The Bridge Pin Thing

[lowrider]

vindibona1, which taper do we use for new Martin guitars; 3* or 5*?

[rokdog49]

I forgot that one of the effects vindibona1 mentioned as a by-product of changing out individual pins was that you can have a change in the tonal relationships of the other strings to one another that can be noticeable and I did experience it. I was better off with just the change on the high E relative to its sister B string. The B is now pinned with an ebony pin as are four others and it sounds very good. It is in balance and much less harsh.
That deal with the 6th string and the Buffalo Horn pin is for real, at least on my J45.
I have more clarity, sustain and nicer balance on that string. Lost a little thump, but not much and now all six strings sound sweet. Not a bad thing, just different.
My experiences are my experiences and so if anyone wants to try this stuff,
we have a great resource in vindibona1 right here.

[AcousticDreams]

So very nice to see that so many are hearing results. I have been a long time believer in what Bridge pins can do.

I believe that for some reason with some builders designs, it will make no tonal difference. On other builders, they can really change the tone. I have had guitars where Bridge Pins dramatically altered the tone, and others where it did nothing. Electric guitar pickups are designed so you can angle them to bring out or decrease the response of bass or treble.

Here is my standard set up for most of my guitars. I am a huge experimenter. I even drill out the center and add small brass tubing. I could have bought a inexpensive guitar with all the money I have spent on bridge pins and the experimentation there of. One of the best investments I have ever made. I have tried, bone, camel bone, black horn, boxwood, bloodwood, brass, Malaysian ebony, African Blackwood, Cocobolo & more.

Plus it is fun to experiment!

[vindibona1]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

So very nice to see that so many are hearing results. I have been a long time believer in what Bridge pins can do.

I believe that for some reason with some builders designs, it will make no tonal difference. On other builders, they can really change the tone. I have had guitars where Bridge Pins dramatically altered the tone, and others where it did nothing. Electric guitar pickups are designed so you can angle them to bring out or decrease the response of bass or treble.

Here is my standard set up for most of my guitars. I am a huge experimenter. I even drill out the center and add small brass tubing. I could have bought a inexpensive guitar with all the money I have spent on bridge pins and the experimentation there of. One of the best investments I have ever made. I have tried, bone, camel bone, black horn, boxwood, bloodwood, brass, Malaysian ebony, African Blackwood, Cocobolo & more.

Plus it is fun to experiment!

It shouldn't go unsaid that my major collaborator in these experiments is Knives&Guitars. He has sent me some pretty exotic stuff to try, turned me onto the African Blackwood and has provided some of his drilled out and tube bridge pins. There are so many variations of tone you can create, but I've chosen to keep it simple so that I can diagnose basic issues and come up with quick solutions by narrowing my bridge pin selections to only 4 or 5 materials.

You will note that K&G's guitar is using a 4+2 combination. I've previously experimented with a 2+2+2 multi-hybrid set of pins (see photo below), but now as I have my guitars and strings dialed into what I like I usually go with a musch simpler 5+1 combination, the constant being the Buffalo horn in the 6th slot with the rest being all ebony or bone. I have gone all Buffalo on my D35 which sounded ok. I can also substitute the 5 bone pins for ebony, but that makes the sound a little darker, and not necessarily better, considering my D35 is already very dark with scooped mids. However, if I wanted more mid presence I'd probably to 4 bufffalo and 2 bone or ebony. It's not rocket science. Not only does your pin selection have to do with the guitar, but the strings that you're using. If you've tried several sets of strings you may notice that one string may sound different; louder, softer, brighter, darker, muddier, punchier than the others.