July 16, 2005

Hi Folks,

I purchased a new Collings MF5 mandolin a few months ago at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville, TN. This beautifully-crafted instrument is LOUD, has excellent tone and projection, and its action and radiused fingerboard makes it very comfortable to play!

While searching for a new Collings mandolin that really "spoke to me", I played about five MF's and two MF5's. I chose, what sounded and looked to me, to be the "cream of the crop".

I noticed a common puzzling problem occuring on all of the new Collings mandolins that I tried: a difficulty in keeping the strings tuned to pitch after strumming.

I brought my Boss TU-12H electronic tuner to Gruhn's Guitar Store and tuned each mandolin string up to concert pitch.

After tuning each mandolin string up to pitch (I always tune up/tighten to the proper note and never over-shoot the note and then tune it back down so I don't create slack in the tuning gears) I noticed that, as I would strum each tuned mandolin, some strings would always go SHARP.

After playing a few songs I would, then, re-tuned all of the strings to proper pitch and strummed some more. Once again, some strings were always going SHARP (and not just by a little bit).

I was puzzled because, usually when you install new strings on an instrument, they sometimes go FLAT when strummed and, after a short break-in period, they stretch out and are pretty stable.

I visited the Frets.com website and Frank Ford mentioned that this sharping of strings could be caused by a binding of the string in the nut. As the pinched string is tuned up to proper pitch and then stroked with a pick, the built-up tension in the string residing between the nut and the peghead tuners is released, and the string goes sharp.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Collings ships their mandolins strung with D'Addario J-74 medium gauge strings. If, indeed, Frank Ford's diagnosis of the strings possibly binding in the nut was correct in my situation, I took some old D'Addario J-74 mandolin strings and ran them back and forth in the corresponding nut slots to use the windings of the uncoated strings as a sort of an abrasive "sander" to slightly enlarge the width of the slots.

This gentle "grinding" of the string slots with the proper gauge uncoated strings helped the tuning problem somewhat, but I STILL had the problem of some uncoated D'Addario strings constantly wanting to go SHARP after being strummed.

Out of curosity, I bought a set of medium Elixir mandolin strings the other day and installed them and, lo and behold, the sharping problem after strumming is GONE!

I guess the smooth GoreTex coating on the Elixirs prevents the wound strings from binding in the nut.

Have any Collings mandolin owners out there had this problem of the sharping of some strings after tuning properly and then strumming?

Has anyone encounted this sharping problem with their guitars?

God bless!
"louisiana"

I've been pulling my hair out over a Les Paul that constantly goes sharp (always the G and B strings). A local tech, who just happens to be one of the best in the country, installed a brand new nut and the problem is gone. His first comment was the same as Frank Ford's, and the same as I'd thought it might be -- that the strings are in fact getting caught up in the nut. I don't know what other realistic situation would be causing that.

Please let us know how it works out for you because somebody, at some point, is going to have the same problem and they might just search this forum for the answer.

I'd tried graphite and Nut Sauce and neither would help. The newer, better, harder (bone now instead of the original plastic-esque) ever-so-slightly wider-nothced nut was the answer.

just one reason I'm not a huge fan of
Daddario strings. I like the Elixer nano'
and the Martin SP's the best although the
Martin SP's seem have slightly larger
ball ends which can bind in some Collings
installations. The Elixers are hard to beat and
I understand they are coming out with a coated
phosphorous bronze soon.

I had tuning issues with J-74's on my mandolin. Personally I find them a bit harsh sounding as well.

On the mando I swear by Thomastik-Infeld (stark). They are certainly more expensive, but they last a lot longer. They are also not quite as loud as J-74's, but I think they have a much warmer sound.