best new f-5 style bridge (arched)

[mike_c]

hi... where can i get a really top quality bridge to replace the cracked (arched fingerboard) bridge on my Monteleone mandolin?...

[Tobin]

I don't think you'll find much better than a Cumberland Acoustic bridge.

[Dale Ludewig]

Bill James at axinc.net makes a great one also. He also makes one with a curved base which I call a smiley. I've put those on several mandolins and really like them. NFI.

[Marc Berman]

Contact John Montelone? He's still making mandolins.

[bingoccc]

I don't think you'll find much better than a Cumberland Acoustic bridge.

Absolutely.

[Paul Hostetter]

Nothing against the others, but call the maker. Jeez.

[mike_c]

i did get a cumberland bridge and half of it was brown colored and very pourous looking ebony... nothing like the one on the mando now (it is cracking)

[Ivan Kelsall]

Slightly confused here Mike ( nothing new for me !). Is the bridge that is cracking the Cumberland Acoustic bridge ?. If it's not,then is there a problem with the CA bridge that you say you got ?. If there is,contact Steve at CA & being the guy he is,he'll get you sorted out,
Ivan

[Paul Hostetter]

i did get a cumberland bridge and half of it was brown colored and very pourous looking ebony... nothing like the one on the mando now (it is cracking)

Right. Contact John Monteleone, pronto. He's the right person to deal with this. He built the mandolin, he will make the best bridge for it.

[mike_c]

i called John Monteleone and he recommended Steve Smith (Cumberland Accoustics) for a bridge.... i called them and said i got one of their bridges and i didn't like the half brown color. they said they would be happy to hand select the wood (black and dense) and make me a bridge for Monte... pretty cool..... I'm a happy camper... Thanks to everyone for the good advise... mike

[Paul Hostetter]

Very well. Just make sure the new CA bridge is really fitted to the top under tension. You can't just put it on there—it needs to be fitted to get the best sound.

[Steevarino]

Mike called us this morning and we are making a new bridge for him right now. As many of you know, jet black ebony is getting hard to come by these days, but we continue to do the best we can in these changing times. No worries though, we have plenty of good black ebony stock to choose from. Some folks don't mind a bit of brown streak here and there. I do understand the desire of customers to have as dark-black ebony as possible, which is what we strive for.

Happy New Year everyone!

[darylcrisp]

state of Ebony wood in our current world-very interesting video of Bob Taylor

[Steevarino]

Yep. I was thinking of that video as I wrote my previous post.

[Steevarino]

Just to add some assurance, I just took this picture of an order that will be going out today. Nice black and dense ebony.

[darylcrisp]

Steve, been meaning to order up a bridge for my daughters Weber F. it came with the older style Brekke brigde with the side adjustment allens that raise the saddle. was doing a lookover and tuning her setup and noticed the bridge base is too high, it limits how much the action can be dropped, easily by 1/16" or maybe more. i want to get a lower height bridge. i plan to look over your website the next day or two and see what i need to order, then will call you up.

I'm fine with the striped ebony, kinda cool looking imo

thanks for a fine product
d

[Charles E.]

I had Steve make some bridges for me with some really dense Austrailan Blackwood I sent him a while back. I was very pleased with them. He might have a few more hanging around if you ask him for one.

[Paul Hostetter]

I care about the quality of the wood, not the color. If it's brown and you want it black, there's an easy solution, which is heavily employed in the industry:



A lot of players insist on ebony for bridges, and true ebony comes in lot of flavors, but it's basically got to be in the Diospyros genus to qualify as ebony.

Australian (Tasmanian, etc.) blackwood is an acacia, Acacia melanoxylon.

African blackwood is a ''true rosewood,'' Dalbergia melanoxylon.

Malaysian blackwood is a true ebony, though it looks like rosewood, Diospyros ebonasea.

I have a whole guitar made of Malaysian blackwood, and believe me, it's real ebony.

Anyway, I've had enough feedback over the years to know that most professional mandolin players, anyway, won't settle for anything but real ebony. Who am I to argue? But I'd never reject an ebony bridge for the color.

If you want to get real tweaky, compare African ebony (pretty rare now, but used to be the ebony in lutherie and piano keys) with SE Asian ebony, the standard today. Almost two different woods. One floats in water, the other sinks.

[ajh]

Paul,
To verify please...which one floats?
Thanks
Tony

[Charles E.]

Paul, thank you for your post on the different woods. The wood I sent to Steve at CA was African Blackwood. It is very dense, very musical and steve made some great bridges from it.

[ajh]

Ebony types (and float/sink along with Janka info):

http://www.wood-database.com/?s=ebony

[GRW3]

Sounds like the OP solved his problem but since the the question was about best new bridge available, let me opine. If, like me, the heavy sharpe shoulder of a Gibson style bridge cuts/pushes uncomfortably into palm pad under your thumb you might want an alternative. I had a couple of Eastmans and used a small file to break the corner. Some makers, like Pava, do that too. The best solution, IMHO, is the Brekke Traditional from Weber. The design really gives me room to play more comfortably.

[Charles E.]

Yea, those Brekke trad bridges are nice. You will never break one for sure.

[Ivan Kelsall]

For those not too informed about the variation in colour of Ebony,a Brown(ish) looking bridge might be mistaken for Rosewood & the bridge discarded in favour of a Black bridge. Indeed,i might have made that mistake myself when i removed the 'Brown looking' bridge from my first Lebeda mandolin & fitted a Black CA bridge. It did improve the tone to a degree,but that might have been down to the fitting - it took me 4 hours,but i got it 'right',
Ivan