What they say about Red's maple bridges

User Reports: What they're saying about these bridges

Here are some responses from folks who have tried Red's maple bridges. These messages are posted with the permission of each individual. I have replaced the senders' names with initials.

John L. just installed a maple bridge on his Rigel A+. On June 28, 2008, he wrote:

A few weeks back I ordered an 11 hole bridge for my Kentucky 350S. As luck would have it ---a beautiful used Rigel A+ found its way into my posession---and the bridge ended up on the Rigel instead. I must commend you on such a wonderful product. The volume,tone and clarity of the instrument have improved beyond my wildest expectations.

This mandolin was no slouch prior to your bridge----but now it is a roaring beast.

I heartily recommend this bridge to anyone looking for a significant improvement in the sound of their mandolin. I would be pleased to add my voice to any testimonials you might require. Doing business was a pleasure. Thanks again

John L., B.C., Canada

This is a note from T.H., who put a maple bridge on his import mandolin a few weeks ago:

Hi Red,

I know it's been a long time since I ordered my bridge, but I thought I would thoroughly evaluate it before I wrote back to you. As a reminder my mando is a Kentucky KM 150s, Chinese made, purchased new about a year ago. It sounded really green and tight when I first bought it, but improved a lot with some playing time in a matter of months. After that, any change in tone has been too gradual for me to notice... pancake theory is in effect I hope!

Anyway, I installed the maple bridge and did notice an improvement in volume immediately. As I've played it for several months since installing the maple bridge, I'm sure I hear increase in the depth of tone and maybe presence if you will. The highs have a richer quality to them, without a sacrifice to the already strong midrange. The bass is about the same... strong but with a slight muddy tendency compared to good Gibson. But hey, it's a $200 mandolin. It'll never sound as good as your RW, or a Loar, but then again, I'm not in the same league as you as a picker! It's a better mando than I am a player so I guess I'll have to catch up to it. My picking buddies think I'm getting better tone out of it. I haven't told them about the bridge (I dyed it black). It'll be our little secret, OK? Anyway, thanks for a great idea and product. Sincerely,

T.H.

Along with all the mandolin bridges, some mandolin-banjo bridges have gone out too. Here's a note from Ken B., who had his mandolin-banjo set up and playing the same day his bridge came in:

Hi Red, Just a note to let you know that the bridge arrived this afternoon and I immediately went to work on it. Thanks to your instructions, it worked out just fine. I did not have to alter the height at all. I knew that I had to notch it and string up the instrument before doing any sanding, as the head would give a little bit. I didn't want to get it too short right off the bat. Three different times I had to loosen the strings and tighten the head a little more as it was much too muddy.

This mandolin banjo sounds great now, with your mahogany bridge, Fiberskyn head and D'Addario J-75 mandolin strings. There is plenty of volume without being extremely bright, but it still rings and resonates just enough. Thanks again for all of your help! Regards, Ken

[Wolf P. just installed a bridge on his $99 New York Pro mandolin:]

dear red.......hope you're well........i know i am!....finished installing the maple bridge this morning...... fit the feet yesterday using my dentist's technique of locating the high spots of the juncture with a dark substance-- lead pencilled rectangle taped to the belly in my case-- & then fine sanding just those spots till there was great overall contact........the sandpaper on the belly method didn't work for me without some kind of jig to ensure 3 plane consistency i guess..........

did the final height & intonation carefully with files just now & the results are truly amazing .......looks & sounds great!......added "bass" & mid for a great, spread out, even response across the frequency range......almost like high ceiling ear room for each string pair......clear, bright , loud, throaty bark from a $99 mandolin!......& the sustain!......wow!....for a banjo player, it seems indecent!....... i strummed it hard on the wall, went & did something else,came back & put my ear to it & it was still hummin!.....

sorry for all the exclamation points, but i really am astonished at the difference in sound between the stillborn ebony bridge & the lively maple bridge......no hesitation in recommending it at my next jam & upcoming mini mando "summit" later this month.......more of a mandolin "hillock" with 4 invited mandolinists exchanging lore & licks in my basement......shortens the winter........congratulations & keep up the good work!...... with thanks and best wishes, your sincerely satisfied canadian friend wolf

[Bob B. just installed a bridge on his Morgan Monroe mandolin:]

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Hello Red, received my bridge. Fast delivery! Got here in just three days. Last night I got home and started installing about six thirty. I finished around twelve A.M. Fitting the bridge and getting my mandolin set back up took about two and a half hours. The rest of the time was spent playing, could not put it down. I have a Morgan Monroe mms-5w. Really pretty, but the sound was just ok. Everything you said would happen did, tons more volume and sustain.

