Red Henry Maple Bridge

[Duaner]

Hi, I have an Eastman MD 805 and I have found it (to me) not as loud as I would like so I have tried various things to try to satisfy me. One of which is several years ago I purchased a Red Henry Maple (solid) Bridge which I never installed as it must be fitted ect. so I just forgot about it I guess then it suddenly appeared so I'm wondering if it is worth the effort in terms of sound improvement?

I did a search for this bridge on this forum with no results so maybe it does not exist as I bought it at least 12 years ago.

I'm curious, tks, Duane.

[MikeEdgerton]

Here's every thread with Red Henry in it. His bridges were discussed quite often years back, not much these days.

[Jon Hall]

Other Luther's are making bridges inspired Red Henry's.

[ajh]

You can go down a very long rabbit hole on this one.... and you will fatigue your ears even more quickly than you will fatigue your fingers (by restringing) with the unlimited number of possible variations. I spent a lot of time with this years ago. Is fun but very tedious.

[CWRoyds]

There is only so much you will change a mandolin with trading out parts.
In the end, that particular mandolin might not be loud enough for you.

I did find a slight volume increase when I changed an original bridge on a J Bovier F5 to a Cumberland bridge.
They make an excellent ebony bridge.

You might want to consider trading up to a different mandolin.

[Duaner]

So, I think what I'm reading is that the gain is probably not worth the effort? Really, the mandolin sounds real good but you know one is always "fiddlin" trying to get that satisfying sound I guess. Thanks to you all....

[cletusmarley]

My days of putting money into low end instruments for very little to no gains are over. I try to focus on my playing as much as possible to get all I can out of the instrument. Also, a really good setup goes a long way. Not just lowering your action.

[pops1]

Before all this craziness I was at a jam and tried out a Pava. It was real nice and when the I played my Brentrup the owner of the Pava said wow it is loud. When I played her Pava it was also quite loud. Her playing style was not the same as mine and therefore not as loud. Tho I don't seem to work hard, or look to play hard, I have a firm attack. Decades of playing into mic's I guess. Gives me more volume than someone with a less firm attack. Work on you technique instead of your bridge. A new bridge may, or may not, help your mandolin. Technique will always help.

[Wayne Minor]

In the early 2000s, I bought a Michael Kelly Dragonfly II that at least had solid spruce top and maple back and sides. It was pretty lively and had good tone when I tried it out from a friend who was selling it for his brother who never learned to play. I didn't have the money for a Gibson etc but paid 400 for the MK and put it right to work in jams. Around that time, I found the links here to Red Henry's maple bridge. I found it to be an simple task to build. The only tedious work was getting the top shaped for correct intonation. The increased projection was marked and tonally, it gave the inexpensive mandolin a boost. It's not a Gibson F5 but I've played F5 Gibsons that didn't impress me as much. For me, it was well worth the investment of a little time but I do have a pretty well equipped luthier shop. Still, it doesn't take much to build a bridge and to fit it to the mandolin.