#1
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Do bone bridge pins really improve tonality...or just look cool?
I just recently bought a set of bone bridge pins for my new Martin 000, and maybe in the back of my mind I'm thinking it might brighten the sound a bit...maybe increase the volume a tad...but deep down I know that I'm doing it mostly for esthetic value, and only hoping the swap from the stock plastic pins might give an already great guitar a little "boost" tonally. I haven't gotten them in the mail just yet...but I'm just tossing this out for sake of conversation.
Am I decieved? Seriously...do bone pins REALLY change the tonality of a guitar at all? |
#2
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Really they just look cool...very cool...but tonal shift...not so much honestly.
Remember...all the great vintage sounding Martin's of the 30's and 40's came with Bakelite...plastic...pins and they still sounded awesome with those. The one nice thing about bone and other harder material pins in that they don't warp over time, they stay straight and strong and don't get brittle. And they look really nice! duff Be A Player...Not A Polisher |
#3
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1955 Gibson ES-125 1956 Fender Champ lap steel 1964 Guild Starfire III 1984 Rickenbacker 330 1990s Mosrite (Kurokumo) Ventures 2002/2005 Fender Japan '60s Tele [TL-62-66US] 2008 Hallmark 60 Custom 2018 Martin Custom Shop 00-18 slot-head 1963 Fender Bandmaster (blonde blackface) 1965 Ampeg Gemini I 2020 Mojotone tweed Champ kit build |
#4
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Different results on different guitars.
Noticeable gains on my Epiphone EJ-200, not so much on others.
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Brucebubs 1972 - Takamine D-70 2014 - Alvarez ABT60 Baritone 2015 - Kittis RBJ-195 Jumbo 2012 - Dan Dubowski#61 2018 - Rickenbacker 4003 Fireglo 2020 - Gibson Custom Shop Historic 1957 SJ-200 2021 - Epiphone 'IBG' Hummingbird |
#5
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I just replaced the plastic bridge pins on my fairly new Martin OOO Jr. with ebony pins yesterday. It was just as I expected, no change in sound that I can hear. Only did it for looks (ebony with pearl dots) and because they won’t deform over time. It does look nice!
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#6
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I have a new Martin 00-28. Changed out the OEM plastic pins for high quality bone pins. Didn't like the sound (yes, there's a difference) and changed them back.
Conversely, Changed out the ebony pins on my Waterloo w/ FWI pins and prefer the FWI. The different bridge pins have subtle differences in sound but it's real. |
#7
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In my opinion, it's hard to tell impact until you try it. You might find that a bone pin in one slot, a metal pin in another, a carboard pin . . . . . . .
Things that conventional wisdom say shouldn't help, often do. I once bought a resonator ukulele. It came with the cone almost bent double. It sounded great, so I figured a new National cone would be even better. Nope. Never could recapture the killer sound of the badly damaged cone. Another time I bought a new bridge for a mandolin. I knew I would have to fit it to the mandolin by sanding it down so that if fit the top perfectly. Before I did that, I put in on and only the outer edge touched the top. But it sounded heavenly. Again, thinking it would sound better fit perfectly, I sanded it. Nope, never could recapture that original sound. |
#8
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Bone pins weigh more than the stock plastic ones, so swapping them in makes it a bit harder for the strings to move the bridge, if Isaac Newton is to be believed. This is especially true at higher frequencies, so the balance of the sound tends to shift a bit toward the bass end of things. The difference is about 5 grams, which is roughly the difference between an ebony bridge and a rosewood one, more or less.
The added mass also alters resonant frequencies in the top. A lot of the 'voice' of the guitar depends on how the resonances of the different parts of the guitar line up. In some cases, when things are 'close', a small change in one part will have an out sized effect on the tone by altering the alignment of some resonances. A change of a couple of Hz in the low 'main air' resonance can produce a 'wolf' note, or cure one. In some cases even a change in relative humidity will do it. Where you end up depends, of course, on where you started. The resonant pitches of the parts of the guitar vary depending on the wood and the construction, so a small change that makes a big difference on one guitar might have no noticeable effect on another, and influence a third in the opposite way. Blanket statements about 'the effect' of changing out things like bridge pins or tuners based on what somebody got on one or two guitars have to be taken with a grain of salt. The only real way to know is to try it on your guitar. Fortunately, bridge pins (except for Depleted Uranium ones) are pretty cheap. |
#9
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Perhaps there is I slight difference between plastic and bone ..but I can't prove it.
I once popped for expensive titanium pins. I could not hear a difference but when I played with the window open..every stray dog in the neighborhood was outside my window howeling!
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Classical guitars, flat top steel string A few banjos and mandolins Accrued over 59 years of playing |
#10
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Yeah, but what's that guy done for us lately?
Seriously, though, I put bone pins in my Bourgeois a few years ago and didn't notice any change in tone.
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"What have I learned but the proper use for several tools" -Gary Snyder Bourgeois DR-A / Bowerman "Working Man's" OM / Martin Custom D-18 (adi & flame) / Martin OM-21 / Northwood M70 MJ / 1970s Sigma DR-7 / Eastman E6D / Flatiron Signature A5 / Silverangel Econo A (Call me Dan) |
#11
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A safe answer is "Not for me…but all my guitars have better pins than they arrived with." My current pins on my main guitar are Buffalo Horn…(sometimes referred to as Amber). Why did I choose these? They look so cool with Cedar top-wood and James Olson's beautiful bridge. They were a birthday gift from my wife…she knows what I like! If the overall tone of my guitar rests on the formulation and weight of it's bridge pins, that implies a poorly designed instrument. |
#12
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Quote:
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McCollum Grand Auditorum Euro Spruce/Brazilian PRS Hollowbody Spruce PRS SC58 Giffin Vikta Gibson Custom Shop ES 335 '59 Historic RI ‘91 Les Paul Standard ‘52 AVRI Tele - Richie Baxt build Fender American Deluxe Tele Fender Fat Strat |
#13
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Alan Carruth's assessment is consistent with my own observations - swapping plastic for a set of bone pins in my Martin OM28 (which were about 5-6 grams heavier) increased the bass response ever so slightly.
I'm not sure I buy the idea that differing pin materials sound differently - my intuition tells me it has everything to do with differences in mass affecting the response of the top/bridge "system". This will of course be debated until the end of time or steel-string acoustic guitars, whichever comes first. |
#14
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Quote:
*A nickel weighs exactly 5 g.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses.... |
#15
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Don't want to be pedantic, but this raised my eyebrows...
"My current pins on my main guitar are Buffalo Horn…(sometimes referred to as Amber)" Buffalo horn is exactly what it sounds like. The horn material from a buffalo. Amber is fossilized tree resin. Rumor has it that if you have a piece of amber with a mosquito in it, you can grow dinosaurs through a convoluted process... |