Can't wait to play with other instruments. Your instructions were great. Talked to you on the phone about stain. you said why not leave it natural. I did, so others can see it and ask questions. The maple bridge is all you say it is. Thank you for making my good mandolin sound exellent! GREAT SERVICE AND GOOD QUALITY PRODUCT !

[A. L., in New Zealand recently put a bridge on his Janish A-5:]

May 22nd, 2007

Hi Red,

Just a note to say how pleased I am with my new bridge-- took me while to get it sorted but I'm very, very pleased with the tone, projection and (finally) intonation. It is simply a massive improvement over my old adjustable ebony bridge.

And many, many thanks Red, for all your support -- you have been most incredibly helpful and informative throughout. Much appreciated.

A. L. New Zealand

[Steve W., in Ohio, just put a bridge on his flat-top mandolin:]

April 28, 2007

Red,

I installed one of your low profile maple bridges on a flat top mandolin last night, and all I can say is. WOW! The difference in tone, projection, and particularly balance is amazing. I built this particular mandolin myself from a Kawalek kit in 2004, and as such, am very familiar with all of it's tonal and playability nuances. To my ear, the "A" strings always sounded a tiny bit different from the other pairs . . . kind of an extra resonance, a slightly bright and tinny sound. I had reworked the nut and original bridge, checked for tailpiece issues, tried different string gauges and composition . . . never could get it exactly the way that I wanted it. Now, with your bridge, there is an equally balanced sound all the way across the strings, and the mandolin has never sounded better or been easier to play. I will probably be ordering another one soon for a Stew-Mac kit that I finished recently.

Your packing and instructions were first class; and thanks to your excellent pre-shaping, cutting and fitting was no problem at all. I dyed it black using a Magic Marker and it looks great.

Thanks Red, for a great product at a fair price. Keep up the good work!

Steve

[Jeff D., in California , recently installed a bridge on his Eastman mandolin:]

Hey Red,

Just wanted to let you know that I finally had your bridge installed on my Eastman 515 and what a difference it made in the overall tonal quality, not only did the volume increase but the tone is incredible... Needless to say that I am very happy with the way it turned out and would not hesitate to install another one or recommend a Red Henry bridge to any one who's playing with a standard two piece adjustable.

[Tom T., who lives overseas, just ordered a maple bridge, and wrote:]

Bridge arrived. Possibly held up in customs??? Fitted it yesterday. I was amazed at the difference it made. Much better than expected.. Everything you said it would be......Thanks a lot, Tom

[He followed up his first note two days later with this good description:]

Hello Mr. Henry, Now that I have had your bridge on for several days of playing I have a few additional comments. Let me start at the beginning. The bridge arrived with one foot an almost perfect fit to my mandolin top. The other foot required about 30 minutes time to fit. Cutting down the height and intonation was a breeze. I found your direction sheet very helpful and I followed it closely. Anyone can do this if they take their time and check the fit often, being carefull not to take off too much.

Now for the sound. Amazing difference!!! At the weekly jam the other guys always comment about how good my mandolin sounds. The last couple of months I have been saying I wanted to cut the fingerboard extension off because it gets in the way of my picking. ( I don't play any notes way up there anyway). While I was fitting your bridge I went ahead and cut it off. At the next jam session the guys saw it and were wowed at the difference it made in my sound (of course it didn't make any difference). But my mandolin was much louder, clearer and had way more tone. The thing is, they didn't notice the new bridge until I told them.

Bottom line, very easy to install, and gobs of more tone. Your bridge is everything you said it would be. I am very pleased with it and would recommend it to anyone.....Thanks again.

(B.B. recently installed a bridge on his Kentucky mandolin:)

Hi Red.

Just wanted to drop you a quick note of thanks for the mandolin bridge. It came just a couple of days after I talked to you on the phone. Very nicely packaged, with good instructions.

It was about a week before I got around to fitting it up to my Kentucky KM-630. The feet were so close to a perfect fit to the mandolin's face that it took very little sanding. Black Kiwi leather dye (available in almost any supermarket-shoe care products) penetrated the maple easily and made a nice finish.

