How temperature sensitive is your mandolin?

  1. BadExampleMan
    BadExampleMan
    Weird question maybe, but my Kentucky KM-252's tuning seems very sensitive to temperature changes. For example this morning it was maybe 78F when I took my instrument out to my studio shed and tuned it. Later in the morning it warmed up enough that I switched on the AC and brought the temperature down to, I don't know, maybe 74F or so. Picked up the mandolin again and the G, D, and A strings were all nearly a quarter-tone flat! (The E string was still pretty close.)

    Not that I have anything to compare it with but that seems like a big difference for a relatively small temperature change.

    ...Wait, I do have something to compare it with. My electric mando is nowhere near as affected by the climate. Albeit, keeping it in tune is a bit iffy at any temperature.
  2. NDO
    NDO
    Mine are all pretty sensitive. I moved out onto the porch yesterday and immediately had to retune.
  3. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    First Q that comes to mind is "do you have new strings on it?". If so, they will probably settle down in a day or two. But 4 degrees seems to me like it could be enough to make a tuning problem.

    78 F? wow. its 32 and snowing here this morning.
  4. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    First question that comes to mind for me is, “is your electric mandolin a solid body?”

    That’s because if so, it would strengthen my assumption that the big pitch swings are not due to temperature so much as relative humidity. When you turn down the AC to cool the air, you’d expect the cooler temp to contract the steel strings making them a little sharp, not flat. But since the cooling of the air with an AC tends to lower the relative humidity, I’d expect the top and backplate of the instrument to contract from side to side (across the grain) due to the lower humidity (drying) of the wood cells.

    The contraction of wood across grain due to humidity changes occurs at a much higher rate than the contraction of steel due to temperature. Contraction across the top plate will lower the arch, with the bridge, and release tension causing the strings to go flat.

    I apologize for being pedantic, but I like to understand things and that is my theory - which is more than you asked for - but specifically to your question I’ll say this: It is not at all uncommon for temperature and (more importantly IMO) RH to have a big effect on mandolin tuning. I notice it often, same goes for guitars but more so mandolins.
  5. NDO
    NDO
    That’s a great point Mark. Mine normally goes sharp on dropping temp but flat on dropping humidity, consistent with what you described.
    One winter my MD605 became temporarily unplayable until I got the humidity up a bit and cranked up the bridge height as high as it would go.
  6. JeffLearman
    JeffLearman
    All the guitars I've had over the years have varied a lot, and not necessarily relating to price. In fact, one of the cheapest guitars (a Japanese Les Paul copy with the "National" brand) was incredibly stable. Its neck was laminated, so looking at from the back (after I'd stripped of the black acrylic lacquer) you could see all the lines. I never see that on quality instruments but man it was stable. (And after I'd replaced all the hardware and pickups, it was actually a decent guitar ... now ashes.)

    I had a Steinway M from 1924 (bought really cheap as a rescue) that actually was still in tune after moving from NC to Seattle, and a year later moving again to NorCal. And I'm a bugger about tuning. Sadly, that's also ashes now too.

    I've also noticed that humidity is usually a bigger factor than temperature.

    I don't have enough experience with my Saga mandolin to comment on that. It started off the bat with a sunken top, and EVERYTHING was changing all the time. Now that I put a soundpost in, it's pretty stable from day to day, though no temp changes.
  7. BadExampleMan
    BadExampleMan
    What you say about humidity makes sense but I'd be surprised if the humidity varies that much in my house just now - the other day when I turned on a/c in my office was the first time this year but the tuning changes are pretty generally constant. So ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    But yes, the electric is a solid body, a Gold Tone 5-string.
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