"weak" e string

[ChrisWallace]

Hi everyone,

I've recently bought an electric mando (four string) and I'm running into a problem where my E string is not giving me the same volume as the other strings.

To start, I had a .010 guage string on there and since I was running into that issue I thought that if I put a heavier guage on there I might get more volume. So, I tried to string it with a .014 and I'm still having the same problem.

Have any of you guys come across this problem before and, if so, how did you remedy the situation?

Do you think I need to have the pick-up adjusted? I'm pretty new to the world of Emandos so any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

P.S. Will using a .014 guage string for the E string damage the instrument at all. In other words can you put on a string that's just too much for the instrument to handle?

[Geoff B]

I've had similar issues with electrics in the past with the pick-up being too far away from the skinny strings to balance the volume. I'd try moving the treble portion of the pick-up up a little and see if that fixes it.

[MandoBen]

If you get the pickup close to the e string and it still doesn't balance out, just lower the other side of the pickup away from the bass strings until all the strings are even, then crank up the volume as needed

[mandroid]

my favorite: shift it all down a 5th

Eliminate the E, and adopt C G D A string set up

actually just add the the C , .05"-ish then other 3 ,shifted over one , ex: 50, 30, 20, 11,
[ala Johnny Gimble]... or thereabouts.
some bridge intonation may get tweaked , to suit.

your .014 would be fine at an A pitch, allow some bendy notes too.

jazzin a 14,26,40,49, [14"~scale]on my em150/A50 at present.

[John Flynn]

I had that problem with my Mandobird, big time. For me, changing strings did not help, neither did adjusting the pickup distance. I finally upgraded the pickup with a Bartolini half p-bass pickup and re-wired the 'bird with 500K pots and .022 cap. That did the trick.

[thistle3585]

Read this thread. Weak E String