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Important! About buying a maple bridge
Welcome to the Maple Bridge Development Page!
Maple mandolin bridges - Information and links
These new one-piece maple mandolin bridges feature several advantages over the traditional two-piece bridges.
These advantages usually include more volume; a wider harmonic range with deeper, more resonant bass and clearer,
bell-like highs; increased sustain; easier and more stable tuning; and an increased tendency for the mandolin
to play in tune with itself.
These advantages result from the violin-bridge-like functioning of a well-designed maple bridge.
A maple bridge can resonate and process the sound much more than the conventional designs,
and the two fairly short bridge feet then apply the vibrations to the top with the efficiency of a violin
bridge. All in all, a good one-piece maple bridge can bring more tone, volume, clarity, and sustain
from most mandolins.
So far I've made and sold about 600 bridges, for many different mandolin-family instruments (mandolin, mandola, mandocello,
banjo-mandolin, and octave mandolin or bouzouki). But at first, and also in ongoing experiments,
I have also made over 100 experimental bridges, of about 40 different
designs and over 30 different woods. The maple bridges which I sell are the result of what I have learned.
Recommended maple bridge designs and a "make your own" link follow the Table of Contents, below.
Some recent bridge research projects:
Seven bridges of unusual woods
Ten more bridges of different woods
Shorter bridge feet, set wider apart, yield more sound!
18 bridges of different woods
An experiment with "Crescent" bridges
What Gibson left undone in their ebony bridges
Red's recently-completed mandocello conversion
Click here for an
overview of early maple bridge development: Bridges #1 through #15
Scroll down for the Table of Contents.
First, here are writeups and photos from many other successful maple bridgemakers. Together, they represent a wealth
of experience in making mandolin bridges!
Here's a great report from Al Smith on his maple bridges
Here are new bridges Brett King has made from maple and bamboo
Here's a good-looking and good-sounding bridge by Rick Lindstrom
Excellent results on octave mandola and *resonator guitar* bridges by Mike Clement!
Curt Roseman's very successful bridges on his mandolins and mandola
A series of creative bridge experiments by Robert Schuweiler
A maple bridge made by John Patterson for his flat-top octave mandola
Andy Barnhart's maple bridge for his Rogue mandolin
Experiments by Hank Lawton: bridges for flat-top mandolins
Two new bridges made by Peter Holmes-Ray
Kris Kalanges' new bridge for his Epiphone mandolin
Bill Dailey's maple bridges for mandolin and mandocello
Stuart Larson's very successful maple bridge for his import
"The Wave" bridge by Teri LaMarco
Here's Bob Peelstrom's report
and photos of his exotic bloodwood bridge.
A bridge report and photo from
David Childers
Information and a bridge photo from professional
mandolin builder Peter Coombe.
A writeup and photos of
Steve Tourtellotte's maple bridge, **now commercially available!**
A good-looking bridge made by
Matt O'Brien.
A bridge completed by
Mikel Black.
A report and
description of Mike Conner's maple bridge,
along with construction hints.
Tony Bolin's report and comments
on his own bridge.
A report and photo of Cameron's bridge.
Keith Newell's maple and ebony bridge
writeup and photos.
A link to Alan Dunwell's own maple bridge page,
with photos and description of his bridge development.
Here's Dennis Elliott's report on the mandocello
he made from an old Kay archtop guitar. Several photos included.
Table of Contents
1. Recommended maple bridge designs and woods
2. Making your own maple bridge
3. The Bridge for The Mandolin, Randy Wood #1
4. Eight bridges: an experiment with seven kinds of maple, plus walnut
5. Mandola bridges
6. Mandocello bridges
Click here for an
overview of early maple bridge development: Bridges #1 through #15
1. Recommended maple bridge designs and woods
These maple bridges work quite well in a variety of styles. Here are four designs,
developed after making and trying out well over 100 experimental bridges.
These bridges are all shown before fitting and compensation.
a. The 11-hole bridge
Comments: This design, my favorite for sound, offers exceptional volume along with excellent richness,
yielding a pleasing bass/treble balance along with remarkable
clarity and sustain. This design is highly recommended as a first choice for bridges 3/4" inches high or
more, and it sounds good in a
wide variety of woods.
(My currently-available regular-height bridges, and some low-profile bridges, are of this type.)
b. The 6-hole bridge
Comments: Developed after a long series of experiments, this design can
yield not only volume but also clear highs, resonant lows,
and excellent sustain, with a very satisfying "fullness" of sound. For oval-hole instruments, there seems to be little
difference between the 6-hole and 11-hole designs.
