OM Setup

[Peter Barnett]

I have an Eastman MDO305. It was the only one available at the time and came from an unknown, to me, seller in the unopened original factory box. No complaints, I received what was advertised. Now that I have played it for awhile I am thinking about getting it setup.

What should I be looking for in an OM setup? This does not impress me as just a bigger mandolin. Actually, it seems more guitar-like but it does not have the string tension of my big old Gibson J-185. I am sure that this is a well traveled road. Your experiences?

[kurth83]

To me they are pretty similar, nut height is slightly higher than a mando, and bridge height is determined by string buzz like always, so nothing unusual about an OM that I know of. String tension is whatever you want it to be. The MDO305 really is just a big mando to me, because it uses the same kind of bridge and tailpiece. If it had a guitar-like bridge on it like a GBOM, then it would take (more) work like a guitar does to adjust the bridge.

For that reason I prefer OM's to tenor guitars, because they are easier to work on for setups.

Enjoy your MDO. :-)

[Peter Barnett]

Thanks, I was sort of leaning that way but I got to overthinking things.

[John Kelly]

With an instrument straight from the box, it can generally have adjustments done at the nut to get a lower string height at the first fret. Fresh from the factory they tend to leave the nut a bit higher so that the new owner can have it set up to personal requirements. similarly, the bridge can be adjusted to check intonation and string height.