Fixed bridge v floating bridge

[dulcillini]

As I look at mandolins and mandolas from arount the world, I notice that a number of builders in the UK use a fixed bridge on their mandolin family instruments.

What is the goal here. One builder said it enhanced sustain. How is the bracing changed ?

Thanks to all for your opinions and thoughts.

[Fretbear]

You left out the word flat-topped. I had to have the saddle slot on the bridge on my old flat-top guitar filled and re-routed to adjust the intonation after years of string tension slowly bellying the top. While this is a bit less likely to happen on a mandolin or mandola, it is likely to be just as expensive. Any advantages in tone or volume have to be weighed against the inability to adjust the bridge position for intonation.

[8ch(pl)]

I think the fixed bridge is a guitar innovation brought to mandolin by someone who reasoned that it works on a flat top guitar, so it will be suitable for aflat top #mandolin.

It puts an upward twisting strain on the top, rather than the downward pressure found on a mandolin with a tailpiece. #I have a prejudice against them for 2 reasons:

1. #The mandolin's top is a lot smaller than than a guitar's top, therefore it vibrates differently.
2. #I think that the 8 strings of a mandolin have more tension than the 6 strings of a guitar that are tuned to a lower pitch.

I saw 3 or 4 Ovation mandolins in a store with this type of bridge, all of them showing signs in the finish of the back end of the bridge beginning to lift. #The store sent them all back.

I know there are folks out there willing to endorse mandolins with this type of bridge and I say good for you, enjoy the instrument for many years to come. #I will not buy one.

[Tim2723]

I played an Ovation MM-68 for ten years with no problems, but mine has spend the last three years in storage and now has a severly lifted bridge. While I might consider buying another one some day, I would be more concerned about it now than I used to be.

[Michael Wolf]

It´s not the same, but I had a Bouzouki with fixed bridge. In fact the tone was more guitar like. It had much sustain and overtones, much bass and maybe it was more mellow sounding than a floating bridge instrument. They are x-braced in most cases. It seems to be the case that most builders who make these instruments are guitar builders and they like guitar sound.
I think a well made instrument will not have these bridge problems.
I prefered the sound from floating bridges after a few years.

[first string]

I wonder what a pin (or fixed if you prefer) bridge would sound like on an arch top. It would take some designing I'm sure, but it might be an intriguing experiment. Anyone ever heard of such a thing, or care to hypothesize what it would sound like...

[billkilpatrick]

i have a crafter m-70 acoustic/electric mandolin with a fixed bridge and it was alright until i started playing further up the neck and found that the notes began to sound flat. i could tune the instrument with a chromatic tuner but the corresponding notes on the 7th fret didn't match up.

it's easy to position a floating bridge so that the distance between the nut and the octave fret is equal to the distance from the octave fret to the bridge. the fixed bridge on the crafter was just a little bit out - maddeningly so. on a youtube video today i heard an ovation with what sounded like the same problem: flat notes - especially in the upper reaches - they sounded terrible.

[Tim2723]

Well, my experince with the Ovation was that its sound was sort of hybrid. It had quite a bit of guitar in its character, yet it was unmistakably a mandolin. I had no trouble with intonation, but I could see how it could happen with only a tiny lack of QC. My guess is that a guitar-type bridge would require extreme precision on a mandolin.