New member, old Gibson.

Hi all,

Bazz from NZ. Old to forums, old to folk instruments and guitars of all flavours.

New to mandolin though, and particularly to this old Gibson on the way to me.

Neck is straight, but action probably too high - 6/64" bass, 5/64" treble is what has been reported. Probably need to lower this a little.

I have lot's of experience setting up acoustic guitars, working with saddles etc, but none on mandolin. It has the original non-adjustable bridge. I'm presuming that adjustments should be made at the top of the bridge, not the bottom? And would it simply be a case of deepening the slots? Appreciate any and all advice!

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Cheers,
Bazz.

Welcome to the Cafe, Bazz.

You could do what I did with my '21 A2, which is also has the beefy neck without a truss rod - I made a new bridge. In my part of the world, humidity increases in the spring/summer and decreases in fall/winter, which causes the top to move a bit accordingly. I found it not too difficult, though it does require a good bit of fitting, which is sort of tedious because you have to get it in place under string tension.

I eventually got the new bridge to work correctly, but the whole exercise convinced me that an adjustable bridge would be easier to deal with than a separate bridge for summer and winter, so I put a Cumberland Acoustics adjustable bridge on it.

I also live where I have a "winter" bridge and a "summer" bridge. I used Red Henry's articles about making fixed height mandolin bridges to make my own. It's fun to try out different woods, too. Walnut and Maple are my favorites for tone on my Mid-Missouri. Here's Red's article: http://www.murphymethod.com/index.cf...&contentId=122