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Mandolin Magazine, Volume 1, Number 2, Fall 1999
PO Box 13537, Salem, OR 97309 Phone: 503
364-2100 E-mail:
Mandomag@teleport.com
The Bridge - Parts I & II: Can We Do Better? By Ken Cartwright,
Luthier
To
the part about our Bridge
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Most of us take the bridge on our mandolins for granted as a device
that holds the strings up so that the mandolin can be played.
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But, what is the role of the bridge in sound transfer? Do we
want to change the sound and tone of the instrument? Does the bridge
affect the loudness and "in tuneness" or intonation? Can it improve
the tone of the instrument if the bridge is changed? What research and
improvements already have been done to better the bridge? What works
and why? What doesn't? |
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Until several years ago, I - like many others - didn't think
about the bridge much beyond adjusting the height of strings and
making sure it was in the right place so that the mandolin played in
tune. Through the last 43 years of repair, I have seen a lot of
variations of bridges on a variety of instruments; however, I was too
busy doing general repairs to experiment with bridge design changes
that would improve the sound. But, that all changed in 1994 when a
special mandolin came in for repair and set up. |
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Before I tell you about that, let's look briefly at the evolution of
mandolin bridges. Prior to 1900, mandolins were mostly round-backed,
European imports with low-profile bridges that sat on flat surfaces
and had little or no arching. There was little variation in design and
since the bridges were not adjustable, if one was too low, either a
new one was made to fit the height or shims were added to bring it up
to the needed height. If the action needed to be lowered, the bridge
was taken off and material was removed from the bottom of the bridge. |
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These Neapolitan instruments were somewhat difficult to hold and
play and the spacing of the frets made it difficult for many to
finger. As the world of music expanded, musicians needed more volume
and wanted better tone. |
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A young man from Kalamazoo, Michigan, had been re-designing the
mandolin with these changes in mind. Orville Gibson built flat-backed
instruments. He increased the angle of the neck in relationship to the
body. This greatly improved the volume and tone over its European
cousin. The top of the mandolin changed from a mostly flat top to a
curved top, and the new surface and height requirements meant a new
bridge design. |
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Orville Gibson's mandolins and guitars became very popular and a
company was formed to produce these new, improved instruments for the
world. |
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In the early 1900s when the Gibson musical instrument company was
producing mandolins and guitars from its Kalamazoo facility, the
bridges for mandolins were wood only and hand fitted to the shape and
contour of the top of the instrument. These one-piece bridges were of
solid ebony, sometimes rosewood, with the correction for intonation
carved into the top of the bridge by hand until 1905. |
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At that time, Gibson began experimenting with adding slots to the top
of the bridge and inserting saddle pieces to correct intonation and
improve string wear. This bridge design was used on all Gibson
mandolins and L-Series guitars until the early 1920s. Today, the tone
of those Gibson Mandolins is referred to as dark and rich. The bracing
on those instruments was simple horizontal bracing, being more of a
design for support than tone. |
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As mandolins gained in popularity, Gibson found that hand fitting and
manufacturing this bridge was very labor intensive and that there also
was a need to adjust the bridge height quickly for player preference
and also changes in humidity and settling of the instruments. |
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Thus the adjustable bridge was born. The adjustable design has
been attributed to Lloyd Loar, a Gibson design engineer. Bracing, neck
angle and top graduation also was being re-thought in order to give
the mandolin more power and a new voice as the instrument soared in
popularity and prominence in American music. |
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Other changes were also in store as people experimented with
inner tone chamber devices such as the Virzi tone producer (more about
this in another article), different wood choices, new finishes, scale
lengths, nut materials and body size and shapes. |
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Through the years, much experimentation has been done with bridges and
materials. We have seen one-piece bridges with wood only, wood with
bone as well as solid, one-piece ivory bridges and many variations of
the adjustable bridge. |
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Not much was done to improve bridge design from the mid-1920s
until the early 1970s when mandolins began to enjoy a comeback in
popularity and production. A young luthier in New York City by the
name of John Monteleone was commissioned by Mandolin Brothers to build
less than two dozen exact copies of a specific F-5 Gibson Lloyd Loar
that had come to them for repair and restoration. |
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One of these mandolins was brought to my shop several years ago by the
original owner who had purchased it new in 1976 from Mandolin
Brothers. He wanted fret work, cleaning and setup. |
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As I was examining the instrument and going through the setup, the
owner informed me that there was a "special bridge" in the case that
had been on the instrument when he bought it. The bridge on the
instrument was a typical adjustable bridge that he had installed later
because he couldn't use the "special bridge" as it was not the right
height - the strings rattled, etc. |
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Upon examination of the setup of the mandolin, an exact copy of
a Loar F-5 which the label inside the instrument verified - "an exact
copy" - I noted that the truss rod was extremely loose and therefore
the neck had too much bow and that the adjustable bridge had to be
cranked up very high to clear the frets at the 15th through 19th
frets. The owner explained that he had never adjusted the truss rod.
