I have a freind that lives across state that has a old Kalamazoo mandolin, he said that the"A" string on his mandolin , that he noticed that if he tunes the two strings when they are open and in tune, one goes out of tune as he frets it. even on just the 2nd fret. But if he tunes them together fretted on the fifth fret, then they sound in tune except when hitting the open strings. Any ideas why this is ?
DENNIS RUSSELL
Different string guages or different string hights.
Bad nut slots. The absolute point of contact at the nut, which defines the vibrating string length, is different for each string.
I'm not a luthier, but I had this EXACT problem on my 1920 Gibson A model. Just as Paul says, incorrect nut slots. One of mine was deeper than the other. Took a magnifying glass to see the difference, but it sure was easy to hear.
If the nut slot is cut properly, the clean point of contact is at the very front, with a proper ramp from the tuner that ensures correct contact right there: no slop, no wiggle. The nut is in effect just a fret and the strings there are each clearing the first fret the same as each other the same as if they were contacting a fret.
When the instrument is tunable by the frets, but not by the open strings, it isolates the problem as a problem with the nut. As Mike says, hearing is indeed believing.
It's probably the nut, but could he be fretting too hard and maybe one string gets pressed down harder than the other? I start hearing things like this when i'm pressing down too hard, although i see it mostly on the G string.
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