Rosewood bridge pins - Is this true or false?

[FoxHound4690]

Hey AGF,

This post is in relation to my previous thread on brass pins. I was looking around at different ones and how they can potentially alter the tone of a guitar. I came across these rosewood pins on amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JH7GW96..._t5_B01G0QLK2E

It states that their density and rigidity provide better vibrational transfer through the bridge compared to plastic, so your guitar will sound better too!

Is this true about rosewood pins or is it just a marketing ploy?

Thanks in advance.

Fox.

[lowrider]

According to our experts here, the answer is;

Yes

No

Maybe

It's all wishful thinking!

I'm no expert but I say that you will hear some difference when you change bridge pins. You might like it and you might not and it will subtle, much less than using different strings or a different pick.

But go ahead and try it. Bridge pins are not expensive and the rosewood ones will probably look a lot nicer than plastic.

[Bridgepin]

Fox, if you do a search of this forum you will see how many times this topic has come up and how many different opinions you will encounter.

Now for myself, my ears tell me I hear a difference.

I think you will have a greater tonal change from your guitar in the type of pick material used and the angle of attack you hit the strings.

I have changed almost every acoustic out to bone pins, the only one that has Ebony pins is my Taylor 810 LTD.

Enjoy your experimentation with different pins and picks, I still try new picks every once in awhile.

[Ralph124C41]

thanks for the post as I may c heck them out. As I posted into another post, yesterday I got a set of "white ebony" pins off eBay. (Sorry for saying this again) but I emailed the seller first to assure they were actual wood and not plastic. The seller emailed me back "they're wood."

They are plastic.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

url]https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JH7GW96/ref=psdc_11967731_t5_B01G0QLK2E[/url]

It states that their density and rigidity provide better vibrational transfer through the bridge compared to plastic, so your guitar will sound better too!

Is this true about rosewood pins or is it just a marketing ploy?

For ten bucks you might as well order them and try for yourself. That's the only way you're really going to know.

Some people are adamant that it's impossible for bridge pins to make a significant difference, and others are just as adamant that they make an audible difference. I am in the latter camp; I do hear differences.

That said, if you're looking for things to replace on your guitar to change the tone, you'll get much more bang for the buck by replacing the saddle.

FWIW, the Blisstime pins I've ordered have been well made. I have a set of the ebony ones on my Larrivée and they fit well and sound fine.

[Goodallboy]

And in the end, remember this always, it doesn't matter AT ALL if someone tells you something doesn't affect the tone of your guitar. If you make the test and hear a difference, that should be the end of the discussion on whether or not that change produced an audible difference in your instrument.

[L20A]

I think I that I can hear a slight difference in pin material especially brass but in the end, I pick my pins for their aesthetics over what sonic difference they may make.

[Bruce Sexauer]

That’s just not how guitars actually work.

[Wade Hampton]

When it comes to whether bridge pin materials can affect the tone of an acoustic guitar, with the exception of brass bridge pins I’m not certain that they can or do make a difference. I’m not saying that they don’t, but you might say I’m agnostic on the subject.

There are some folks who are very knowledgeable about instruments, people whose opinions and insights I respect, who have told me that they can hear a difference, so I’m not about to claim that they can’t and that they’re imagining things.

That said, any differences that can be proven to exist without any doubt are those that relate to the amount of additional mass these aftermarket bridge pins can bring to the guitar’s bridge.

So my recommendation is to take any alleged tonal benefits from nice aftermarket bridge pins with a conspicuously large grain of salt, and make most of your selection based on how much you like their visual appearance.

You should be aware going in, though, that wooden bridge pins can swell in times of high humidity and shrink when the weather turns dry. That can create some problems: swollen wooden bridge pins can become very difficult to remove, and shrunken bridge pins can literally fall out of the guitar if you’re not paying attention.

I’ve never had any wooden bridge pins swell so much that I couldn’t pull them out to change strings, but I have had a couple of them drop out of the bridge while I was standing to play.

That’s part of the reason why I prefer hard plastic ivoroid bridge pins over wooden ones: they’re inert and thus dimensionally stable. No swelling and no shrinking.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[TBman]

Hard to tell because when I have changed pins I also changed the strings so the real tonal effect of the pin change got lost. The only exception was when I tried brass pins.

[zmf]

Originally Posted by FoxHound4690

It states that their density and rigidity provide better vibrational transfer through the bridge compared to plastic, so your guitar will sound better too!

Is this true about rosewood pins or is it just a marketing ploy?

It all depends on what kind of rosewood we're talking about here.

It's Madagascar or nothing. All the rest are indeed marketing ploys.

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

You should be aware going in, though, that wooden bridge pins can swell in times of high humidity and shrink when the weather turns dry. That can create some problems: swollen wooden bridge pins can become very difficult to remove, and shrunken bridge pins can literally fall out of the guitar if you’re not paying attention.

I would think wide humidity swings like that would cause problems for more than just the bridge pins.

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

That’s part of the reason why I prefer hard plastic ivoroid bridge pins over wooden ones: they’re inert and thus dimensionally stable. No swelling and no shrinking.

Not from humidity, granted, but they will still expand and contract with temperature swings, probably more than wood does.

[Wade Hampton]

FoxHound, rereading your initial post that mentioned how the seller claims that it’s the rigidity of the rosewood bridge pins that allows the vibrations to travel better through the pins, as the highly experienced and widely respected guitar builder Bruce Sexauer wrote earlier in this thread, that’s simply not how guitars work.

That’s someone’s far-fetched attempt to invent a logical-sounding way that aftermarket bridge pins could “improve” the sound of the guitars that they’re mounted on.

Aftermarket bridge pins may or may not improve the sound of the guitars they’re mounted on, but that attempt to explain how is bogus.

whm

[dwasifar]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Aftermarket bridge pins may or may not improve the sound of the guitars they’re mounted on, but that attempt to explain how is bogus.

+1 on this.

[John Arnold]

They should be more durable than the slotted thermoplastic pins that are standard equipment on many factory guitars. This durability may very well extend the life of the bridgeplate. Worn bridgeplates can adversely affect the sound, and can cause structural issues.
IMHO, if you are serious about bridgepin upgrades, you should ditch slotted pins and slot the bridge. Unslotted pins are superior, for several reasons. I recommend Antique Acoustics or Waverly unslotted hard plastic or ebony pins. The hard plastics include Galalith and polyester, and will not distort in normal use.