Grover B 1992 Mandolin Bridge

Having picked up a cheap, new left handed Mandolin recently it was clear that I was not going to be able to get on with it as standard. Not helped by the fact that it had a compensated bridge, albeit compensated for right hand configuration. So I looked around and this seemed like the only alternative that would take the place of what was there before it.

Now my mandolin neck is totally flat and unradiused, so I had to file the bridge flat and reshape it to a nice edge. It is a nice quality wood that shapes easily and tidies up nicely afterwards. Upon fitting, I also found that I needed to shave a little off the bottom to get the action low enough so that the adjusters were still raising the saddle off the bridge slightly - so that they are under tension and not rattling loose. But these are all the sort of things you should expect with a bridge for such an instrument. No big deal.

The only thing that wasn't quite perfect, is that the holes in the saddle for the adjustment studs are a little oversized. This means that the saddle tends to slop forward slightly independently of the bridge base. Not the end of the world, just a minor niggle. If it were not for that, this would have been a five star review.

The finished article plays, intonates and sounds great, and far better tonally than the cheap, dry bridge that it replaced. Full sounding and not at all brittle, nor too bright.

If I had another archtop mandolin, I would not hesitate to use the same, despite the slightly sloppy post holes.