This design can also be used where there
is insufficient vertical space for an 11-hole pattern. (Some low-profile and all super-low-profile
bridges are of this type.)
c. The winged bridge:
Comments: This design was my standard for two years. The typical sound features very good volume, a resonant low end,
very good sustain, good clarity in the high end, and excellent projection. Overall volume may not be
quite as good as with some 6-hole and 11-hole bridges, but these winged bridges have an advantage over the 6-hole type
in richness.
d. The "crescent" bridge
Comments: Developed at the suggestion of David McLaughlin, this bridge offers a different aesthetic
along with a sound between that of the winged and 6-hole bridges.
This design delivers a very satisfying, full-bodied sound from the mandolin, but the 11-hole design
above will usually deliver
a bit more overall response.
Recommended maple and other woods to use:
The 11-hole design will work well in many different maples and in a variety of cuts. Several other
woods seem to sound good also. After making and fitting a great many bridges, these seem to work the best:
For f-hole mandolins (For example, Gibson F-5s, F-12s, postwar f-hole A-models, and most domestic or imported
F-5 and A-5 copies with solid tops):
European maple seems best.
For oval-hole mandolins (For example, prewar Gibson A models and F-2s and F-4s): Hard American maple seems best.
American maple also is recommended for bridges on f-hole instruments which already have a bassy sound, and also for
laminated instruments of all types.
The bridges will work fine with slab-cut wood, but try to obtain quarter-sawn wood if you can. The quarter-sawn maple seems
to add richness and low end in any bridge design.
Additional woods to try:
After trying a great many kinds of wood, I have obtained satisfactory results not only from maple but also
from satinwood, apple, yew, madrone, cherry, and mahogany.
The sound from satinwood was much the same as with maple, although I did not have a quarter-sawn sample to
try. Cherry gave a tone between that of American and European maple.
Yew gave a sound much like hard American maple, as did apple.
Madrone also sounded much like hard maple, although with a very plain appearance.
Mahogany makes very rich-sounding bridges, but is too bassy for most well-balanced mandolins, making them
sound muffled. It
is useful to help re-balance some very trebly or harsh-sounding mandolins.
Ebony is satisfactory, but it seems to lack quite the highs and lows that a maple bridge
yields. However, an 11-hole ebony bridge can sound quite good. See the
What Gibson left undone page for
the difference in sound between a well-designed ebony bridge and the old Gibson ones.
Of other traditional mandolin bridge woods, strangely enough, neither East Indian nor Brazilian rosewood
seems to make a great bridge. I have tried multiple bridge designs in both woods, and all were disappointing.
Very dense burl walnut yielded excellent up-the-neck response, but somewhat less response on the open strings and
less bass than maple. Straight-grain walnut makes very thin-sounding bridges, although I've tried several pieces
between 35 and 200 years old.
Southern American maple is sometimes satisfactory, but use hard northern maple for more consistent results. If you use
Southern maple, the 11-hole design is definitely recommended.
See the "8 bridges" experiment below to see some results obtained from various kinds of maple.
Check out the 18 bridges of different woods experiment to see
some of my work trying out different kinds of wood, including several exotic or rare species.
2. Making your own bridge
Here is a page with some suggested bridgemaking instructions and hints:
10 steps to making your own maple bridge.
3. Bridges for The Mandolin, Randy Wood #1
Bridge #27 finished, ready to install
One major goal of my bridge-building activity has been to make a superior bridge for Randy Wood mandolin #1, a superb
Bluegrass instrument and my favorite mandolin of all time. Along with unsurpassed volume and projection, which are
very useful in jam sessions
and on stage, this mandolin has a tone which is eerily similar to Bill Monroe's, and I like it more than any other mandolin
I have ever played. Since all mandolins are different, and since
this is an especially important mandolin to me, I wanted to find the very best bridge I could.
The following bridges were all successful on this mandolin to some degree:
Bridge 16, European maple, large wings (similar to Bridge 14): Good bass but treble a bit muted.
Bridge 17, European maple, slab but, medium wings (similar to Bridge 7, as modified): Excellent v
olume, tone a bit too dry.
