours have been spent sucking up water, and carrying out wet flotsam and jetsam. At least it's warmer here today.

Don't brand new strings feel great once you're all done, though.

Jamie

I'm sorry to hear about that. There's not much worse than having a bunch of surprise work. I live in southern california and winter here is usually rainy and when it rains it REALLY rains. A couple days before christmas I wake up in the night and the ceiling is leaking. Bad. Not drops, little streams coming from the ceiling and going down the wall. You could even see where there was a little bubble of water behind the peeling paint. Luckily we were able to move everything from that half of the room without any damage and, the next day, were able to move down the hall to a vacant place since it wasn't a quick fix.

[Folkmusician.com]

Congrats on your first mando, and subsequent survival of the bridge overboard routine.

Except for the occasional full fingerboard cleaning, it is usually best to change one string at a time so the bridge stays in place. Saves a few gray hairs too.

If I am removing a bridge I will typically lay some tape to mark the original position first.

What mandolin did you get?

[Folkmusician.com]

And I was complaining about having to mow the lawn! hehe

[Chris Keth]

Originally Posted by Folkmusician.com

What mandolin did you get?

I bought a Fullerton Gloucester from a forum member. So far I like it a lot. My hands just need to get used to all that string tension. I'm used to guitar but, honestly, barre chords on this are tougher.

I marked the bridge with tape before I took it off but I got it all back together and the bass side was going a bit sharp. I don't know if my marks weren't quite precise enough or if it was off before. In any case it wasn't hard to fix, just time consuming with all of the "tune up, check, tune down, move; tune up check, tune down, move." I would have been much more lost if I wasn't so familiar with setting up guitars.

[ShaneJ]

I spent the day setting up my A-Jr. Had to level a couple frets, so it involved removing all the strings and bridge. Kind of a pain, but it's good to tinker around on a Saturday sometimes.

BTW, I think I bought your new mandolin's brother. Still waiting on mine to be delivered. There will be some more setup work to be done when it arrives, I'm sure.

[Cayenne]

Originally Posted by JEStanek

My basement flooded. Seriously. The past 6 hours have been spent sucking up water, and carrying out wet flotsam and jetsam. At least it's warmer here today.

Don't brand new strings feel great once you're all done, though.

Jamie

So sorry about that. Unfortunately, I have enough experience in this arena that I could possibly qualify as an expert. In fact, I spent an afternoon last week helping friends remove sheetrock and insulation after flooding. I'm enjoying a sip of the 'Maker's Mark' they gave me as a thank you.......completely unnecessary, but I'm enjoying it.

Ahh life....the bitter and the sweet.

[JEStanek]

PanaDP, Your roof situation was much uglier than my basement, but thanks for the commiseration! We've been through this before. There's gotta be a spring under our house! The sump runs very often. This time most of the stuff has been transferred to plastic tote bins. We've been meaning to have a purge as my wife, a vet, is a bit of a hoarder.

On the plus side, she was able to call a client who owns a trash hauling business so we got a dumpster delivered within 2 hours of her call. Its good to know people!

When I take off my bridge, I mark the position with detacked post it notes (put them on and off my pant leg a few times to reduce the tackiness, and I mark the bass side and front of the bridge when I set it down. I'm pretty paranoid of doing something stupid. Most of the time when I change strings I change them 1 or 2 at a time to keep the bridge where it belongs.

Jamie

EDIT: Our basement is thankfully unfinished but still used as a play area for the kids. Lots of toys they haven't touched since they were 3 had to go. Maker's Mark might hit the mark right now... thanks for the idea!

[Jim Broyles]

Never take off all the strings to restring. Do one at a time. Bridge won't move. You and Shane will love your mandolins.

[Chris Keth]

Originally Posted by Jim Broyles

Never take off all the strings to restring. Do one at a time. Bridge won't move. You and Shane will love your mandolins.

I think that's the plan from here on out but I wanted to give it a nice cleaning since it arrived at it's new home.

Originally Posted by Shane Jennings

I spent the day setting up my A-Jr. Had to level a couple frets, so it involved removing all the strings and bridge. Kind of a pain, but it's good to tinker around on a Saturday sometimes.

BTW, I think I bought your new mandolin's brother. Still waiting on mine to be delivered. There will be some more setup work to be done when it arrives, I'm sure.

Tinkering is always fun. If your gloucester comes like mine did, it really didn't need any setup work. Of course I went and messed up what setup it had.

[Michael Cameron]

Sounds like you've already learned quite a bit about setting the bridge intonation and your mandolin in general.

I used to put on the tape;but,after a while it is not necessary.

Oh yeah. My basement flooded too(only a couple inches;but,it's STILL drying up).

I live in the basement!

[mandozilla]

I mark the position with detacked post it notes

I seldom remove all my strings but when I do I make the bridge position with that blue painters tape...it's low tack, comes off easily, and leaves no marks or residue.

[Chris Keth]

Originally Posted by mandozilla

I seldom remove all my strings but when I do I make the bridge position with that blue painters tape...it's low tack, comes off easily, and leaves no marks or residue.

I marked mine with what we call "spike tape" in the movie industry. "Spiking" an actor is marking their position for focus and camera. It's basically painters tape with a little tougher paper backing. It comes in about a bajillion colors and, from various jobs, I think I have them all.

That's only one of the materials and skills I bring home from work. It's funny how we do that.

[billkilpatrick]

figlio di ...

been there ... done that ... i twisted the chanter of my bagpipe once, gripping it from the bottom, instead of the top and cracked and split it - the air was blue for some after and my blood pressure dropped through the floor.

some good restringing and bridge replacement advice here:

http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musi...dostring1.html

congratulations on getting your gloucester - long life to you both.

[Cayenne]

My bridge has scraped itself a nice seating in the laquer where it resides. Finding the sweet spot is nolonger a problem.

[Santiago]

Might pay to get a pro set-up.

[fredfrank]

Originally Posted by Santiago

Might pay to get a pro set-up.

Now what would be the challenge in that?