Now, the important part: It did exactly what you said it would do--more volume, more sustain, and a rich, even tone across all strings. It took an already good sounding mandolin up several notches. Fantastic! Thanks! Best regards, B.B.

(Here's an excellent report that A.W. just sent in about his bridge:)

Dear Red, My luthier installed the maple bridge you sent me, on my Epiphone MM-50. What can I say more than: Excellent! The instrument is, as promised, a good third louder, much (!) more sustain, much more bass AND much more brilliance! What a difference.

My Luthier was a little sceptical but he was really excited. Expecially, he marked the lightness of the bridge and the quality of wood. He told me to also order a bridge for him, whenever I order another one.

In October we have a bluegrass mandolin workshop here... I am curious what the guys will say about the instrument :-)))

Thanks a lot, you made my music sound better and myself a bit happier, what more can one wish!

[Later, he added:]

I think the MM-50 is the best you can get for that money, with the maple bridge I could beat even instruments in the next price range.

Please let me know if you proceed with flat-top mandolin bridges!

I have just finished our (Bluegrass-) band rehearsal 10 minutes ago, the boys were amazed too. Absolutely NO problem now for a strong penetrating but smooth chop against guitar and dobro, complementary with the double bass! In fact the mandolin appears now to have a little more of the fuller "celtic" sound (which I do also like with [this band]!) but the "bluegrassie" sound still seems there, at least for my ears. We will see what the mando-pros at the workshop will say :-)

(From G.A., in Kentucky, who put a maple bridge on his Morgan Monroe:)

Red,

Its been a while now since I installed this bridge on my Morgan Monroe -MCM-CB madolin. It made a difference as soon as it was installed. The more it is played the better it gets. It made my mando louder and a big difference in tone.

Thanks

G.A.

Bluegrass State

Kentucky

(Here's what M.W. had to say about his new bridge:)

Red, Just a note to let you know that I was finally able to get the bridge installed and I am extremely happy with the results. The biggest difference I am able to hear is in volume and sustain. The tone doesn't seem to have been affected.

I have been told on numerous occasions that this 2000 Stiver F is loud. It had been considerably louder than my Gibson F12 and now, it is a real boomer.

I am so pleased with the results I'm sure I'll be in contact with you to order another bridge for the F12 and one for my Ratliff F style mandola. I can't thank you enough for your generous offer. Please feel free to post this wherever you'd like.

(...and now, here's a report from P.B.:)

Dear Friends,

Here's my delayed report on the maple bridge Red was kind enough to send me. I kept it a month before finding the time to concentrate on fitting it to my nearly new Capek F4.

That's my first remark. I find bridges very difficult to fit. I followed the instructions, but though I find the saddle part pretty straight-forward, it's difficult for me to get the bridge to fit exactly flush to an arched top. I guess I'd get better at this--this was the second time I tried one of these, and I got it much closer to where I wanted it, but it's not perfect. That's a caveat for anyone else who may be trying a maple bridge conversion, and it may color my critique.

Another thing is that it was time to change strings, so I put on Thomastics--all I had in the case at the time. They make a real difference, and even play differently from the J75s I'm used to. So I've played a week with the new set-up to try to be sure of what I'l really hearing.

I'd also have to say that I'm far from being an expert picker, and not really qualified to judge these finer nuances.

Having said all that, I'll say this. The mandolin is certainly louder. And it's tone is crisper, cleaner--almost glass-like. Beat a rhythm on a steel coffee can, and then play the same thing on a good, clean, empty wine bottle--it's that sort of difference, that sort of direction. I obviously exaggerate with that comparison, but that's sort of the difference I'm trying to describe. It certainly seems to me that the volume added by the maple bridge seems to at least compensate for that lost by the move to Thomastics.

I'm not sure about how bluegrassie the maple sound is. I don't play much bluegrass, and I haven't played with any other players yet since making the conversion. My main interest is in playing classical mandolin duets and such, and I think this new combination will be perfect for that--in terms of tone, I really like the difference. The instrument seems to me to have both power and that delicate fragility that has always been a distinctive quality of the mandolin. That's important to me--it's a quality of our instrument to be cherished, not overcome, in my opinion.

