Ideal bridge style for a nylon string mandolin?

[MandolinMeanderer]

I apologize if this topic has been covered on these forums before; I did a quick search but didn't find this topic, so I figured I'd ask.

I've decided to build a bowlback, nylon string mandolin. I'm quite new to the world of mandolins and instrument making, and realize that I'd probably be better off adjusting an existing instrument to use nylon strings, but unfortunately for me that's not how I'm wired and I have to do everything the hard way

In all seriousness though, I love building things and challenging myself, and I'm an especially big fan of learning by doing. Right now I'm in the research phase of this project, and I'm trying to find information on which bridge style would be best suited to a nylon string mandolin. I've seen mandolins that use a "conventional" mandolin bridge, a guitar-style bridge with saddle, and lute-style bridges, but I'm still pretty foggy on how these styles affect tone/volume, and which would be preferable for a nylon string mandolin.

So, if you were going to build a nylon string mandolin, which bridge style would you use and why?

Thank you for helping someone just starting on their mandolin journey!

[PT66]

Have you played a nylon string mandolin? If not I suggest you restring a ukulele to mandolin tuning and see what you think.

[Green Phlash]

Have you played a nylon string mandolin? If not I suggest you restring a ukulele to mandolin tuning and see what you think.

This is an excellent choice. I recently purchased some Aquila Nylgut tuned in fifths which is designed for stringing up a Uke to sound like a Mandolin it sounds nice and is now got me wanting to get a real Mandolin. Note that the Aquila's G string though is metal wrapped though.

One thing that may be of more interest to the cafe is that I used a Kala Concert travel Ukulele for the conversion. That is because it is a thin body, like a Mandolin, but also because it has a convex back which makes it also more like an archtop Mandolin. Subsequently I checked with Google's BARD AI and it recommended that same kind of a configuration which was interesting. A caution though, I've tuned it an octave higher, so it is warping the Uke's top so don't do this to a uke that you pay a lot of money for.

[Rodney Riley]

My nylon strung M-style Boat Paddle mandolin. Jerry changed his ukuleles from Boat Paddle Ukulele to Hoffman Lutherie. Just search for information on him and sadly discovered that he had passed away the end of June. As far as I know, he only built 2 nylon mandolins. The other was a more traditional A-style.

It came with the Aquila mandolin strings. I see Aquila has a red series mandolin sets. I’d purchased maybe three sets of the nylgut strings after the E strings broke so easy. I finally just used heavy test fishing line for the E strings. This set of strings is probably 6 years old on it

[PT66]

“ I've tuned it an octave higher” an octave higher that a regular mandolin? That’s pretty high!?!

[acharman]

My nylon (well nylon/fluorocarbon) Daniel Brauchli mandolin has a fixed bridge. Arched back and not a bowl back though. Not sure what the differences in tone & volume would be between the different bridges. Given the lower tension of nylon strings the break angle over the bridge might need to be a little more to properly drive the top though Lucas Sobieranski in the YT video below does seem to get reasonable results from conversions of bowl backs to nylon.

[MandolinMeanderer]

Thank you all for the information! I especially appreciate the pictures/videos. It seems like there's a lot of variety in bridge choice here... perhaps I'll have to do a little experimenting and see if I can notice any significant difference between bridge styles using nylon strings.

[MandolinMeanderer]

Very interesting about the fishing line for the e string! I've heard of fishing line strings on tahitian ukuleles, but not in other contexts... how does it compare to purpose built nylon strings? Other than not breaking

[Rodney Riley]

After 3 sets of the e-strings breaking. And at the time I couldn’t find the Equila mando strings. I put the fishing line on and that’s all I’ve used. The line was brighter than the original strings. So I just quit looking for anything else as a replacement

[acharman]

Very interesting about the fishing line for the e string! I've heard of fishing line strings on tahitian ukuleles, but not in other contexts... how does it compare to purpose built nylon strings? Other than not breaking

Fishing leader line (Seaguar fluorocarbon) is the line often used/recommended instead of commercial strings. Fluorocarbon (eg Worth strings or Seaguar leader line) are thinner than nylon and generally brighter in sound and more stable in their tuning while nylon are warmer sounding but nowhere near as stable in their tuning. Nylguts (Aquila) and other types of strings fall between nylon and fluorocarbon. Ordinary fishing line is not a good choice normally - there is a big difference between FC leader line and ordinary fishing line. It comes down to personal preference between nylon, nylgut, fluorocarbon etc as they feel, sound and respond differently and what suits one instrument may not suit another. On my nylon mando the G strings and one of the Ds are wound nylon classical guitar strings, the other D and the high strings are fluorocarbon (not sure whether he used Worth strings or Seaguar leader).

[Rodney Riley]

Just think I went to Walmart, found the heaviest test fishing line, bought it, put it on, never looked back.

[sebastiaan56]

A German Style Bowlback with Aquila Red mandolin strings. It works well, there isnt much volume loss compared to when it was strung with steel strings. If I were to make another one I would probably take a little mass out of the top but not much else. Mandolin was built to Alfred Woll’s plans. Another option is to get some Baroque Mandolin plans as they were build with gut strings. I got the Stradivarius plans from the MIMO from memory. I am yet to attempt it.