I've really enjoyed reading the conversation sparked by my question... thanks for all of the thoughtful response.
Dave, in your first post you said "So, one big foot or two feet, the normal modes of the mandolin body are not gonna be any different." That was essentially the crux of my question... I was assuming that the bridge is acting
somewhat like a brace (at least in one direction), and so changing the "footprint" of the bridge might alter the modes of vibration in the top... e.g. open up more high-frequency modes...
But it sounds like your careful experiments showed that if the modes are altered, it is not by enough to matter.
Thanks for sharing your data.
Bookmarks