He just thought it had the wrong bridge on it. The instrument was
loud, but hard to play with the adjustable bridge - but it was better
than with the "special bridge," which was too low and rattled. |
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What happened when I put the "special bridge" on the mandolin? Read
this column in the next issue of Mandolin Magazine - The "Special
Bridge" and an Amazing Discovery in Tone. |
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Part II
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We've had a lot of interest in the Mando Mag's first-part article
(Summer 1999) on the "special bridge," so let's pick up where I left
off. |
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As I was saying, I put the "special bridge" on the Loar copy,
checked the action, found it a little low, cut several .010 ebony
shims, shimmed up the bridge .020 and tuned it to pitch. |
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Before I tell you about the sound, let me tell you about the bridge. |
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As you can see in Photos #1 and #2, the bridge is made from one piece
of ebony. The entire footprint of the bridge fits the top exactly. The
compensation for intonation is carefully carved at the correct angle
and sculpted into the top of the bridge. |
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Now, the sound. With the standard adjustable bridge, the sound was
loud, bright and moderately rich in the low mid-range. With the
"special bridge, the sound was loud, clear, not so bright, very rich
bass, extended richness in the low and upper midrange with greatly
improved sustain. |
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The chords were huge and woody. The obligatory four-fingered bluegrass
"G" chord was full, rich and clear. Solo notes were warm, loud and
clear. The F-5 became a very different instrument with the change from
the adjustable to the non-adjustable bridge. |
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After a day of playing this mandolin in my shop, changing
bridges every half hour and changing three sets of D'Addario
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J-75 strings, I was convinced that this was the Holy Grail of mandolin
improvement. |
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The next day, I called the maker of the mandolin and bridge,
John Monteleone in Islip, New York, explaining to him that I had his
number seven Loar copy on my bench and that I had removed the owner's
adjustable bridge and re-fitted his stock "special bridge." |
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John was curious about my interest in the bridge and what I thought.
