Official Luthiers Forum!

Assume for the moment, and OF COURSE this is a "hypothetical" moment,
that you have a mandolin you're building and you may have, by whatever
means, ended up with the frets not *exactly* perpendicular to the
centerline. Assume they're off by whatever angle you consider to be
minimally significant. Ignoring for the moment whether the nut is parallel
to the frets, is recovering from this a matter of setting the bridge at the
same slight angle relative to the centerline (or better, aligning it to the
angle required to get the intonation correct)?

Thank you for your thoughts on this <cough>hypothetical</cough>
situation.

Jay, I knew a guy once that did something similar (of course this isn't me, it's a guy I knew). It's a pretty straightforward fix. You'll need to measure very carefully from the first fret back to the place the nut should be. You'll be cutting the end of the fingerboard off at an angle similar to that of the frets. Then the bridge will just sit crooked as you stated. Now you've just made a fanned fret mando, sort of.

That's not a mistake, Jay... it's an ergonomically improved fret board design!!!

Long

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Jay, be sure to charge an extra $100 for the mando now!

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