Well guys, how are those JM's doing now ? I had to adjust the neck relief on mine to get the action back right the way I like it. Weird thing is over the course of the last six months I had to lower the saddle all the way down on the bridge, so..... I don't have anymore adjustments there. I e-mailed Dave Harvey and expained what was going on, he has not gotten back with me yet. Have any of the rest of you had something similar happen ? Other than this, nothing wrong with mine. It sounds awesome and since adjusting the relief in the neck, plays as smooth as silk. I really enjoy owning this mandolin.
Couldn't be happier with mine! Played with a lot of people & traded mandolins with them, and mine has always been clearly a notch above. It just has a full, deep sound. And very loud--projects well. Had my favorite luthier work it over about a year ago, haven't felt the need to have anything adjusted since. Seems pretty stable.
The action on mine is super low, .050 on the Gs, .040 on the Es, but no buzzing since I adjusated the neck relief myself. Mr. Harvey did email me back and said he would like to talk over the phone about it. I haven't yet and probably wont not unless something gets wrong. I do know that when I got it it had a rather high action on it. I lowered it quite a bit as soon as I got it. Actually since adjusting the neck relief { which by the way did not cause any loss of volume or tone }, I would have to crank it up quite a bit on the bridge to get it back like it was when I first got it, so I'm thinking that when I got it, it was just over 1 month old, and I believe it has taken this long to stabilize. I also played it outdoors last summer at festivals, fiddlers conventions quite a bit, and wide changes in heat and humidity has a lot to do with that, but that also helps age one faster I've always believed. When I sent Mr. Harvey my email I explained everything that was going on with it, but that was before I tried to adjust the neck relief myself. Really I would send it off to Nashville as a last resort, but I don't think I'll have to. I talked to a luthier friend of mine about it, and I was kinda worried about adjusting the relief myself, but contrary to what some on here say, the nut on the neck rod can be turned quite a bit with no problems not unless something is wrong with the rod itself according to what he told me, as he put it "its what the rod is in there for" so I trusted his judgement. Also watched a video of the Taylor factory, and there was a guy on there adjusting the neck relief on a new guitar, and he was cranking on it quite a bit. So I took it upon myself to do so. I'm not saying that anybody else should do this themselves, but I've always been the type of guy that likes to fix things myself if possible. Another reason is it would be my luck if I sent it off to Nashville that it would get damaged in some big way, and that would be a bummer. Anyway thought I would post this on the JM group, in case others needed the info.
Hey, mine is fine except for a slight intonation problem on the A string. When I bought mine it had heaver gauge strings. I replaced then with Flattop’s and the A is wound and did not sit on the bridge notch correctly, slightly sharp…so I thought I would…Hurmmph, remedy the situation, so got out my file and promptly “Fixed” it. Needless to say I do not recommend “Fixing” the way I did. I may try to take it to Gruhn’s this spring and have it re-setup and if necessary a new bridge. Right now it is not a huge problem and I can work around it, but with Festival season coming I would not want to misrepresent my JM as any less than it is. Cheers, Brian #23.
