Full contact bridges

[Scott Crabtree]

Any insight to which is a better bridge, full contact or your traditional style?

[mandroid]

If You are really curious Go for it ! try them both.

'Better' is so subjective.. and your ears are not something I, or anyone else, can run from a qwerty keyboard.

I have a Full contact bridge and a 2 foot on 2 different 20's 'A' mandolins , the whole instrument is different, and I attribute the sound difference to the totality and not just the bridge difference.

[300win]

The Gibson Sam Bush model mandolin has a full contact bridge. Seeing as how Sam is pretty dog-gone good, it might be something to it as fas as making a differance in tone and volume. I might try one myself one day on my F-5, as I have a brand new Cumberland bridge in my other mandolin case. But for now I'll use what I have on mine, which is the factory bridge, but it has a very small gap between the two feet of the base, pretty close to being full contact now, so I don't know if it would make any differance one way or the other. I also have a Cumberland installed on my A-9 that is very similar as far as the gap between the feet of the base. Both mandolins sound great, plenty of volume, and very good tone on each. The F has a darker sound than the A, but I also have Sam Bush Gibson strings on the F, and J-75's on the A so that probably has something to do with it also. The A has a brighter tone, more ringy, not as quick of a decay as the F. Mandolins are weird little beast, every one of them is differant. Lot of things to consider as far as tone, volume, etc.

[Scott Crabtree]

I have a cumberland as you descibed above, with the small gap between the two feet. I just wonder how the full contact bridge effects the tonality, etc...darker tone, tighter mids, I don't know?

[Big Joe]

Which is better depends upon the particular instrument. On some the gap seems to give better clarity and tone. On others, it seems the full contact works better. It has to do with several things. Top thickness seems to be a particularly important factor. Brace size also seems to matter. When all else fails, experiment and see what you think.

[Knucklehead]

What about gluing down the bridge base; is this recommended? If you were to go this route, what type of adhesive would you use?

[mandolirius]

What about gluing down the bridge base; is this recommended? If you were to go this route, what type of adhesive would you use?

I'm not a luthier (nor do I play one on TV) but I'm going to take a wild guess and say...NO, NO, NO....never!!

I'll let others who can do a better job of it explain why.

[8ch(pl)]

A floating bridge is virtually a necessity on a mandolin. The reason is to make it adjustable for intonation. This can be affected by many things:

String Guage, a change in the diameter of strings can affect the intonation.

Humidity, this can cause a need to adjust the height of the bridge, which can bear on the intonation.

Fret wear, this has an affect of changing the scale length slightly, needing an adjustment of the bridge to compensate.

The shorter scale of a mandolin makes small changes more pronounced than say, that of a flat top guitar, which normally has a pin bridge.

It is not a good idea to glue the bridge to the top.

[jim_n_virginia]

I've tried both and prefer the sound of the traditional bridge. Some people make the mistaken conclusion that if the entire bridge is in contact with the top you get more sound this is not neccessarily so. Look at a fiddle a very small amount of the bridge contacts the top just two little small feet and yet a tremendous amount of sound is projected.

It's like Joe says depends on the instrument. I have also heard of people using sound putty to bridge the gap between the feet of a traditional bridge.

Best thing to do is get both and try them out. But mark the spot where your bridge is because for me anyways it takes me a good while to figure out the exact sweet spot for my bridge for perfect intonation.

And NO do not glue your bridge down! It's a floating bridge and made that way.

[mandroid]

Knuckleheaded, ... A glued down bridge would Only be on like an Ovation/Applause Mandolin,
they look just like the flat top guitar's though,
not to be confused with any others.
An arch top guitar's bridges are not glued down either ..

neither are those on Violins, violas, cellos or Doghouse Basses..

[GTison]

Last year, I had Big Joe refret my '02 F5 Fern. I was concerned about a little indention in the top that I thought could turn into a crack over time. It was right at the inside bass side foot was. There was a little burr on the foot on the bottom that pressed in a little more, thus the indention. Joe suggested that the factory fix was to install a full contact bridge on it. They refit my bridge into a full contact one. At first it sounded a little different. But over time I can't really tell the difference. I think it settled back into it's old sound. So, overall, I don't think it made much difference. Anytime you change the bridge or move it, or take it off, or whatever, there will be a change. But It's difficult for me to tell any long term difference between these two. I think there was more change in sound between the old KM-1000 bridge top (saddle) I had on it before and the newer Cumberland Acoustics top that is on it now. Since the wood all stayed the same with the re-fit job. Maybe that's why the sound stayed more the same.