From: harrisonhaus@bellsouth.net   
      
   Hey Y'all, I enjoy allot of this Newsgroup, 'cept the off topic   
   junk that always seems to creep in to any serious endeavor...   
       I've got some problems with a Hondo Mandolin that I bought   
   in Wilmington about 6-8 months ago.And I want to find out some   
   of the finer points of setting-up a string'd instrument. Specifically   
   the mandolin I have has some vibrations and distortions that are   
   irritating. I want to take the strings off and stone the frets with   
   a good flat stone to get the frets even and level. But I'm not   
   sure if I have to do anything special, like maybe bluing the   
   frets, and I'm worried about possibly stoning a twist into the   
   fret surfaces.   
                       Anyway, I've played guitar some since I was a   
   boy, but never with the fineness of my Dad. I always wanted   
   to play well, but until recently let much of my life hinder my   
   commitment to do so. But I've found that have someone to   
   practice with, and to talk about music, as you both learn has   
   made it a lot easier. And not wanting to sound stupid has   
   always kept me from asking the questions that would help me   
   understand music in a way that I could get a handle on...   
   At pert' near fifty, I figured ifn I don't start soon, I'll run out'a   
   time. Anyway, I've learned a lot about how music is structured   
   notewise, scale patterns on the guitar & mandolin, as well as   
   beginning to be able to understand what I'm looking at on   
   sheet music (besides being introduced to TABs), all in about   
   the last nine months. Which was about that long ago that my   
   appreciation of Alison Krauss & Union Station's "So Long,   
   So Wrong" albumn had kindled a desire to learn the Banjo   
   again ( I have a 5 string Orpheum)....which carried over into   
   my wanting to play the Mandolin....eventually playing (learning)   
   the guitar, banjo, and mandolin simultaneously proved toooo   
   much for my feeble mind. I realized that I REALLY like the   
   Mandolin best, and am now concentrating on it. Which brings   
   me to more recent stuff.   
                           I knew that the mandolin I'd bought was a   
   fair starter instrument. Though I'd noticed some discrepancies,   
   like ...the tuned strings got off key, down past the 12-13th   
   frets...after my friend Danny Lewis and I debated it for   
   while, having never read it anywhere, we surmised that we needed   
   to move the bridge to get the in-tune open-strings to be   
   in-tune at the 21st fretting.... which I began doing/re-doing/doing...   
   only to find that the first and fourth course of strings length's   
   needed to be different...so I had to slant the bridge to get   
   1st and 4th courses to be both tuned at the fretted and open   
   notes. Only problem is... I have some vibrations... mostly   
   I think from unlevel frets discording/muting.... but after reading   
   what one feller had to say (maybe on this Nws'group) about   
   setting-up a banjo, an' having to work over the neck's top   
   bridge as well as the Head's bridge... I was thinking that   
   some of the vibrations might be coming from the way I'd   
   slanted the Mandolin's bridge (which admittedly I've never seen   
   done that'away on any pictures of the Mandolin).....   
   Also, because of the apparent unlevelness to some of the   
   frets, I had to raise the Bridge up fairly high to keep some   
   of the notes from buzzing/discording, which, of course makes it   
   more difficult to play.   
   Still, I wasn't too unhappy, an' getting my fingers all callused   
   up... When a friend at work, Don Stanley, (son of one of the   
   Stanley Brothers, as I recall) mentions to me & Danny that   
   he had a mandolin just collecting dust, bought for his grandson   
   which never took an interest in it. Before I know it, Danny ask   
   him ifn he wants to sell it...Yess....An electric Fender w/amp.   
   Well I got to play it once...at lunch, checkin' it out.... told   
   Danny, I'll take it ifn you don't! ....no such blessing... But   
   Danny didn't get to keep it either, his Mom who's learning   
   to play Mandolin also, played it and wouldn't give it back,   
   even offered to trade her $800 F-style Mandolin for it. She   
   still has it! It sure did play real nice, like night and day   
   compared to mine...alas....But the bottom line is I don't   
   have the money to buy a real nice Mandolin, but the one   
   that I have is basically sound, I think it just needs some   
   tweaking.... which brings me full circle.   
               Who can tell me the best method(s) for prepping   
   my Mandolin, so I can make it sound better, and be easier   
   to play.   
                   Bestus Regards, Bro. Lee.   
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
   The first step to being Healed,   
   Is to know the Healer.   
   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)