offset bridge for better intonation?

[McGuiganator]

So I finally bought my first mando yesterday. When I grabbed it and started playing it I noticed the bridge was quite crooked. Being a newbie I found the nearest helper and asked if that was typically something you find with mando bridges and he said it was done on purpose but I haven't seen anything like it elsewhere at music stores I love and trust.

Could someone tell me if the bridge is supposed to be noticably crooked? If not, with a floating bridge it would be easy enough to fix but I would like to know if he gave me incorrect information.

Also when ok ng for the first time I noticed a shrill ringing from one of the strings. The note comes through okay but the ringing has been annoying me. Could this be due to poor body construction?

I went against my gut and bought it from a guitar center and I was under the impression that there were plenty of guitar specialists but no one too familiar with mandos. The model I bought is a lower end mitchell a-style with all gold tuners and tailpiece.

Thank you all in advance.

[mrmando]

Did you save the receipt?

[McGuiganator]

Absolutely saved the receipt. I wanted to take one home to play with but am fully ready to return It and purchase and eastman a style instead.

Also thank you for the quick response!

[belbein]

the bridge was quite crooked... shrill ringing from one of the strings. The note comes through okay but the ringing has been annoying me... guitar center

You don't say how long ago you bought it, but the clock is ticking to take it back. So you need to decide pretty quick if that's what you're going to do.

You don't say where you are ... if you're in or near any city of any size, there's someone there who actually knows mandolins. You need to find him/her toot sweet and have them take a look. (If you're in/around Atlanta, I can make some suggestions. But there are people in the Café from all over, and they can steer you in the right direction.) It also wouldn't hurt to post a picture here, so the luthiers can take a look and see what you mean by crooked.

The ringing ... well, it's hard to know without hearing it. The "E" strings tend to ring very harshly, even with proper build and proper set up. To my ear, it's just plain agonizing, which is why I bought a mandola (though then I fell in love with and bought and then truly fell in love with my Weber Bighorn mandolin). But anyway, if it's the "E" string, it's one of the lovely things about mandolin.

Guitar Center ... well, your instincts were right. They're not bad people, and they have good prices, and I do shop there, and twice I almost bought mandolins there. But for anything other than guitars, you have to trust your own knowledge, because none of their employees know bo diddly about anything other than guitars.

PS: Hey, don't beat yourself up over this. First, it may not be a done deal. Second, it might be easily fixable, like with resetting the bridge and a set up. Third ... this just one lesson in a learning experience. I feel somewhat competent now, but two years ago I bought a mandolin that I never should have, for significant money. [Shrug.] Happens. Nobody died.

[testore]

But to answer your question, it is normal to have the bass side of your bridge sitting lower than the treble side, sometimes very noticeably. That will be effected by string gauges, their composition and sometimes the brand. Find a mandolin person to know for sure.

[McGuiganator]

Thank you everyone for the insight. This was my first post on here and I appreciate the help. ♥

The ringing is coming from the e string so that explains that but the bridge sounds like it was set up backward with the treble tilted to the wrong side. I would post a pic if I wasn't agonizing about it while at work. Haha.

I live in the chico california area and trust the guys at Housers to sell me something that was properly set up so this Mitchell has seen a short stay at my home but is going back to the guitar center on Tuesday.

[mrmando]

Guitar Center has a 30-day return policy, I believe, which is about the only item I have filed under Good Things to Say About Guitar Center.

It is normal for compensated bridges to have a slight angle to the saddle, to account for different string diameters. But if the angle gets much beyond that while the frets remain parallel, what you'll have are strings that are in tune at one fret and somewhat out of tune at all the other frets.

[testore]

It might be worth a drive to Sacramento and bring it to the 5th String.

[pfox14]

When you say "crooked" I am assuming you mean not exactly perpendicular to the frets. As previously mentioned, many bridge mandolin bridges have to be slanted so the bass side is closer to the tailpiece. This is true of most fretted string instruments in order to get the intonation right. How does the intonation sound? You do this by lightly touching the string at the 12th fret to get the harmonic tone and comparing that to the note when you press all the way down at the 12th fret. If the fretted note is sharp compared to the harmonic, then you need to move the bridge slightly closer to the tailpiece or vice versa.

[A-board]

As a surprise my wife bought me my 1st mando at GC (Mitchell). It lacked any setup: intonation was way off and the nut was so high it was unplayable at the 1st fret. As others have said, there seems to be no knowledge of mandos at GC.

[Folkmusician.com]

A crooked bridge is perfectly normal "if the intonation is correct".

Do you make it over to Reno/Tahoe? If so, you need to stop in.

As much as I try to support the Local Breweries, I still love Sierra Nevada!

[David Houchens]

It can be amazing what a set-up and a quality bridge properly fit will do to a lot of lower end instruments. And a few of the real early ones I built which were not so lower end priced.

[McGuiganator]

Much appreciated guys. Yeah I ended up taking it back today. The guys at GC were really nice I just want to go to a place where I can buy on that's already set up and for this area its got to be Housers.

Hopefully I will be posting about how awesome that eastman I want is soon.