Greetings, we just started a new group and although I've played guitar for 40 years, the new song list includes a number of tunes that include banjo and/or mando. With our first gig approaching in two weeks (a winery), I decided to see if I could find an inexpensive electric mandolin. I found a Fender FM-52E is beautiful shape with a nice hard-shell case for $100). I got onto the mando tuning easily enough but thought the action was high.
Checking the setup, I noticed that the bridge base was significantly higher on the bass side (1/8" or so higher than the treble side). I see that mando bridges offered by StewMac and others do not have any "bass side compensation" so I decided to trim the bridge bass down a bit and see what happened. It plays much better now with no buzzing or rattling, but the bass side is still higher than the treble side. The neck is flat (no radius) but I can see that the bass strings still high. Should I rework the bridge base to eliminate the "compensation" all together? I'll still able to adjust the saddle height with the thumb wheels on the bridge. Thanks for your help and advice.
Robin
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