Tail piece question

[WmBuoymaster]

I'm about to start a set up on a free cheap Johnson . Upon inspection, I took off the tail piece cover and noticed that the small bent upright UNDER the strings was touching the G and D strings. I also noticed that the bottom of the tail piece is sitting on the body of the mandolin. Do I need to do some bending?

[MikeEdgerton]

It has to touch where it attaches, beyond it shouldn't touch the mandolin. Gibson puts a small strip of leather under the strings so that they don't rattle. You can also use a strip of felt. Look at the small piece of felt on the tailpiece on the right in this article on Frank Ford's www.frets.com.

[WmBuoymaster]

Thanks Mike. Looks like I can just add some felt and move forward.

[MikeEdgerton]

That's what I would do. The piece of leather Gibson uses is the same size and pretty soft.

[WmBuoymaster]

Thanks again Mike. The buzz im had is gone now but I need to get some softer leather. All I had was a belt I recently cut down. 5 pounds down will do that. LOL. Now to continue the setup......

[Ivan Kelsall]

Wm - Use a piece of soft leather if you can find some. The felt on my Weber tailpiece didn't last 12 months before bits of fluff were poking out from under it. I removed it & put on a piece of leather - 9 years later,it's still there. Belt leather is possibly too hard, something soft like an old leather glove would work fine - not the whole glove - just a piece !!!
Ivan

[pops1]

I use a small piece of deer skin, it is very soft and lasts forever. One thing to remember the strings don't have to be hard against the mute material, it just needs to lightly touch it. That will make it last longer and actually do it's job better.

[Stephen Perry]

tailpiece shouldn't hit mandolin top. Bend. May have to buy better.

[mando_noob]

I picked up an inexpensive Ibanez M510 to see if I want to learn this instrument or not. I'm going through Rob's guide on doing a setup and so far so good.

I did notice that, yes, the strings in the tailpiece sit directly on the lip, so I'll get some leather to fix that. But, also, the "overhang" on the cover (that goes toward the bridge) also touches the strings. Do I need to rebend the tailpiece so that this doesn't happen? Or should I put some leather on the inside of the cover? Or is it okay if this overhang touches the strings?

Thanks for any/all advice.

[pops1]

I just rebend it slightly so it clears the strings. If you clamp it right at the bend line you want it will bend nice and easy.