Martin Flattop Compensated Bridge

[afunguy1]

I recently acquired a nice 1926 Martin A style flat top mandolin with the bent top. It came without a bridge. Does anyone know where I can purchase a compensated flattop bridge for this mandolin? Thank you.:)

[gregjones]

Elderly sells this:

http://elderly.com/accessories/items/MA4.htm

It might work as a blank to start with.


You might contact Thomas Flood. He builds bent top mandos and might make you one.

[afunguy1]

Thanks for the info Greg. I actually purchased the one from Elderly and am currently going through the process of fitting it to the madolin but it takes forever and it is not a compensated bridge. I will contact Flood and see what he can do for me. Thanks again!

John

[mandroid]

To do it right, send the instrument, also, to have it, the bridge piece, fitted to the mandolin.

shops with a good repair department can cut the offsets, checking with a bench tuner,
till it's spot-on .

If they are closer, send the bridge blank and the mandolin to Elderly.

Thereafter, stick with that same string or of same gage . probably med light sets, .010 - .036 ...

[Bob DeVellis]

The original bridge wasn't compensated, I'm quite sure. Slightly angling it may be enough. Perfect intonation is pretty elusive on any fretted instrument and just having the treble end of the bridge a bit closer to the end of the fingerboard may get you close enough. Having the action height pretty low (so the strings stretch less when fretted) may be a bigger factor in intonation than than the absence of individual string offsets at the bridge.

This is just my personal opinion, of course. If you ears are sharper than mine (which is a distinct possibility), it may be worth the trouble to compensate. My only recommendation would be trying it out without compensation as an easy place to start. Then, you can decide if that's close enough for you.