#1
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Pinless bridge affect tone?
I am just curious. I read many posts about how changing the pin material can affect tone. Plastic vs ebony vs bone etc. So does a pinless bridge affect tone?
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Couple of CF guitars, Couple of wood guitars Bunch of other stuff. |
#2
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How would you know? You can't compare it to anything.
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#3
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It affects the tone to whatever it sounds like and can't be changed. One less thing to worry about.
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#4
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Good point. Maybe i didnt word it correctly.
If you had 2 identical guitars and one had bridge pins and the other a pinless bridge , would there be a tonal difference. Say they are carbon fiber guitars so more likely to be less affected by wood variables.?
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Couple of CF guitars, Couple of wood guitars Bunch of other stuff. |
#5
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From what I hear from reputable builders: its extremely negligible. Bridge pin material changes can be pretty significant, in my experience, but as long as it's an ebony pinless bridge vs. a regular ebony bridge on a guitar with similar tonewoods you're talking almost an undetectable difference.
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Dustin Furlow -Award-winning songwriter/guitarist, Visual storyteller -D’Addario, G7th and K&K Sound Artist -Music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube: www.youtube.com/dustinfurlow -New album "Serene" (Oct '23) and tablature available at www.dustinfurlow.com |
#6
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So far as I can tell through several experiments, the only way anything behind the saddle can affect the tone is through it's mass, all else equal. Different sorts of bridge pins have different mass, and that's what changes the sound when you swap them out. Adding or subtracting weight from a pinless bridge would have the same effect, but it's not usually done.
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#7
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If a tree falls in the forest...
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#8
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There are somewhat different torque vectors on the bridge which could come into play soundwise, for better or worse depending on several other variables.
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Derek Coombs Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs Guitars by Mark Blanchard, Albert&Mueller, Paul Woolson, Collings, Composite Acoustics, and Derek Coombs "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above |
#9
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But you know what? The more I play with this stuff the more I am coming to realize that pins don't affect tone as we might want to describe tone. But change the perception of the sound through increased sustain, or articulation... or the inverse. And what we often hear as a result are increased or decreased harmonics, attack and decay of both fundamentals and harmonics. And I suppose you could call that tone... but perhaps not exactly and maybe we need another term of description from the results of what different pin materials can do?
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Assuming is not knowing. Knowing is NOT the same as understanding. There is a difference between compassion and wisdom, however compassion cannot supplant wisdom, and wisdom can not occur without understanding. facts don't care about your feelings and FEELINGS ALONE MAKE FOR TERRIBLE, often irreversible DECISIONS |
#10
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Quote:
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Under construction |
#11
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Quote:
With a pinless bridge the tone is the tone and becomes one less element that is adjustable. Simple as that. But I think when we get into these bridge pin tone discussions we should probably get past the generic idea of "tone" which we've found almost impossible to describe. I forgot who brought forward the idea of the ASDR envelope (Attack, sustain, decay, release). But perhaps we should be talking more specifically with how bridge pin changes might affect those individual properties of a guitar's sound as it relates to the tone.
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Assuming is not knowing. Knowing is NOT the same as understanding. There is a difference between compassion and wisdom, however compassion cannot supplant wisdom, and wisdom can not occur without understanding. facts don't care about your feelings and FEELINGS ALONE MAKE FOR TERRIBLE, often irreversible DECISIONS |
#12
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Some of the finest-sounding acoustic guitars I’ve ever played in my life have had pinless bridges. Hope this helps. Wade Hampton Miller |
#13
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Wonder what would happen if you drilled holes for bridge pins in a pinless bridge and started playing around with bridge pin material.
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#14
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Well, you’d probably weaken the structural integrity of the bridge, to begin with.
whm |
#15
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I don’t know much about guitar build, but pinless does not look as strong structurally. True or false?
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