Mandobird Musings

[Brad Weiss]

I've been getting back into my mandobird of late, and thoroughly enjoying it. #I'm rather surprised, because when I played it last I thought the pick up was shot- the E string seemed quite dead, as seems #often to be the case with these. Anyway, I'm a jazzer, so I had the tone knob turned to - well, I don't know wht you call it, but all the way counter-clockwise, which has a some what more muted, less resonant tone. Well, I tried turning it more to the twangier side of things, and discovered that the E string came right through, loud and clear! I have it adjusted now as close to muted as I can get, and still pick up the E and it sounds cool! So does this mean I don't need a new pickup? Got me, but it actually has a very nice, clear, well articulated tone. I might want to lower the action a tad - do I need a little allen wrench for that? The set-up, intonation, etc seem fine- and I've got some of Ted's custom strings on it - which I HIGHLY recommend as a great deal, tone and exceptional feel.

So much for modifications- though maybe the future holds more emando and tweeking in my future...

[bjc]

Brad, I did notice that the e string was not as buried when I turned the tone knob down as well...and Ted's custom strings rock...just wish the e string sounded better with some dirt...

[Billiam]

I've found the same thing, turning down the treble on the 'bird pretty much disables the E string. I don't know whether to blame the pickup, or the choice of cap in the treble cut circuit. Anyone tried a smaller value cap, to raise the knee frequency of the tone control? That might allow a little melowing at the top end without lsing the E altogether.

For now, I keep the treble all the way up on the mando, and use the tone controls on the amp.