Br1ck - Posted - 11/13/2020:  13:53:53

I built an F style mandolin two years ago and it exceeded my expectations. It taught me a lot of lessons, first of witch, $5K for a handmade F style is a steel. Recently the mandolin developed a hump at the body joint. Frank Ford told me this is not unusual in a newer mandolin, so the correction was a fret level and crown, which got me a long way toward ideal action. I had a problem with the e strings not having a richness the other strings had. It was driving me nuts. I finally used some magnification and thought maybe my bridge slots weren't quite right. Turns out one of the strings did not break cleanly over the bridge. I mean two strokes with a file cleaned things up. I can now play cleanly, or as cleanly as my ability will take me, clear up to the 14th fret.

A couple of days later, I decided to check my intonation. It was ever so slightly sharp. So little I could very well have left it, but I decided to try to move the bridge. I just barely was able to do that. I'd estimate less than a 64th. I heard it rather than saw it move.
The chords played up the neck changed dramatically in clarity. Astoundingly so. Has there ever been an instrument that was so picky about perfection?

Robert - Posted - 11/21/2020:  15:36:14

Instruments respond to intermittent attention to their setup. Especially fiddles, banjos and mandolins. Things settle as they age. This happens even more so with banjos and fiddles, but it happens to all instruments. So tweaks are required periodically to coax the maximum from them. It's like keeping things on an even keel with your spousal unit but much easier. Guitars and basses also need this but less often and usually as a result of playing wear over time. This has been my humble experience in the few decades I have pursued a relationship with stringed instruments.