Hello all!
I have learned and gained so much from this forum, so as a way of saying thank you, I'm posting a picture and a bit of info about a ridiculous bridge I made recently. Hopefully some of you will get a kick out of it. I really can't wait to see what Mr. Perry comes up with for his new bridge design. It will be obvious to you that my bridge is at the opposite end of the quality spectrum from Mr. Perry's work.
There have been several interesting discussions on the topic of bridges in the past months, and I have been especially interested to read Dr. Cohen's comments about the short, squat, thick shape of mandolin bridges perhaps limiting them from displaying the twisting modes of motion you would normally find with a tall, thin violin bridge (please excuse this simplistic paraphrase). So I decided to try to build a mandolin bridge as much like a violin bridge as I could. I realized that I could get the same height/width ratio as a violin bridge if I split the mandolin bridge saddle in two. The shape is supposed to resemble two Joseph Curtin violin bridges next to each other (if the Curtin bridges were mauled by a bear). So here's my bridge:
And here's the Joseph Curtin bridge for reference:
The bridge is as thin as I dared to make it. The absolute miracle of it is the bridge doesn't sound half bad. It has roughly the same volume and sustain as my Cumberland Acoustics bridge, but it does make the trebles a bit more harsh (maybe just due to the lower mass), and it is not very balanced across the strings; the D course is particularly weak with this bridge. But if someone else with actual talent and experience in luthiery wanted to experiment with a similar design, I am surprised to say that I don't think it would be a complete waste of time.
I'm sorry I don't have the time or resources to post a recording of this bridge, but I would be very happy to mail it to anyone who can weigh it, record it, and post the results to the forum. Just PM me.
Thanks again to everyone, especially the moderators, for making such a fantastic forum. I'll finish by posting a picture of something you'll actually want to see: the truly incredible mandolin being made for me by the incomparable Steve Holst.
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