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I've been doing this for years.* What works best for me is a Shubb capo that I trim to cover either 4 or 5 courses or 3 or 4 courses. My favorite combo is to capo the at the 5th fret and leave the...

Hi Cary:

The set you are using is designed for that scale length. Here are the string tensions with it tuned to standard pitch:

193090

And the same set tuned down a whole set, you see you...

I am teaching a free webinar on the Basics of Modal Harmony for Irish Traditional music today from 1:00-3:00pm CST (7:00pm GMT). Zoom link on my Facebook page 30 mins prior.

No reason why you can't use a GBOM and make it work for Irish traditional music. Since you are using that term, do you plan to keep it in GDAE and play melodies on it? In that case I would say "forge...

I would stick with GDAD - It's way more versatile. But tuning those .040s up to A2 is probably going to be OK. That set is pretty light and since the .011s are super light (they use .011s because...

Agree with this, and when you need to shift up you can finger similarly as you can reach.

Pete is first rate! I have had numerous pickups made by him as well as a fully custom Vox Phantom style electric bouzouki that is amazing. AAA+++

It's completely dependent on scale length. At 26" you will have a hard time using mandolin/violin fingering. Are you in bouzouki tuning? Irish GDAD Greek CFAD

My Herb Taylor has 47mm spacing at the bridge (44mm fretboard width at 12th fret, same as Graham's).

Yes, Andrew explained it better than I did! :)

I used the following with good results on a 60s Harmony and a Blueridge BR40T (but they are pretty solidly built factory guitars - YMMV):

E4 .013" PL == 21.82#
A3 .020" PB == 21.04#
D3 ...

IIRC the Gotoh 12 string courses are spaced at 10mm, but the coursed on my Mandobird VIII were 12.5mm (I increased that to 13mm since there was room on the bridgeplate and neck to go 1.5mm wider...

Won't the string spacing be wonky if you just use the center four saddles on that bridge plate? I recently used Gotoh 12 string saddles to convert my Mandobird VIII's bridge and had to move the...

It's baritone. I have one and for the price it's a great little instrument.

Just wanted to add that the bridge upgrade GREATLY improved the tone and sustain as each pair of strings sits on a double saddle that rests on the bridge baseplate. The stock bridge had a pot metal...

Update:

String ferrules installed on the back and instrument strung up with D'Addario .010pl .015pl .024nw .036nw. Bridge works very well. Wider 42mm string spacing from stock 40mm (necessitated...

So, update on what I've come up with for the MandoBird VIII:

I got a Gotoh 12 string bridge and pulled 4 of the double saddles. Drilled four 1/8" holes in the back of the stock Epi bridge for the...

Thanks, Andrew! This Mandobird has the one piece saddle with screws at each end for length and set screws for height. I prefer having individually adjustable saddles if I can get them.

FYI: the Rickenbacker configuration for octave pairs is based on using flatwounds, not roundwounds, so the higher pitched string is a bit brighter comparatively.

I'm looking for a replacement bridge for an Epiphone MandoBird VIII. Since Moongazer is out of business and Andrew Jerman no longer has any drop-in replacements, I am looking to see what might be...

Who made your GBOM? Is it an archtop or flattop?

Your current gauges are running these approximate tensions:

E4 329.63 Hz 20.5" 0.0130"ø PL 0.00003744 lb/in 17.70 lb
E4 329.63...

Original key for this tune is E major and the first phrase is a little different: 187734 (Also, it's composed by Dave Richardson of The Boys of the Lough.)

Adding my 2 cents here: it's helpful in a comparative since, especially when playing a wide range of these on an equally-tempered Western instrument (or the approximation of that on our fretted...

Makes me happy that the only corporate instruments I own (and I own quite a few instruments) are Fender and Godin.

What sblock said above... Fender did not protect its copyrights to the Telecaster and Stratocaster designs and so lost the right to do so. Rickenbacker, on the other hand, has done their due...