Fat fingering the chords

[kww]

Teaching myself how to play this thing, and am encountering some difficulty with three and four fingered chords. I encounter what I assume is a normal difficulty in that it is hard to center my finger on the strings and between the frets when I am trying to get an adjacent finger to finger a string. I assume that this will lessen over time.

What I am finding is that having my finger pushed away from the center of the fret destroys the tone of the note. What I can see is that if I shift my finger towards the nut, the strings no longer makes hard contact with the fret and tone goes dead. This is most pronounced at frets 5-8. Is this normal, or is it a sign that I should try to lower the action at the bridge? I checked action at the nut using the procedure at frets.com, and it seems fine.

If lowering the action seems like the way to go, can anyone recommend an adjustable bridge and saddle suitable for a flat top 12-string mandolin?

[JGWoods]

Mandolins don't perform well when fretting is sloppy- be encouraged it gets better quickly if you work at it. If you finger a note away from the fret it often dies out or gives poor tone vs fingering right up behind the fret. In that higher action makes fretting harder it can contribute to poor tone also.
The short scale, double courses and attendant stiff action compared to a guitar or banjo makes sloppy fingering show much more on the mandolin than on the others.
It is a challenge, and as you learn to play well it will go away. If it weren't a challenge it wouldn't be much fun, or much of an accomplishment to play well- so enjoy the process.

[kww]

I guess it was too much to hope that I could adjust something and suddenly sound better. My action is about 2mm (5/32") measured string to fretboard at fret 7, and about 1mm at fret 4. Doesn't seem like there is a lot of room to reduce it, anyway.

Hopefully, learning on a triple-course instrument will make double courses look like a picnic if I ever pick up a more conventional mandolin.

[JGWoods]

Do you have an adjustable bridge? If so you can experiment with the action quite easily by lowering the bridge, tuning back to pitch, and playing- keep going down until it buzzes when you play hard, then take it up a bit.

I use the "butchers" method to do this and so far have gotten away with it- I won't say as folks approve, but it's my mnadolin and I do what I want.

I take big fat screwdriver and stick it between the halves of the bridge right near the adjuster I want to move, then I pry-twist- ever so lightly on the screwdriver to relieve the pressure on the screw while trying to turn the knurled fitting. with just enough twist on the screwdriver I can turn the nut down pretty easily.
Do this on both sides, tune back to pitch as you will be flat, and try it out.

Note that when trying to raise the bridge it would be much better to back off on the tuners a bit as you will be making things sharp- really adding tension with possible serious effects on the instrument.

I have done this a lot- so far so good- though I can see some nicks on the bridge..distressing I call it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
I was amazed at how low I could go without any buzzing. I did lose a little punch- I assume because the lower bridge changes the break angle to the tailpiece and therefore the downforce of the bridge on the body of the instrument.

In an hour you can try all sorts of changes and wind up with a much better playing instrument....usually.

To my advantage in doing things in such an unrefined way is 20+ years as a mechanic- where this kind of thing is done all the time, adjusting front ends, valves on running engines, the list goes on- I have pretty educated fingers and wrists when it comes to how much force to apply, and it can be risky.

[kww]

No, it's a fixed bridge. I'm not all that eager to start shaving off the bottom of the only bridge I've got, which is why I asked for a recommendation for an adjustable bridge/saddle suitable for a flat-topped 12 string.

[250sc]

kww,

place your finger as close to the fret that you want the string to stop on as possible.