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Thread: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

  1. #1

    Smile I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    I was getting ready to take my mandolin to Nashville tomorrow to have a refret done by Danny Roberts. As I was playing for about 30 minutes the light hit my mandolin a certain way, and I noticed some dust under the tailpiece and against the top.

    I got a toothpick and cleaned out underneath the tailpiece, and voila, the mandolin was 3 times louder.

    The "furball" was a combination of dust and dog hair (I have a golden retriever). So if you want an easy way to make your mando louder, check this out.

    By the way, the setup Danny did for me in 2010 was excellent. My mandolin still sounds very good intonation wise, and its very loud.

    If you need a fret job/setup, I highly recommend the Gibson Repair guys. It might cost a little more, but these guys know what they are doing.

    Rheatown

  2. #2
    Registered User sbarnes's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    I have a golden retriever too and the (2) mandolins I leave out on a stand could probably use one of those tiny vacuum cleaners to get the hair out of the inside of the body....I know what you mean but I've just learned to live w/the hair.....worth it....

  3. #3
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    So that's what they mean when they say a bluegrass mandolin should "bark"...
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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  5. #4
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    I have a mandolin that is way too loud. Perhaps I should trade my schnauzer for a golden retriever.
    Jim

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  7. #5

    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    does danny do work privately or only through Gibson?
    ive got a fern he signed and im about due for a refret too
    id have confidence in him, even if I have to ship

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    Registered User tree's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    The repair dept at Elderly Instruments has a collection, displayed in a nice shadowbox on the wall and neatly labelled according to the instrument it was removed from, of actual masses they have pulled out of the bodies of various instruments. It is titled "Tone Balls". I tried to find a good photo but alas, I failed. You really need to see it in person . . .
    Clark Beavans

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  10. #7
    Wood and Wire Perry Babasin's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    I don't know Jim, schnauzies shed a whole bunch here in California! Ha,ha,ha
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    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    I have seen the "Tone Balls" display, it is unbelievable how much "Stuff" accumulates in an instrument.
    Timothy F. Lewis
    "If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett

  12. #9
    Registered User Petrus's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    That's one way.

    Click image for larger version. 

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  13. #10
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    My schnauzer sheds practically not at all but I am in New York.
    Jim

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  15. #11

    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Quote Originally Posted by stevedenver View Post
    does danny do work privately or only through Gibson?
    ive got a fern he signed and im about due for a refret too
    id have confidence in him, even if I have to ship
    I'm not sure if Danny does private work, but I would guess not. They appear to be pretty busy this time of year.

    I picked up one mandolin today and dropped off another. I chose to drive because I have seen how the shipping companies handle boxes. Also, in the winter it gets pretty cold in those trucks.

    As usual, Danny and Timothy did a spectacular job at a reasonable price. They took a nice mandolin and made it much better. It is not a Gibson. The mandolin I dropped off today was refretted at Opry Mills in 2010, and it still sounded good. It is a Gibson.

    It's easy to mess up a nice mandolin if you don't know what you are doing. Danny does such a good job that I never remove all the strings at once between refrets because I am afraid I will mess the setup up.

    I can't wait to get my Gibson back.

    Danny was playing my mandolins today, and he made me realize how much I have to learn. Not only is he the best luthier, he is an encyclopedia of music and a mandolin virtuoso.

    I feel privileged to do business with them.

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  17. #12
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    OK, I'm confused: poking out a bunch of schmutz from under the tailpiece produced a threefold increase in volume ?

    Vibration doesn't get transferred to the top through the tailpiece, so I can only assume that the accumulation of dog hair et. al. was somehow dampening the top's vibrations. I'd think it'd take about a quarter pound of gunk to really damp down the top from a position at the lower edge of the vibrating surface.

    Perhaps dog hair has sound-absorbent qualities hitherto unsuspected, but still...
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    This Kid Needs Practice Bill Clements's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post
    My schnauzer sheds practically not at all but I am in New York.
    Sure, sure, Jim. I have it on good authority that this was found in one of YOUR mandolins:

    Click image for larger version. 

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    "Music is the only noise for which one is obliged to pay." ~ Alexander Dumas

  19. #14
    F5G & MD305 Astro's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Like Allen, I was having trouble visualizing this one. I mean could you have inadvertently bumped the bridge back or something ?
    No matter where I go, there I am...Unless I'm running a little late.

  20. #15
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    threefold ain't nothing on a logarithmic scale.

    my dog doesn't get on the sofa.

    carry on. . .

    f-d
    ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

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  21. #16
    but that's just me Bertram Henze's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    OK, I'm confused: poking out a bunch of schmutz from under the tailpiece produced a threefold increase in volume ?
    I didn't get it either. I can only assume the hairball fell out of the player's right ear and got wedged under the tailpiece. Now where is the one that fell out of the left ear?

    Quote Originally Posted by fatt-dad View Post
    threefold ain't nothing on a logarithmic scale.
    approx. 15 dB difference
    the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world

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  23. #17
    Registered User Karl Keating's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    If you want to clean out the inside of your mandolin, use white rice. Pour a cup of it inside, put your hand over the sound hole(s), and shake. When you pour the rice out, if it has turned gray (which is what happened when I cleaned an old bowlback this way), try a fresh cup. Keep doing this until the rice comes out white.
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  24. #18

    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Glad that "furball" wasn't belly-button lint!
    Lee

  25. #19
    Registered User Timbofood's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Had a girlfriend once who threatened to make some paper from my navel lint!
    Karl, I am not coming for that wonderful rice dish for dinner!
    That really is a good suggestion for cleaning, I generally take my mandolin to my banjo players wood shop and use his compressed air to blow it out, done it twice in forty years.
    Timothy F. Lewis
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  26. #20
    Registered User Hendrik Ahrend's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Not meaning to start (dog) hair splitting; how about somebody telling Sam Bush to remove his kitchen sponge from under the tail piece?Click image for larger version. 

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  27. #21
    Registered User Pasha Alden's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Well, well, at all those comparing Schnauzers, it seems we have the ones in New York and the ones in California?

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  28. #22
    Registered User Brandon Sumner's Avatar
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    Default Re: I Just Made My Mandolin Three Times Louder

    Hmmmm. Good reason to store the Mando in it's case! Humidity forces that here in Colorado.....
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