Acoustic Guitar Bridge Pins

Norman86

Hi guys...

So i have another question...

How do the bridge pins affect the tone on an acoustic guitar?
Obviously the nut and the saddle have quite an effect, but the bridge pins?

Or is it a non issue?

Thanks!

Bob-Dubery

Norman86 wrote How do the bridge pins affect the tone on an acoustic guitar?
Obviously the nut and the saddle have quite an effect, but the bridge pins?

Or is it a non issue?

Experts do not agree.

Both my acoustics came with rosewood bridge pins, but I bought Tusq pins (mostly to prevent an "oh heck..." moment when a rosewood pin flies through the air). I can't hear a difference. For a while I had 5 tusq and one rosewood pins on the Morgan... I can't say I noticed anything

BUT

I know that Neil Young is fussy about the bridge pins (he seems to like buffalo horn), and when I saw Martin Carthy in London a couple of years back he had regular pins on strings 6 to 4 and then brass pins on the high strings. So clearly he thinks it makes a difference.

Sidecar

Maybe it's possible that the buffalo horn and brass are hard enough to make a difference?

Gearhead

I for one have never understood the whole brass pin story. They weigh down a bridge so much that it must be affecting top motion. I know the Stratacoustic I used to have sounded way better when I tried it with Ebony pins. I dunno why Greame put the brass pins in...

Sidecar

Well, it must have had an effect then if you noticed a difference. Maybe the converse is true for others then, some might like the brass where you didn't? What was the difference in sound to you?

Bob-Dubery

This topic has come up before.

See http://www.guitarforum.co.za/setup-mods-and-repair/changing-endpins/ for probably inconclusive advice.

Norman86

Thanks guys....

Brass i would think WOULD change the tone... but thats because the metal is much more dense than bone or plastic or tusq!

But okay, was just something that i was wondering about!

Bob-Dubery

I think there are issues other than just density of material here.

1) You want a good, snug fitting pin that will hold the ball end securely in place - no slipping!
2) Unless the sound that cheap plastic pins confers really floats your boat then go for a good quality material that will wear well.
3) Have a couple of spares!
4) "Snug" not "where's that hammer?"

Malkav

I've personally always preferred the Ovation style bridges, where they don't take bridge pins. It's more like a classical bridge that has been designed to accept ball ends.

I wonder in relation to tone and tension if this may or may not change anything?

Gearhead

zohn wrote 5 different players playing one guitar have the potential to sound like 5 players playing 5 different guitars.

Yeah but I can't be another guitarist now can I?

Bob-Dubery

From what I've seen, and from what I can discern from what I've seen, the big difference between good and average acoustic players is the amount of energy put into the strings and a strike angle such that the strike on the string is parallel to the top (or as near to parallel as possible).

This is how Martin Carthy gets that amazing sustain and ring in his playing, or how Martin Simpson can do such beautiful legato work - it's the initial energy they put into the strings. When you watch Simpson play it looks like his left hand is doing all the work, but analyse it further and you realise that his right hand does the initial work by hitting the strings clean and hard and thus allowing all the legato stuff by dint of putting so much energy into the strings that they will ring a good long time.

Because of this good players make so-so guitars sound really good. I read some interesting observations about the late Nick Drake. One was that if you sat in a small room listening to Drake play it was almost painful because he hit the strings so hard (but also cleanly) that the guitar got really loud. The other (from arranger and fellow student Robert Kirby) was that Drake could pick up really cheap, banged up instruments and make them sound better than you could ever imagine.