One peice bridge on KM900..

[Joey Anchors]

I have a one peice ebony bridge from Siminoff and thinking about having it fitted on my KM900 to replace the stock bridge that needs a good fitting anyway.

How do one peice bridges perform generally speaking compared to two peice?

[9lbShellhamer]

Posting to follow...I'm curious how it would affect tone as well.

[Joey Anchors]

I'll be taking it in to have the bridge fitting in the next month or so. The stock bridge wasn't fitted well (or at all) and looks to be low quality dyed ebony.

[Joey Anchors]

128983

Here is the bridge sitting on the KM900 (aka Pearl)

[mandroid]

Bridge base fitting can be part of a thorough set up.

[Clement Barrera-Ng]

It'll be an interesting undertaking, and let us know how it turns out. Just a quick note though: that looks to be a replica one piece bridge based on the old Gibson design which they used on all of the old oval mandolins from the teens to early 20s. Based on my limited experience, when I swapped out the one piece bridge with the 'modern' two piece one on old Gibsons, I tend to see an increase in bass response and a 'fuller' tone (a very subjective measurement for sure) would emerge If you go the other way, I wonder if you *may* see a decrease in bass response as a result. I'm only speaking from anecdotal experience, and will wait for more knowledgeable folks to chime in.

[Joey Anchors]

It'll be an interesting undertaking, and let us know how it turns out. Just a quick note though: that looks to be a replica one piece bridge based on the old Gibson design which they used on all of the old oval mandolins from the teens to early 20s. Based on my limited experience, when I swapped out the one piece bridge with the 'modern' two piece one on old Gibsons, I tend to see an increase in bass response and a 'fuller' tone (a very subjective measurement for sure) would emerge If you go the other way, I wonder if you *may* see a decrease in bass response as a result. I'm only speaking from anecdotal experience, and will wait for more knowledgeable folks to chime in.

That is interesting about the lose in bass response with these types of bridges. I wonder why they have that fact.. Is it due to the shorter length of these types of bridge?

[Joey Anchors]

128989

I was thinking of having the luthier do this to the Siminoff bridge

[mandobassman]

It'll be an interesting undertaking, and let us know how it turns out. Just a quick note though: that looks to be a replica one piece bridge based on the old Gibson design which they used on all of the old oval mandolins from the teens to early 20s. Based on my limited experience, when I swapped out the one piece bridge with the 'modern' two piece one on old Gibsons, I tend to see an increase in bass response and a 'fuller' tone (a very subjective measurement for sure) would emerge If you go the other way, I wonder if you *may* see a decrease in bass response as a result. I'm only speaking from anecdotal experience, and will wait for more knowledgeable folks to chime in.

That may have been the case with that mandolin, but I don't think that is typical. I had a one piece maple bridge on a previous mandolin and it improved the response and volume of that mandolin a great deal. It was not a very good mandolin, but there was a noticeable improvement to the sound with the one piece bridge. There wasn't any loss of bass response.

[mandobassman]

128989

I was thinking of having the luthier do this to the Siminoff bridge

Not sure that's such a great idea. In lots of reading through Red Henry's bridge web page, he went through literally hundreds of bridges using different shapes, sizes, and many with and without holes. The ones with holes were designed with very specific placement of those holes for different responses. Just randomly placing holes without any knowledge of what the result might be could ruin a otherwise excellent bridge. I used one of the Siminoff bridges that you bought on a Harmony Monterrey and it sounded wonderful. Before you put any holes in it, you might just want to try it as is. It might sound great without any modifications.

[mtucker]

The two piece bridge with adjustable wheel design came after the one piece bridge as a refinement…just curious why you'd want to go backward rather than forward? ...pony up for a nice Cumberland bridge...

[Joey Anchors]

The two piece bridge with adjustable wheel design came after the one piece bridge as a refinement…just curious why you'd want to go backward rather than forward? ...pony up for a nice Cumberland bridge...


Already have the one piece bridge and I don't like adjusters. In my upright bass career days I toured all over the country with a non-adjustable bridge as it gave me the best possible tone.

[LongBlackVeil]

The two piece bridge with adjustable wheel design came after the one piece bridge as a refinement…just curious why you'd want to go backward rather than forward? ...pony up for a nice Cumberland bridge...

This kind of thinking doesn't work when it comes to musical instruments imo. First of, the real "refinement" of the loar bridge is simply that it's adjustable. Well you really only need to get it in a comfortable spot and then forget it, how many times do you need to adjust it?

And what do you have to say about the people who prefer the old 12 fret gibson ovals to the modern long necked, raised fretboard collings or weber ovals? Just like this example, the newer innovation isn't really a refinement or better, just different. They each have their pros and cons.

I say go ahead with it, I'm all for the spirit of experimentation, that's how we learn things and how many of these "refinements" came to be. I will say, if your going to be experimenting with bridges, you should learn to fit them yourself. It's really not as difficult as it seems, plenty of info here if you search for it. Have fun!

[mandobassman]

The two piece bridge with adjustable wheel design came after the one piece bridge as a refinement…just curious why you'd want to go backward rather than forward? ...pony up for a nice Cumberland bridge...

The two piece bridge was developed for convenience, not an improvement in tone. There are plenty of sound arguments for the use of both types, but I wouldn't say the adjustable bridge is always better. There are plenty of mandolins out there that sound awesome using one piece bridges. The two mandolins that I had that used a one piece bridge both showed a noticeable improvement in both tone and volume.

[Mark Christensen]

I'd try the one piece and see how it sounds, I've seen a few Monteleone's with a one piece bridge and nobody complained. I'd also like to comment on the Collings ovals. I see it quoted on the forum often that they're long necked and joined at the 15th fret which isn't the case. All Collings ovals are joined at the 13th fret and have a short neck that's closer to the old Gibsons than a long necked hybrid. They do have a raised fretboard and are also x-braced.