Saddle Material

[ab4usa]

I'm having a mandolin made and wondered what effect a bone (or other material) saddle would have on the overall sound. ANy ideas on this or other saddle materials?

[Ken]

As a real rough guideline, the harder the material the brighter the sound. The determining factor tho will be what sounds best on the mandolin. I've used ebony, ebony w/bone inserts on the bass side, rosewood, maple, bone, and on one mandola, aluminum. The mandola didn't have good individual string definition and sounded muddy, the aluminum really helped, but I later put bone on because the aluminum was just too metallic sounding (duh!) At any rate, I think if you let the builder know what kind of sound you are looking for they should be able to make some recommedations based on their knowldege of their mandolins. Otherwise start with the standard ebony saddle and adjust from it later if needed to get the sound you want. The other issue will be the bridge base, adjustable or solid. I've got some mandolins that sound just great with the standard adjustable bridge and others that didn't, but which responded really nice to a solid bridge.
Have fun, it's never ending.
Ken.

[smilnJackB]

Good question! I've only had wood bridge saddles on my mandolins, but a couple weeks ago on a guitar, I changed from a plastic saddle to a bone saddle. The change made improved the sound considerably - I'd say from a C grade to a B. Jack

[mandroid]

Lower mass is a factor too , Inertia, ya know. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

(addendum) past post about a maple one piece with lightening holes drilled into the underside, have said so much.
http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Luthier Vandross]

Without jumping into a huge blurb of physics, the harder the material, the more pick attack you'll have to mask with technique.

I like ebony on a mandolin, and a round piece of shell to pick with.

M

[Martin Jonas]

Many old Neapolitan bowlbacks (including mine) have a brass or bronze saddle insert, plus a nut/zero fret of the same material. This is great for producing that bright airy bowlback tone, but as Luthier Vandross said, you got to have a loose pick grip to manage the sharp attack that comes with such a hard saddle.

Martin