Fender Electric Mandolins

[mandroid]

Rather than rely on angling a round piece to get the offsets, you could make a stair like offset
and drill and tap the shrew threads, square, in say aluminum, or brass.
file till the offset difference is right .

[Dan Margolis]

I spoke with Larry Smoak, a luthier who owns Wooden Wizard in VA. He was referred to me by Frank at Joe Barden. Larry said that he could make compensated saddles, but he would need a Fender mandocaster in hand in order to measure, craft and fit them. I'm willing to ship mine to him. If any of us who own these vintage Fenders were interested perhaps he could make a batch, and, just speculating, maybe the cost would go down a bit. He would only need one mandocaster to do this; like saddles for Teles, the dimensions would not change from instrument to instrument. If there is any interest, let's hear it and see if we can get something going! Thanks, Dan

[mandroid]

As long as there is agreement on string gages and types.. or just a ballpark range .. CGDA offsets quite different from GDAE of course.

flat wound versus round wound a lesser difference , but may be able to be heard.. rough blanks drilled and tapped and supplied with setscrews..
with enough metal left to file off on final installation may be practical ..

[Dan Margolis]

I tune emandos just like a regular mandolin. Aftermarket Tele saddles are sold ready to install--look at the Callaham or Barden sites to see what they do. Personally, I'm not lookin' to file any metal. One mistake and it's trash!

[Jim Bevan]

I'd ship him one of mine, if I was home, but I won't be home until the last two weeks of August.
(I wonder if he needs the whole instrument, or could he make do with just the bridge..?)

Anyways, yep, I'm in, GDAE roundwound.

[Dan Margolis]

I'll talk to Larry again this week about this. If anyone else who owns a vintage mandocaster would be interested in compensated saddles, please let me know. Dan

[Dan Margolis]

Sooooo...I had a set of Fender electric mandolin saddles made for me by Michael Slotboom of Armadillo Machine Works LLC in Austin TX. website: http://armadillomachine.com/

Michael did a great job, even though he did not have the instrument in hand and instead relied on my measurements of my original saddles with bent screw intonation a la Telecaster. The result: a much more in tune Fender mandolin! I have tweaked the setup pretty much to the limits of my ability, and it is very, very close. Close enough, in fact, to use on gigs and jams. If any owners of vintage Fenders (mine is a '66) live in or near Austin, Michael would be glad to check it out and probably improve it a bit more. Here are pix of my mando before and after the new saddles were installed:

http://s934.photobucket.com/albums/a...ic%20mandolin/

I have troubles posting pix on the Cafe, but the Photobucket pix are good.

Michael used brass saddle material that is thicker than the original Fender mandolin saddles. I like this for two reasons: 1) Brass helps tame the twangyness of the mandolin, and 2) I believe that the heavier saddles also help the tone. Although he sent me long screws and new springs, I used the originals and saved the stuff that I didn't use.

It was great dealing with Michael (I have no financial interest), and if you want saddles like these, send him an email. No one else makes these. If the angles can be further refined I would not hesitate to purchase another set, cuz the price was very reasonable. That said, I'm very happy with these, and look forward to using this mandolin onstage. They are a gigantic improvement!

[Dan Margolis]

After posting I brought the Fender to my repair guy, who does superb work. He's going to fix one bad fret, and also look at the saddle and maybe file it to perfect the intonation. If anyone can do it, he can.

[Soundfarmer Pete]

Do these look useful (last but one item on page)?
http://www.axesrus.com/axeSaddlesh.htm
Wilkinson also does compensated saddles!

[Dan Margolis]

The first thing I looked into was using Tele saddles, but they don't work--they are not wide enough. Anyone that makes Tele saddles can make these, but most don't want to because it's a small market. Michael Slotboom (Armadillo Machine) makes them now, and they're much, much better than the stock saddles. The last little 2% of refinement will simply require Michael to get his hands on a vintage Fender electric so that he can tweak the saddle angles slightly. If that doesn't happen, these saddles are still great. For around $25, your vintage Fender mandolin will play in tune.

I guess I should say, "long enough". Mandolin saddles are longer than Tele saddles.

[ortha]

I just ordered a set of these for my beloved 66 Mandocaster. I can't wait to install them.

[mandroid]

yea hard to heat the shop in Maine enough for Lacquer with snow up to the windowsill.