New Bridge?

[Roger Moss]

I have been watching you all talking about how much a Cumberland bridge has improved your sound. My question is - is it really enough of a difference from the stock ebony bridge on my Eastman 305 to justify the $75? Opinions please.

[B381]

Depends on your perception. The longer I play, the more I can hear different sounds. The other day I heard overtones and sympothetic ringing on my mando and had never heard it before. The more our ear becomes trained the more we can tell if the "difference" is worth the investment.

[Jim Garber]

My guess is that it might it will make your Eastman sound about $75 better. I would take that $75 and put it in your upgrade account.

[Caleb]

I had an Eastman 505 that already sounded good. With the CA bridge is sounded better, and the full-contact just looked cool. I ended up selling it off anyway.

[Roger Moss]

My guess is that it might it will make your Eastman sound about $75 better. I would take that $75 and put it in your upgrade account.

Thanks, I see where you're coming from, but as far as moving to a completely different mandolin, not gonna happen. This one is it for me. Besides, I've spent so much upgrading it already, anything I could recoup would be a significant loss. No, I really like this one. I just was wondering how much I could do to it to goose it's quality to the max. I'm not a toneguard kind of guy, but an arm rest is also in it's future. If it's not worth the expense to upgrade the bridge, there's a hardshell case I could spring for, even though the bag it came in is very nice. So that's an expanded description of where I am. Any thoughts?

[Br1ck]

IMHO a toneguard would be a better tone upgrade than a bridge, but having spent money on a bridge, you will think it sounds better.

[George R. Lane]

Get a luthier who knows how to work on mandolins and have them do a professional setup. That will get you the best bang for the buck.

[Gary Leonard]

I had a 315, and ended up making the existing bridge full contact instead of upgrading. Who knows if it made it better, but I learned a bit in the process. Shortly after that, the 315 was traded in as 250$ off a Weber Bitterroot. Several months down the road, in an attempt to "upgrade" the Bitterroot at Mandolin Symposium 2015, I had Lynn Dudenbostel install a new bridge on it, which was a hybrid of a CA base, and his own carved top. It made the Bitterroot easier to drive, but it very well could have been the setup. Within 6 months, I swapped back to the Weber bridge to see if there was any difference, and came to decide it wasn't a problem with the equipment, it was a problem with the person driving it. This didn't stop me from putting Lynn's bridge back on it the next string change. I figured it fit better with how I played the mandolin, that is timidly and quietly, usually at night.

This was all within a year and a half of the start of my mandolin journey (in fact, start of my musical journey). I am not sure where you are at in your journey, but perhaps you can look inward and try and define what is missing. This can perhaps help you make a better informed choice. If the mandolin hasn't had a really good setup, I would use the money in that way instead of replacing the bridge.

[Bill Findley]

Definitely enriched the sound of my The Loar 400 and Ky 1500. Worth the money.

[mr ken]

Its a long story . YES

[Jim Garber]

Thanks, I see where you're coming from, but as far as moving to a completely different mandolin, not gonna happen. This one is it for me. Besides, I've spent so much upgrading it already, anything I could recoup would be a significant loss. No, I really like this one. I just was wondering how much I could do to it to goose it's quality to the max. I'm not a toneguard kind of guy, but an arm rest is also in it's future. If it's not worth the expense to upgrade the bridge, there's a hardshell case I could spring for, even though the bag it came in is very nice. So that's an expanded description of where I am. Any thoughts?

Well, in that case, spend the $75 and see what happens. I do agree with others here that unless you bought your Eastman from a reputable dealer who included a proper setup you owe your mandolin that. Of course, if you buy a new bridge then someone will have to install it anyway. According to the specs on the Eastman site, you already have an adjustable ebony bridge. I assume that the CA bridge is the same specs probably more refined in craftsmanship. Of course you will never recoup your investment but this is not a business, it is a means of enjoying playing music.

BTW I never think of the investment that I put into a mandolin as a loss if I sell it. That is beside the point. As you noted, you are trying to improve the instrument and you are improving (or attempting) to improve your enjoyment.

[Folkmusician.com]

I stopped doing CA bridge upgrades. If fit well, it will make an improvement. Not night and day, but noticeable. The problem is the labor involved to do an exceptional fit. If you are fitting it yourself, it is a good value. If you are paying someone, "it depends". A poorly fit CA bridge is not an improvement.

If you like working on your mandolin, I would say yes. do it.

[Caleb]

I stopped doing CA bridge upgrades. If fit well, it will make an improvement. Not night and day, but noticeable. The problem is the labor involved to do an exceptional fit. If you are fitting it yourself, it is a good value. If you are paying someone, "it depends". A poorly fit CA bridge is not an improvement.

If you like working on your mandolin, I would say yes. do it.

The man who installed mine quoted me $40 when I took in the mandolin and he evaluated the job. He stuck with that price, but when I picked up the mandolin he told me he should have charged me twice that because he spent almost all day fitting it properly.

