Mandola and octave mandolin components

Here are the last few components for Adrian’s mandola and octave mandolin. The bridges have removable bone saddles; although I always set-up my instruments, to what I consider the optimum, you never know if someone at some point will want to raise or lower the action and a removable saddle does allow for this.

Those with keen eyes will notice that although the tailpieces look similar, the octave’s is slightly longer in both directions. For the side that anchors the tailpiece, this is entirely aesthetic and for the string side, this is to reduce the amount of open string between the saddle and tailpiece. Both the nuts are bone too. I’ve tried various synthetic materials, but always come back to bone.