bridge question

[billkilpatrick]

the distinctive bridge on a fiddle has 4 holes - 2 on top, side by side and 2 on the bottom, left and right. it also has "dingles" - fingers of wood which are cut at the bottom, separating them the rest of the bridge. i assume this configuration evolved for a reason.

could anyone please tell me why this is so and why the same principle isn't used on mandolins?

thank you.

[JEStanek]

Bill See Joe Campanella's 4 string piccolo mandolin bridge in Post 24 of this thread or look below. Brian Dean has done some similar looking stuff, IIRC. I think this isn't done too often because there isn't that much free space for all that architecture between the strings and the top plate.

This really is a mandolin and not a violin.


Jamie

[roscoestring]

I've never thought of it before, but other than the ornateness of it would that affect the tone/reso/sustain?

[EdHanrahan]

This really is a mandolin and not a violin.

Hmmm... The tailpiece w/ fine tuners sure looks like violin, but the bridge is way flatter than most violin fingerboards (and, obviously, flatter than the tailpiece).

Would this be a fiddle-to-mandolin conversion, a la Jake Wildwood?

[Jim Garber]

I think that Red Henry explored much of this. Like other violin design it evolved over a number of years with experimentation with sound etc.

For instance here is a repro baroque bridge:



Mandolins are different from violins in terms of tone production. Similar discussions about the use of sound posts on mandolins...

[Dfyngravity]

Hmmm... The tailpiece w/ fine tuners sure looks like violin, but the bridge is way flatter than most violin fingerboards (and, obviously, flatter than the tailpiece).

Would this be a fiddle-to-mandolin conversion, a la Jake Wildwood?

No, he built this from scratch. Click on the link JAStanek provided and you can read all about it.