[Roger Moss]

The man who installed mine quoted me $40 when I took in the mandolin and he evaluated the job. He stuck with that price, but when I picked up the mandolin he told me he should have charged me twice that because he spent almost all day fitting it properly.

The local luthier quoted me twice that right off the bat. He seemed to really know what he was doing. I would wonder about whoever did yours if he might not have known in advance what kind of effort was involved in doing the job right.

[Caleb]

The local luthier quoted me twice that right off the bat. He seemed to really know what he was doing. I would wonder about whoever did yours if he might not have known in advance what kind of effort was involved in doing the job right.

Not sure but I do know this fellow is a legit tech. I think he just underestimated the task. In the end he did a fantastic job though. I ending up offering him more money but he wouldn’t take it and stuck by his quote. One of the reasons I use him: integrity.

[Eric Platt]

I think the stock Eastman bridge is nice. Haven't had any problems with it on my OM. And I do think the CA is a nice bridge. Have one that's been on a couple of different mandolins.

Am more in the camp that a good setup is a better way to spend that money. Or set it aside. Not for an upgrade, but for the eventual fret job the mandolin will need.

[Folkmusician.com]

The man who installed mine quoted me $40 when I took in the mandolin and he evaluated the job. He stuck with that price, but when I picked up the mandolin he told me he should have charged me twice that because he spent almost all day fitting it properly.

I know that feeling! I was charging $100, then $120 (in addition to the blank), and I was still not able to justify it. Granted I was going a little overboard with the fitting and tuning, but still, it takes a LONG time to get a great fit with a blank. A setup along with the fret work and then fitting a bridge blank really did eat up the good portion of a day.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Hi Roger - With regard to your question about your bridge. It really depends whether you think that there 'might' be an improvement,& how much you're willing to pay to find out. The only way to find out would be to buy one & try it - do CA offer a refund if the bridge isn't suitable ?.

As for 'trying things out' in the hope of improvements,i've tinkered around with my banjo more than i care to remember. I must have made over a dozen bridges from many different materials. I've tried various skin tensions / thicknesses - string brands / gauges etc. However,i always came back to where i began - with Geoff Stelling's choice of skin / bridge & brand of strings.

It really does depend on your own thoughts regarding trying a new bridge out. One thing that i can say,is that with a CA bridge, your mandolin will sound as good as it can do - but it might be doing that already !. I've often had similar thoughts regarding putting a CA bridge onto my current Lebeda mandolin. I put one on my first Lebeda & the 'sound' (tone / volume),did improve,but my current one sounds good 'to me' already - so should i or shouldn't i - it's up to me, & i've decided to let the notion pass (until next time maybe !),
Ivan

[HoGo]

Sometimes those bridges on chinese mandolins are OK, but sometimes not so much.

I had recently newish KM-900 for setup and check leaning bridge. The fit of the bridge was nice but was quite perpendicular to arch and the bridge had bad tendency to lean forward. I removed the bridge to find that the holes in saddle were slightly oversized, the posts were not screwed into base but basically hammered into holes slightly smaller than OD of posts which caused loose wobbling of both posts and cracks at both holes propagating towards center of bridge. The thumbwheels fitted also very loosely on the posts allowing for the bad leaning and also the soft brass alloy of threads deformed under tension and pulled out a ridge around the hole in the wheels. One side of saddle was cracked and chipped underneath (probably during drilling of the hole).
On first glance it looked like OK bridge that just needed a bit of fitting to prevent leaning but it turned into 2 hour job of gluing the cracks, recutting the threads for posts, filing the wheels flat, reducing diameter of the saddle holes and finally refit the base with slight back tilt.
And during the work I found out that the bridge was made of some dense hard brown hardwod dyed black, not genuine ebony.

[David Lewis]

My epiphone mm50 E has a terrible bridge. I replaced it with the brand that has the strip of metal on the bottom. Improved the sound and the intonation and hence playability immensely

[EdHanrahan]

.... the brand that has the strip of metal on the bottom.

I can hear all the head scratching from here! Care to elaborate?

[pops1]

I think he means the traditional Brekke bridge, it has brass inlayed into the saddle underneath for added strength.

[OlDanTucker]

Best Way to Spend $75 on a mandolin, most to least effective.
1) Professional Setup
2) Lessons
3) Blue Chip Pick and an Arm Rest
4) Tone Guard
5) Put $75 per month in Upgrade Account. In a couple of years buy something better.
6) Then Maybe Cumberland Acoustic Bridge

By all means tinker with it. Imagine how much time and expense you would have it the mandolin was a Harley, or a boat.

[Ivan Kelsall]

The 'Trad.' Brekke bridge has the metal posts integrated with a brass bar inset into the bridge saddle.
Ivan

[Stephen Perry]

If you have a good ear and can follow obscure directions, one of my posts goes through an earlier version of mandovoodoo. Works well. Refit the bridge, get the setup straight, and acoustically massage it. Good mandolin, really sound and play nicely then.