Straight Up Strings and the old Gibson A bridge

[Capt. E]

Siminoff has designed the Straight Up Strings to compensate for the load on an adjustable mandolin bridge...do they work on the old non-adjustable bridge found on the old Gibson oval hole A's? If not, what are the best strings for the Gibson ovals in all original condition?

[T.D.Nydn]

I'm sure they would work,but they might be a little heavy,the heavy's will be...on my A4 I use just standard mediums...

[mandroid]

the data that matters ,, core wire diameters and over D all for the wound strings


I'm on 10-36 bronze wound on my 1922 A.

[hank]

Capt. You might shoot Roger S. an email for his thoughts. So far as handling the heavier gauge strings I have used Exp 75's on my A4 off and on with no ill effects. Several years back a similar question came up and Big Joe commented that he thought the original strings used back when these A models were made were a heavy gauge. He said as long as your mandolin doesn't have structural problems you'll be ok with heavy gauge strings. Both my F-4 & F-5 are over driven and loose clarity and response with heavies. My A-4 is the least picky about strings choice.

[TonyP]

If I understand what you are asking, if the SUS will make a difference on a solid bridge, on my Newson F5 that has a Brekke bridge it made a difference. Enough that it's back as first string again. And at one point I had it up for sale.

The Brekke doesn't have the gap and the sound being transmitted through the metal threaded posts that a standard Loar bridge has and that from what I understand is what Mr.S was trying to compensate for. But it still had the desired effect of evening out the response on my F5/Brekke that was exactly what I couldn't seem to achieve with all the strings I'd tried. I use the heavies also.

NFI, YMMV, yada yada.

[Capt. E]

If I understand what you are asking, if the SUS will make a difference on a solid bridge, on my Newson F5 that has a Brekke bridge it made a difference. Enough that it's back as first string again. And at one point I had it up for sale.

The Brekke doesn't have the gap and the sound being transmitted through the metal threaded posts that a standard Loar bridge has and that from what I understand is what Mr.S was trying to compensate for. But it still had the desired effect of evening out the response on my F5/Brekke that was exactly what I couldn't seem to achieve with all the strings I'd tried. I use the heavies also.

NFI, YMMV, yada yada.

Yes, that is what I was going for...so they still have benefits for a solid bridge. Might have to try the mediums. Generally I have used D'Addario 74's on my A-2.

[pops1]

I have always used 11-40 on my '22 A. Sometimes i'll use silk and bronze, but mostly phosphor bronze. Been playing it for a few decades without problems, in the old days nearly all the strings were heavy, like Black Diamond, wow haven't thought of them in a while.

[siminoff]

Captain E. Thanks for the question about Straight Up Strings for your one-piece bridge. Our primary focus has been to compensate the down pressure on adjustable bridges where we have two courses of strings sitting next to posts and two courses of strings sitting in the middle of the saddle. To this end, we developed sets of plain strings of specific gauges, and wound strings with unique core-to-wrap ratios that would compensate the down pressure depending on where the strings sit on the bridge. (And we've done similar job for banjo strings to compensate for the three strings sitting over [or almost over] feet and the two strings sitting over the arches or spaces in the banjo bridge.)

This being said, I think you'll notice some difference on your one-piece bridge, but it won't be as extreme a difference as folks have noticed on two-piece (adjustable) bridges, or as Tony P commented regarding the success with Straight Up Strings on his Brekke bridge.

Seems that the cat's out of the bag on our Straight Up Strings for guitar (it's mentioned on the MC homepage). We'll have them at Raleigh/IBMA. Since the guitar relies on a twisting or torque load at the bridge - rather than the down pressure found on movable bridge instruments - our focus was in compensating the torque loads for all six strings. And, we're pretty excited about what we've done. I'll share more with you all on this and will have some videos for you to watch in the next few weeks.

Best,
Roger

[Capt. E]

Thanks for the explanation Roger. I may get a set and try them out.

[hank]

Rodger if your still with us on this thread, thank you again for your diligence in helping us get the most out of our mandolin. Do you have plans to make a Monel set and better yet coated sets of both bronze and Monel? I ordered a couple pair of medium SUS's last night to try out but mostly for my 1923 F-4. I still prefer Gibson Sam Bush Monel on my 06 Goldrush and 1913 A-4. The F-4 sounds better with phosphor Bronze alloys either Exp 74's or ghs LSB 250's Silk & Bronze.