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Re: Vintage Mandola Insights
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ben Milne
Is that the correct link, Ben? That looks like a non-original bridge.
Re: Vintage Mandola Insights
Link is correct. Although the bridge isn't the original, the D course appears to be plain strings. Anybody know if this was the norm early on, and was changed mid-teens?
Re: Vintage Mandola Insights
I'm not sure what the question is, or if there is a question at all, but there are a few things that make mandola bridges more variable than mandolin bridges. Mandolins have two common scale lengths with 13 7/8" being the most common. Most mandolin string sets have 4 unwound and 4 wound strings. When that changes, as with some string sets, the "standard" bridge compensation is out the window and a custom bridge is needed.
Mandolas are made with many different scale lengths and many different string sets, so coming up with a standard for compensating the bridge is not easy.
For both mandolins and mandolas, I think of the bridge as a blank that needs to be "tuned" for the individual instrument. I've only built a few mandolas, each has a 17" scale, and though I started with Cumberland Acoustic mandola bridges on a couple of them (rather than starting from scratch), I adjusted the compensation to get each string in tune. I do the same thing with mandolin bridges, adjusting each string for best intonation.
It is different at factories where standardization exists and large numbers of instruments are produced, but sometimes factories "punt" on low production items, and Gibson surely made more mandolins than mandolas, so it is no particular surprise that compensation of the bridges on early ones may have been given little consideration.
How far up the neck do mandola players in mandolin orchestras play? Gibson was producing instruments for mandolin orchestras, for the most part, so that was the market, and if mandola parts were almost all first position (I'm speculating, I don't know what mandola parts for mandolin orchestra are like), perhaps not much compensation was needed.
Re: Vintage Mandola Insights
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jim Garber
Is that the correct link, Ben? That looks like a non-original bridge.
Based on the pix, that is definitely not the original bridge.