Bridge 26, European maple, small wings (Similar to those of the "Eight Bridges" project, but with truncated wings):
This bridge gave excellent volume,
tone, and bass/treble balance, but was a bit peculiar in appearance due to the way it had to be cut to accomodate
the low treble side and high bass side required on this particular instrument.
Apparently, I needed to design a bridge just for this mandolin, and Bridge 27, made on October 16th, 2002 from
American maple, was that bridge.
Results: A growling, powerful sound with lots of impact. The best thing about this bridge is that it preserves the
similarity of this mandolin's sound to Bill Monroe's. More recently, I have tried 6-hole and 11-hole designs
on this instrument, but although those designs
offered a little more volume, none of them brought out that superb bluegrassy sound from this mandolin quite
as well as this bridge does.
4. Eight bridges: an experiment with seven kinds of maple, plus walnut
(Late summer, 2002) This is an sample of the experiments I've made, in trying to develop a better mandolin bridge.
These eight bridges were made as alike as possible, but from
different woods, in order to study variations in sound from bridge to bridge.
All are pictured here with the feet fit
and the tops cut and compensated, ready for their first trial installation:
This design was intended as a "median bridge" or compromise between the my early, plain bridges, which
gave great treble clarity, sustain, and volume, and the bridges with large wings ,
which offered more bassy richness but usually less treble response. I was looking for a response reminiscent of
Bridges #8 and #12 on the early maple bridges page,
but even better, if possible.
The overall idea was to design a bridge which was easy and simple to make from several kinds of wood, primarily maple, and
which would sound good on a wide variety of mandolins. All these bridges were left thick enough at first (about
5/16" at the bottom and 1/4" at the top) that they could be thinned down later if desired, but as it turned out, this
thickness was in the middle of the optimum range.
The eight bridges
Bridges #18 through #25 were as identical to each other as possible, but
made from different types or cuts of maple (walnut for
#25), in order to study the effect of the different woods on the bridges' sound.
The woods used were as follows:
(On the right in the above photo, top to bottom:)
Bridge #18: Slab-cut Northern maple.
Bridge #20: Quarter-sawn plain European maple, reddish in color, at least 30 and
possibly 40 to 50 years old. This wood was possibly
intended for violin bridges. (I have an EXTREMELY small supply of this wood, so I badly wanted the bridge to work!)
Bridge #19: Slab-cut Southern maple.
Bridge #21: Quarter-sawn Northern maple, a few traces of curl, at least 30 years old.
(On the left in the above photo, top to bottom:)
Bridge #22: Birds-eye maple, slab-cut, at least 20 years old.
Bridge #23: Violently curly maple, probably European, quarter-sawn, several decades old.
Bridge #24: European curly maple, close moderate grain, quarter-sawn, at least 30 years old.
Bridge #25: Dense, multi-colored burl walnut, at least 30 years old.
The eight results
Bridge #18 (slab-cut Northern maple): Lots of volume, good bass-treble balance, less sustain than Bridge #8 and
less bass richness than #15, but still a very satisfying bridge.
Bridge #19 (slab-cut Southern maple): Good mid-range volume but less high end and low end than #18. Overall response
somewhat less than #18.
Bridge #20 (quarter-sawn reddish European maple): An extremely rich sound with great volume. Slightly less treble than #18, but
about the same sustain. This bridge was EXTREMELY satisfying to play, with a rich bassy impact which I had not heard before
on this mandolin. I liked this bridge so much that it was an effort to take it off and try the next one.
Bridge #21 (quarter-sawn Northern maple): Another great bridge. Startling volume with solid bass and smooth treble.
More treble than #20, but
slightly less bass impact. Excellent sustain and silky treble which remind me of #8, but bassier. Slightly more
cutting power than #20. I used this bridge on stage, and liked it a lot.
Bridge #22 (Birds-eye maple): This bridge was not successful. It gave a fairly dull sound with less richness, volume,
and sustain than any of the first four bridges.
Bridge #23 (Strongly curly maple, quarter-sawn): This bridge gave great silvery richness of tone and excellent volume, reminiscent of
#8 but with more bass and greater overall substance to the sound.
Bridge #24 (European curly maple, quarter-sawn): A bit more volume than #23, although with less silkiness of tone.
Bridge #25: (Very hard burl walnut): A surprising bridge. Very good volume and sustain, much
like the slab-cut maple
bridges #11 and #12. Very good up the neck, but not so good down the neck. Less bassy richness than
#23 and #24.
