Thanks so much for the ebook. I just got my first mandolin, so I’m sure this will help me get it setup perfectly! Cheers!
Thanks so much for the ebook. I just got my first mandolin, so I’m sure this will help me get it setup perfectly! Cheers!
Just got my setup ebook. Very nice. Can’t wait to get started! Thanks to Rob!
Add me to the list of happy recipients of this guide. A lot of it is already familiar, having learned by trial and error and applying common sense for over half a century, but the help it will provide in figuring out how to improve the sound of my new old instruments (the F-4 and A-4) will be invaluable and much appreciated.
Grateful there are people in the world like Rob with such generosity of spirit.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. - Dennis Miller
Furthering Mandolin Consciousness
Finders Keepers, my duo with the astoundingly talented and versatile Patti Rothberg. Our EP is finally done, and available! PM me, while they last!
Thank you, Rob, for the guide. After reading I think I will try some adjusting.
Thanks,
sounds_good
I am new to mandolin but a long time guitar player. I saw Rob Meldrum's email in this posting; emailed him for a copy of the setup guide, and received it within a few hours. He asked me to bump the thread I saw his email on, so here goes! I enjoying the mandolin. I got a new Eastman MD315.
I'm also a long-time guitar player who received "The Inexpensive Mandolin" (Rogue RM-100A in Sunburst) as a gift this holiday season. I know it gets a relatively bad rap around here and wouldn't have been my first choice, but I'm not going to look a gift mandolin in the f-hole!
Straight out of the box, the top was intact (not sunken), the finish was clean, and everything appeared to "work" at a very basic level. However, the action was sky-high, the strings were rusty, the bridge was out of intonation by about a cm toward the neck, and only touched the top at two very small points under the feet (I could fit several sheets of paper underneath!). I knew how to intonate and adjust action (and even dress frets, which this little 'lin needed as well), but knew I needed to mate the bridge and had never done that before so I emailed Rob. As above, he generously sent the book shortly after.
Rob's book has great step-by-step instructions, pictures, and warnings about pitfalls (e.g. sanding the bridge from the outside in which can cause the feet edges to lift off the top when under the pressure of the strings), and was a perfect guide for me to mate the bridge with the mandolin. I also touched up and lubed the nut and saddle, and got my action set up pretty well. Finally, Rob's section on checking the tailpiece was something I never thought about, but after reading through and checking I found the cover was poorly mated with the piece and came off with minimal effort; I bent the sides to a good stiff press fit and now it holds tight with no buzz.
As Rob recommended, I recorded myself playing a little bit before and after setup, and it really made an incredible difference! The next day I put on a set of D'Addario medium round-wounds and now it plays easy and sounds beautiful.
I know many will still think I've put lipstick on a pig, but the little bit of elbow grease I put in with Rob's guidance has made this little Rogue special to me, and I'm looking forward to my time with this little "Piglet" as I start my mandolin journey.
Last edited by dsandman87; Dec-27-2021 at 2:35pm. Reason: readability
I just refound my mandolin after many years of it in my closet. I put on new strings and found that I wanted to know a lot more on the setup so after sending the email I got the ebook reply and I am quite happy to have the reference available now. I printed it out so I could highlight it easier. I know my action is too low so it is great to have the measurements. It's just an old Johnson MA-120-N but will suffice for me to learn on for now.
After emailing Rob this weekend, he sent me the e-book a few hours later. I can't wait to put my Kentucky 380s on the bench and take a crack at fixing some things that I have always wanted to correct but weren't severe enough to bring to a luthier. It will be baby steps at first, to be sure, but it's enormously helpful to have this as a guide. Thanks, Rob!
Thanks, Rob! What a great resource
I received my copy today. Wow! Awesome! It's very evident that there was a lot of effort put into the endeavor. A very big hearty thank you to Mr. Meldrum.
Great resource, am happy to have this. Thanks, Rob, for all the effort you put into this.
~ Willieee
Thanks Rob, I received your mandolin setup ebook yesterday and already I see it will be invaluable resource for my current repair project.
Looking forward the setup guide will doubtless become the basis for my ongoing setup activities for the remainder of my mandolins and bouzouki.
Many thanks
Thanks Rob--excited to have a copy of your setup guide to better understand how my instrument can best be cared for and maintained! It's a great resource!
Chuck Lee Chalk Mountain Custom
Epiphone AJ-500RNS
Eastman MD305
Gliga 4/4
rcvd ebook from Rob, thanks so much!
very helpful and informative.
Thanks AGAIN, Rob for still keeping this service up for us. When I got my first cheap K150 some years ago, your book helped me a great deal to turn it into a well set up instrument.
With Rob's terrific setup manual, I assembled all the recommended tools and started following the setup on my new used 70"s? vintage Hondo HMAN-30 mandolin. It sounds okay, but for some intonation tweaking needed on the low strings. No buzzing, but heights at 1st and 12th strings are higher than Rod's recommendations.
I started at the saddle, conservatively sanding the bottom, re-assembling to re-measure 12th fret height, then noticed more shallow indentations than strings, probably made by the strings' tension, and not all properly aligned with the nut grooves. The saddle is not partitioned like in Rob's pictures but is continuous across the top.
I prepared Rob's "nut saws" for the saddle from the appropriate-thickness feeler gauges.
Question 1: I've measured the string/groove positions and spacings at the nut - is it correct that these should be the same at the saddle, measuring from the center point of the nut and the center point of the saddle?
Question 2: Should the depth of the grooves in the saddle be as recommended for the nut - half-in, half-above? For all the strings to be at the same height from the 12th fret, the manual suggests starting conservatively at 0.059" for all the strings. Which would mean a deeper saddle groove for the thinner (higher note E and A) strings? Is this where the thumb screws come in for final adjustments - adjusting high and low sides differently to get the heights/gaps of the strings to be the same?
Thanks.
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