He also inquired about the number seven instrument and its condition
and asked my thoughts about its aging. |
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This mandolin was his child laying there and he wanted to know all
about it; and, I wanted to know all about this great bridge. John was
very kind and explained in great detail that this bridge was an
evolution of trial and error for him. He thought that, not only was it
important to enriching the sound and loading the top differently, but
it was an artistic expression of sight and sound. |
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I explained the more than subtle changes in tone, volume and sustain
going to the one-piece bridge. We talked about how odd it was that
people spend hundreds of man-hours building fine mandolins while
little has been done to improve the weakest links, bridges and
tailpieces. I explained why the bridge had been taken off and replaced
with an adjustable bridge. |
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John agreed that if the instrument was severely affected by
temperature, humidity or player preference changes, that adjusting the
bridge could be tricky, but that once adjusted, could radically change
the sound and make it worthwhile to do whatever maintenance was
necessary to keep the bridge on the mandolin. He also encouraged me to
make some of these bridges and put them on as many mandolins as
possible in order to see for myself the difference. |
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At the time, I owned and played a newer Kentucky KM1500 and
thought that the sound was okay, but a little bright. This became the
next test of the Monteleone bridge design. |
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First I must tell you that in my excitement of talking with John, I
forgot to ask him for the compensation angle. I went about making a
similar bridge as the one he had made and, though the sound change was
immediate and greatly improved, the intonation was off. So, I made two
more before I got it right. |
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In total, for that Kentucky, I made six bridges, experimenting
with mass, angles, complete and partial footprints. I also changed the
spacing of the strings relative to the fingerboard and the strings for
my style of playing. That Kentucky never sounded so good. I began
showing this mandolin around and changing from the stock adjustable to
the "Monteleone" and everyone was just amazed. |
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To date, I have probably built and setup 45 mandolins with this bridge
and every one of them was greatly improved. I make extra form-fitted
shims for the bridges in case someone needs to raise their action,
but, to date, no one has |
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Modern-day instruments are much more stable than the pre-1950s
instruments and will stay pretty much where they are set. |
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(Our Bridge)
Several
years ago, Weber Mandolin Company in Belgrade, Montana, began shipping
its instruments with a new bridge design called by its designer's
name, a Brekke. |
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As you can see in Photo #3, with the adjustment wrench installed
for photo illustration only, the bridge is very similar to the Monteleone in that it is 100 percent wood-to-wood contact, has a 92
percent footprint, but is easily adjustable by anyone at any time,
without taking the strings or bridge off the instrument. |
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As
with the Monteleone, the Brekke must be fitted to the instrument
before it works well. In Photo #4, I have taken the Brekke bridge
apart to show the components. |
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The
only metal parts are the two one-eighth-inch by five-sixteenth-inch
hex-head screws that screw in or out to increase or decrease the cam
fulcrum action to push wood against wood. |
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This bridge is the best commercial improvement in bridge design
since the Loar adjustable. John Monteleone was on the right track and
truly a pioneer in bridge advancement. |
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The Brekke does not have the artistic lines of John's, nor does
it enhance the sound or intonation quite as well, but it is a major
improvement in user friendly bridge design. |
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The last photo, (#5), shows the evolution of the mandolin bridge
from the bottom to top. The bottom one is from a round-back mandolin;
second from the bottom is from a cheaper, older flat-top; third from
bottom is from a 1919 A-4 Gibson; fourth from the bottom is from a
1928 F-5; fifth from the bottom is from a 1994 reproduction of a 1976 Monteleone F-5 and the top is a Brekke. |
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Sound and tone are very subjective and personal. If you have an $800
or better mandolin and you want to change and/or improve the sound to
a fuller, richer, not as bright tone, you now have several solutions
under $200. |
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When you think about how sound travels and what materials do to change
the sound as it travels through them, think about this: |
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On an adjustable, standard Loar-style bridge, the sound travels
from the strings to the top of the bridge to the two metal posts and
thumb screws to a wooden base to the top. |
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On the Brekke or Monteleone, the sound travels from the strings
to the bridge to the top. No middle man. No conversion of tone - just
wood. |
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Next time: Tailpieces: How Can We Improve Them? x |
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Ken
Cartwright, owner of Cartwright's Music Repair in Stayton, Oregon,
began repairing violins and guitars in Pennsylvania at the age of ten
in his grandfather's fiddle shop. |
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He
completed an indentured-servitude apprenticeship in instrument repair
and setup from 1969 to 1971 in Los Angeles and an internship with
Guillermo Combreras in Michoacan, Mexico. |
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From 1973 to the present he has worked full-time in stringed
instrument repair, restoration and also training luthiers in Oregon's
only luthier-apprenticeship program. Cartwright's Music recently moved
from Salem to Stayton, and was formerly Natural Sound, Salem and Coos
Bay. |
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Ken
Cartwright is president of the Salem Area Bluegrass Association and
producer of the Annual All-Oregon July 4th Bluegrass Festival and
Contest. He plays guitar, mandolin, fiddle, standup bass and other
stringed instruments. |
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