johnwalser
Jul-01-2004, 8:21am
On Tuesday I visited a bluegrass player and brought along my mandolin for him to play. He was kind enough to offer his absolutely beautiful instrument for me to try also. It sounded raspy, twangy and had NO sustain! His first comment about my instrument was that the strings sounded dull (month old Thomastik-Infelds at their sound peak). I told him about buying a scroll saw this year and designing, making, rejecting numerous one piece ebony bridge designs until I accidently came up with the vaulted (sustain crazy) bridge I am now using. I’m sure he could not have cared less about the amount of sustain I am getting. It just doesn’t fit into the type of music he plays.
Then it hit me. We are both playing mandolin, but set up and played to sound as different as a classical violin and a red hot fiddle. His sound requirements are simply different for bluegrass than what I need for the jazz/pop things that I play. Now, I could “fix” his instrument with different strings, bridge, tailpiece and set up. But....it ain’t broke, it fills his musical requirements quite well.
I think we should all learn as much about set up, experiment with different bridges, tailpieces and strings until we get the sound that fits our own musical needs.
John
Then it hit me. We are both playing mandolin, but set up and played to sound as different as a classical violin and a red hot fiddle. His sound requirements are simply different for bluegrass than what I need for the jazz/pop things that I play. Now, I could “fix” his instrument with different strings, bridge, tailpiece and set up. But....it ain’t broke, it fills his musical requirements quite well.
I think we should all learn as much about set up, experiment with different bridges, tailpieces and strings until we get the sound that fits our own musical needs.
John