Having had issues all my fiddling life with bending, leaning and collapsing violin bridges, and never having such problems with my mandolin family instrument bridges, I wonder why violin bridges aren't more robust? Things I've considered:
1. Mandolins have a lot more tension with heavier strings and twice the strings of a violin. They need a stouter bridge.
2. Violins have infinite sustain (just keep the bow moving). Mandolins have much less sustain. Does a violin bridge design contribute to more or less sustain than a mando bridge?
3. The violin's strings are much higher off the soundboard than the mando's. Consequently there is a greater moment arm and greater bending moment (mechanical engineering terms but I think the meaning is obvious) for the violin bridge.
4. The violin bridge is further weakened by the intricate cutouts traditionally used - standard two-piece mando bridge doesn't employ this.
5. Hardanger Fiddles are even further weakened by the cutout for the under strings. The understrings add aditional bending force to the bridge.
Bottom line - has anyone developed a stronger violin bridge, along the same lines as a standard mando bridge? This would work great for Hardanger understrings as there is ample room for them.
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