Also, the Red Henry bridge seems to me a little thicker at the base than the Tourtellotte bridge I bought and mangled a while back. I might be wrong about that, but that's the way it seems. It's also a little shorter than the Capek ebony bridge I switched off. I'm not sure what difference that makes. But I like my new sound a lot.

(...and C.F. wrote:)

Red, I got my mandolin back the luthier, and the bridge has made a considerable difference. The tone is brighter, louder and clearer. Highly recommended.

(Here's a detailed report from E.M.:)

Hi all, I was one of the lucky recipients of one of the six one-piece maple mandolin bridges that Red Henry offered recently. Thank you Red! Red asked that a report be made to Comando, so here is mine. First, the mandolin. It is an F-5 copy built by a local luthier (Ellsworth Kingery) in 1981. It was custom built for me. In fact, I played it unfinished for about 8 months while he continued to tinker and make small adjustments to achieve the sound that I wanted (actually taking the back off once). During that period, we tried numerous different two-piece bridges, finally settling on a rosewood bridge with all excess wood sanded away on the base and with holes drilled both in the base and the bridge itself. For that mandolin, lighter seemed to be better.

Just so you'll know my musical orientation (and thus, perhaps, where I am coming from in evaluating the bridge), I play bluegrass music. I listen to all kinds of music except Rock and HipHop. I am particularly fond of classical music.

When the maple bridge arrived in the mail, I have to admit that I was very skeptical. Remember that we felt that lighter seemed to be better in our earlier evaluations of bridges for this mandolin. The Red Henry bridge is a little on the large side (to my eyes, at least) and being one piece, seemed even larger. I was incorrect in my skepticism. WOW, was I wrong!

After spending the morning fitting the base to the mandolin, sanding off the top to the right height, and filing the compensation into the top, I put on one G string and one E string, tuned them, then started adjusting the bridge for proper intonation. I must tell you that, already, I knew that I had my hands on something special. An increase in volume was immediately apparent, and the new clarity of the E string was immediately noticeable.

I then strung and tuned the instrument. Now, talking about tones with words is a very subjective thing, admittedly, but here are my impressions. The tones are very crisp (i.e., not at all "mushy)." This seemed to be true across all strings and up and down the fretboard, but I especially noticed a great improvement in the A and E strings. This mandolin never had the "Bell-like" quality on high notes up the neck that some mandolins have. Now it does! There was a noticeable increase in volume across all strings, and perhaps most importantly, there is a wonderful evenness in tone no matter what string I play or where on the neck I play it. Being subjective here, I find the tone warmer and maybe less "tinny" or "clunky" with this bridge than with the rosewood one. Sustain is very good, but this mandolin always has had good sustain, so I don't know how much of that to attribute to the new bridge. I do think the tones remain "clear" longer with this bridge.

I must say, I eventually probably will take it off and do some finish sanding on it, and I may stain it (it looks sort of odd after looking at the rosewood bridge for all these years), but then, I may not. It just sounds too good to mess with it. Thanks again, Red.

Many thanks to Steve Tourtelotte and his web page's instructions on how to fit a one-piece bridge. That was very useful.

I did do one thing in fitting the bridge to the mandolin that Steve didn't directly suggest (but I got the idea from another of his suggestions). I'd like to share it with you (although many of you probably have done it for years)

After taping sandpaper to the mandolin top and visually fitting the bridge to the top, I took a pencil and blackened the bottom of the bridge, then ran the bridge over the sandpaper a few more times. It was NOT a good fit, even though it looked fine. A lot of pencil mark still showed. So I continued sanding until there was no more pencil marking showing. Then I blackened it again, and did another test. The pencil marking came off rapidly and evenly. NOW, I have a good fit. Some of you might want to try that with the bridge that you now have.

(And here's what D.B. had to say:)

Hi,

I just got my Red Henry bridge put on. Steve Smith of Cumberland Acoustic in Hendersonville, Tn, put it on, as I tend to really butcher things like that. The mando in question is a 1983 Charles Horner, F model. (some of you may remember it from last year's SE Comando gathering)...It had, IMHO, very good volume, a very ringing open, clear chop, and clear single note picking. I was very happy with it, and I didn't really expect to do any better. Now it has a much more Monroe bluegrass type sound. Plenty of volume-more of a Loar/Monroe sound. I like it. Whether I like it more, or better will remain to be seen, after I've beat on it awhile in some jams and gigs...Thanks, Red, for all your work and experimenting for us...

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