Some tentative conclusions
Most of these bridge woods gave satisfactory results, but both the American and European quarter-sawn maples
all yielded a slight advantage in richness over the slab-cut maple and the walnut.
At the same time, the difference between the different type of maple
was fairly minor (except for the unresponsive birds-eye maple and southern maple), and Bridge #25, even though it
is walnut, was a fairly good bridge. The only real dud was birds-eye maple.
I urge others to make some similar comparisons between bridge woods, in order
to draw some more definite conclusions about which maple is best for mandolin bridges.
To email me: click redhenry@visuallink.com
Here are three mandola bridge designs, any of which will make a really good bridge.
My 1917 Gibson H-2 mandola, which had always had excellent tone and volume,
became disappointing after I played my mandolins with their new bridges-- so I had to make a mandola bridge. I made
about a dozen bridges in developing the three shown in the scan.
Let's call the three designs bridges A, B, and C. These are all made from hard American maple.
Bridge A, a stretched-out version of mandolin bridge #27, gave surprising volume along with a very deep richness of
sound.
Bridge B, the same design with two more round cutouts added, opened up the sound a bit more with additional
clarity while retaining that excellent bass response. This design seems to be,
overall, the best of the three. (Also, omitting the two short wing sawcuts for
a 6-hole wingless bridge yields even more response than with this bridge, though with a bit less bass response.)
Bridge C, patterned on the crescent-shaped mandolin bridges, gave good clarity and volume. The overall response
was a bit less than with a regular 6-hole bridge.
In late 2004, I installed a 6-hole bridge, essentially a slightly enlarged version of the 6-hole mandolin bridge,
and it seemed to sound at least as good as the previous types. Altering this bridge to an 11-hole design yielded little
difference in sound.
Another note: The mandola's sustain, which was impressive to begin with, increased amazingly with all
of these one-piece bridges.
I would recommend American maple for any of the oval-hole Gibsons (H-1, H-2, H-4). For f-hole mandolas, try European
maple if available. As with the mandolin bridges, use quarter-sawn wood if you can get it.
One more note-- Several people have obtained excellent results on octave mandolas or bouzoukis with bridges similar to
these mandola bridges. Currently the bridge would be a 6-hole or 11-hole type.
I can supply such bridges ranging from regular or extra-tall height (for carved-top instruments) down to
5/8" or less for a flat-top bridge. For flat-top instruments of all types, I can supply the bridge cut to height or nearly so.
Results of mandocello bridge trials
1. A bridge for my Randy Wood mandocello
I originally made a 6-hole bridge for my Randy Wood mandocello, and was very pleased with the sound. As soon as the
bridge was shaped I put it on the mandocello without any compensation cuts or even string slots, and just laid the
strings across the bridge top and tuned them up. To my surprise, the strings stayed in place and the mandocello played
in tune, so I just left it that way. I kept that bridge on the instrument for a year and a half, until this year's
winter weather caused the action to sink
far enough that I wanted a taller bridge. Here's a scan of the new bridge before installation. This is an 11-hole
bridge, but otherwise it is nearly the same as that first bridge:
2. A bridge for the mandocello conversion (Fall, 2003)
Even before the mandocello conversion was finished, I had prepared two bridges for it: one of European maple, and one
of American. The bridges were designed as a "stretched" version of mandola bridge #3, a winged bridge,
my favorite design at the time. I anticipated that the European maple would work best on this
f-hole instrument.
First thing when the 'cello was strung up, I tried out both bridges. To my surprise, the hard American maple
bridge gave much better response than the European maple bridge. Apparently this laminated guitar body was so
"boomy" that it just
needed that harder maple to sound right.
I needed a fairly low bridge to fit this instrument. Here's a scan:
Bridge length: I made a bridge like the one shown, and began altering it to discover the
results. First I reduced the size of the bridge wings a little. This gave more clarity but less richness
in the sound. Next, I tried reducing the length to find out what it would sound like. At its original length of
5 1/2" inches the sound was best. At 5 1/8" long, the bridge
gave quite a bit more clarity to the A, D,and G strings, but the low C string sounded pretty dead.
Then I made the bridge actually shown above, which was originally about 6" long, and
tried it out while reducing the length. The sound really came into it at about 5 1/2" length.
Apparently, the bridge length on a mandocello is important, and 5 1/2" seems better than longer or shorter
lengths.
...and so that's all about these bridges so far! Will answer any questions if I can. To drop me a line, just
click here.
Red Henry.
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