I never thought much about mandolin bridges (until mine broke yesterday). Ordering a replacement was easy enough, but I've been wondering why the typical new mandolin bridge happened--the two-piece model with two knurled nuts to adjust the string height. It would seem to me that this design is inherently heavier---and therefore a better mute---than a thin single-piece bridge would be.
    Are mandolins more demanding of precise string height adjustment than, say, fiddles or guitars or banjos? Or is some degree of muting considered desirable? Or what?
    I know that I could find out for myself by carving a simple one-piece bridge and comparing the sound, but I'm not that curious, and fitting a bridge to an arched top is the kind of thing I used to do in my youth, before I got lazy.