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. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!