One piece mandolin bridge

[bluemtgrass]

Its time for a mando " tuneup " and I'd like to change the bridge to a 1 piece for various reasons. I've already modified mine with a little success but a one piece just seems like it would transmit the sound better than thru those stupid wheels. Yep, its mighty easy to adjust, but how often do you really use this feature ? I've changed plenty of strings and never used it once it was set up.
At almost 4 years my mando ought to be seasoned ( as far as shrinkage etc ) goes and a one piece makes sense to me. Is there any recent news or information that might make me recant this thinking ? I'm thinking one piece maple or koa wood.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Stephen Perry]

No risk in making and trying a few. Maple, Koa, ebony, maple w/ ebony top. Maple w/bone top.

[jk245]

Can I assume that once you cut the notches, and base, for the stings to the height for your desired action you will not have any need for minor height adjustments for any reason? Also, what happens if you make your initial cut too low? Build the height up from the bottom with a wood shim? What if one side is lower than the other side?

[Mike Black]

I have a solid maple bridge and I wanted to raise it up a little. The way I made adjustments to mine was by adding a small piece of bone to the top.

I love my solid maple bridge. After making it, I had band members ask where the amp that I was pluged into at.

Great information can be found at Maple Bridges (http://www.murphymethod.com/redbridge.html)

This is mine.

[bluemtgrass]

Well, I always err on the high side when installing a nut. Its easy to take off a bit, much harder to add it. Kinda like the carpenter that keeps cutting the board and its still too short. I'm not that a discriminating player that minor adjustments would be necessary. For a bridge however, I would probably use a luthier.
As I said earlier, out of 100 ordinary players, not pros, how many actually adjust the bridge when installing new strings ? Assuming of course, they were quite satisfied with the setting before the string change. I do change string thickness occasionally. Thats why I put things a bit high so the thinner strings dont buzz.

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[Stephen Perry]

The bridges are easy. Make enough stock to cut several, gives the throw-away aspect of them room! I rough cut thickness with the bandsaw, then use a safety planer for coming pretty close, then plane and scrape. Then I've got planks. If I want a different top, just glue a strip along the edge before thicknessing or whenever seems reasonable. Cut out with a narrow blade in the bandsaw, clean up with files and knife. Pretty fast.

[Rick Lindstrom]

Check out Red's maple bridge site for all you ever wanted to know about one piece bridges-

http://www.murphymethod.com/redbridge.html

I built a couple of these bridges for a low end mando that I have, and the improvement was significant.

Rick

[bluemtgrass]

Mighty fine bridge you have there Mike. Seems Red had an influence on you but you put a twist or two of your own. Did you narrow the feet a bit like some are doing ? I did but w/out a decibel meter and a constant pressure pick, the results are subjective. I happen to like it. The nicest complement came from a ban** player that said I was too loud. Proverbial pot calling the kettle black..

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Red Henry]

>The nicest complement came from a ban** player that said I was too loud.

Good!


Red.

[jamface]

Has anyone any experience of using these kinds of bridge on a bowlback mandolin?

[Bill Snyder]

There are already two posts above with links to Red Henry's one piece bridges so I will not add another, but I will add a link to Steve Tourtellotte's (http://www.mandolinbridge.com/bridges.htm) website and his violin style mandolin bridge.

[Hammrn]

Have cobbled up hard a maple bridge similar to the photos on a very inexpensive mando, and cannot belive the sound I'm getting! Give it a try! You can also get some neat nut material, Corian, which is very dense yet easy to work. Countertop material. Samples are free from your nearby Home Depot, or Lowes, and worth pursuing. I must admit the cheap Mando I bought had the tail piece 3/16 out of alignment with the neck, but that's an easy fix. With these three changes this mando is the best sounding of many that I have played!

[Bob Wiegers]

I'm another satisified customer of Red's maple bridge. I've got one on my TC Octave and it made a huge difference. Red made a small mistake on my order but fixed it right away no problem.

[Jim Garber]

Has anyone any experience of using these kinds of bridge on a bowlback mandolin?
Most bowlbacks have relatively low neck angles. You could, of course try a maple bridge with a bone top. My best one has an ebony compensated one with a bone top by the maker.

[emitfo]

I went to the Maple Bridge site and I am curious if those same effects in regards to smaller feet would apply to a flat-top mandolin (such as, say, a Gypsy Renegade...) because all the bridges in photos were for carved tops as far as I could tell.

I'm considering a single piece bridge because I just got Ted Eschliman's JM110B's (and I LOVE them! And, as noted in other threads, Ted is a great guy!) and I'll be taking Renee into the Dr. to get her first set-up so since we'll be doing that it seems this would be a good time.

(I did a search for "1" and "piece" and "bridge" but after a cursory perusal I did not see any threads that specifically addressed what I am asking. I apologize if my impatience and lack of thoroughness has been addressed before. Also, any suggestions about how to narrow the results of my searches would be appreciated---I seem to get too many or zero.)

[Bertram Henze]

I went to the Maple Bridge site and I am curious if those same effects in regards to smaller feet would apply to a flat-top mandolin (such as, say, a Gypsy Renegade...) because all the bridges in photos were for carved tops as far as I could tell.
I went through an interesting experiment with my flat top OM: it originally came with a standard solid one-piece ebony bridge touching the top over its whole length. Only the action was a bit low, so I put an aluminium shim underneath matching the whole length. Nothing unusual so far.

Later, I read about Red's experiments with smaller feet. I cut the shim in 3rds and discarded the middle part, thus standing the bridge on two feet of 1/3 bridge length each.

And the instrument just went BOOOM - volume problems in loud sessions are history now.

I can only guess the reasons - my theory is that vibration modes of the bridge now fit vibration modes of the top better than before. The principle is not new - it worked for violin family instruments for centuries; but trying it on mandolins is a bold new approach, I wonder why it took so long.

Thanks again to Red for publishing this idea!

Bertram