Changed strings, ONE string's intonation is off: huh? help!

[mjbee]

Hi folks,

I've been slowly changing over to Thomastick-Infelds on most of my mandolins (find them to sound great, and the lower tension makes for a "softer" touch which I find easieer to play). This week, I put TI "mittels" on my '24 snakehead, and the lowest G string is WAY sharp! I'm stymied. It looks like each string sits in nut and bridge slots properly, the bridge is in the place it started out, with each string intoning perfectly at 12th fret octave, but the lowest G is sharp at every fret. It intoned spot on with the D'addarios I had on before.

Before I start experimenting with recutting slots, has anyone else had this experience? What happened?

[Bob Clark]

I think it is likely that you have a defective string. It happens, more so with some manufacturers than others but still, it happens. I would contact the vendor you bought the strings from. They should replace it for you.

If you want to confirm it, you could swap your two G strings and see if the bad string intonates poorly in the other position, too. I would expect it to.

[mjbee]

Well, -- that worked! Didn't know that a bad string was possible, but it makes sense that that could happen with an imperfectly wound string. This was a first for me. Thanks Bob!

[JeffD]

Double check that the string is seated in the slots at either end. I had a similar experience that was driving me crazy, and it turned out that a hard crumb or cinder or a micro pebble or something had lodged beneath the string in the nut slot, so it was ever so slightly higher than the rest.