In this installment of our Ask the Expert series, we dive into the question of bridge pins. There are so many different materials for acoustic guitar bridge pins, but how much difference do they make in your guitar tone?
I’ve seen many advertisements for Tusq, ivory, and even brass bridge pins, and how they can enhance the tone of your guitar. Is there any substance to this?
A: On a responsively built instrument, bridge mass is an important variable, and the bridge pins can vary that mass by a meaningful amount. The bridge is the first point of excitation from string energy, and how it responds to that excitation can help determine the instrument’s character. A lightweight bridge will react quickly, yielding a very lively transient response with high sensitivity to touch and technique. The downside is that lighter bridges also tend to give a little less sustain, as the energy is dissipated into the top more quickly. A higher-mass bridge system will reflect some of the string’s energy back into the vibrating length, prolonging the sustain a little. Heavier bridges offer a little less dynamic range to the instrument, as they raise the threshold of energy required to excite the top. However, some makers feel that slightly heavier bridges favor bass frequencies, either by slowing down the top’s vibrational modes or by acting as a filter of sorts, reducing the relative balance of the mids and highs.
Guitto's Revolver Capo Boasts A Bridge Pin Puller And Pick Holder
On most factory guitars, these differences will be relatively minor, as the tops on those guitars are most often built a bit heavier than is absolutely necessary. Changes from one extreme to the other—going from plastic to brass bridge pins, for example—will probably have the most audible effect, and each player’s ear may prefer something different. If you have a guitar that feels sluggish or uninspiring, a set of lighter bridge pins may help give it a tiny bit of extra life. Conversely, brass pins may help an uneven-sounding instrument sound a bit more controlled by smoothing out frequency peaks where the top is overly sensitive.
Another important consideration is the proper fit of the pins. Pins that are too loose can lead to premature wear or damage on the all-important bridge plate inside the guitar, and replacing a bridge plate is pretty unfriendly work to both the hands and the budget. If the pins are not tight enough, the ball ends can pull up into the gap between pin and hole inside the guitar, compressing and crushing the fibers of the plate.
Overly tight pins can also cause problems—the wedging force of a long, shallow taper is considerable—even more so when multiplied by six. When installing new pins, be cautious about forcing them too tightly into the holes. I’ve seen bridges that were split right down the middle by this very thing. The pin should fit snugly with minimal pressure, but not so tightly that it can’t be removed by hand. (It’s also not fun to break a string on a gig and have to go digging for pliers to extract a stubborn pin.)
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Finally, when shopping for new pins, take note of whether your bridge needs the slotted or unslotted variety. Some bridges have plain holes for the pins, and in those cases the pins themselves must be slotted to create a channel for the strings to pass through. In other cases, the holes in the bridge have slots cut in, creating a sort of keyhole shape. Bridges with this detail normally use unslotted pins to avoid having excessive clearance around the string path, which can lead to the same issues described above regarding loose pins.
This is a fun way to play with altering the tone of your favorite guitar. Replacement pins are fairly inexpensive and are available in a broad range of materials—from bone to ebony, brass, titanium, and modern composites such as Tusq. They can also add a touch of visual flash to an otherwise plain-looking guitar—I’ve had a few come in with alternating black-and-white pins, and one once with bright red anodized aluminum ones. Along with different brands and compositions of strings, this is one of the few easy places to experiment with shaping the sound of your acoustic—alongside practicing, of course!Changing guitar strings can be one of the most confusing endeavors for any guitarist. No matter how old or how experienced, just about every guitar player out there has been met with a broken string. In this guide, we will go through the step-by-step process to change the strings on an acoustic guitar. By the end of this post, you will have the tools necessary to try restringing an acoustic guitar on your own! Not in the mood to read? Watch the video below to guide you!
Some of these items are not completely necessary, for example, wood polish and paper towels are only necessary if you plan to clean your guitar while the strings are off.
Acoustic Guitar Bridge Pins
In this tutorial, we will be replacing all the strings on the guitar. Many guitarists who break one string use the opportunity to change all the strings. Many professional guitarists and regular players will even change strings before breaking any. If a guitarist perceives the strings going out of tune quickly or sounding out of tune despite being in tune with a tuner or even just feeling old, they will often replace the strings. As you play guitar, residue builds up on the strings over time, you can check if your strings have any residue by running your finger on the underside of a string, you'll likely feel it as you move your finger and see the residue on your finger when you look at your hand afterwards.
Begin detuning any strings you wish to change, do this by loosening the tuning key of the corresponding string until the string has virtually no tension and hangs loosely on the fretboard.
The bridge pins are the small pegs in the bridge. You may not have known that they were even removable but they are actually keeping your strings in place.
Bridge End Pin Set
First, make sure your strings are loose enough to fit your hand in the sound hole. Then reach in the guitar, feel around for where the bridge pins are located and push the bridge pins up and out of the guitar.
You may be able to pull them from the outside but they tend to be tightly in place. If you encounter a bridge pin that feels stuck, either use pliers or attempt to use 2 hands, one from the inside of the guitar pushing up, and one on the outside pulling up. If you need to use pliers be careful not to damage the guitar or the bridge pins.
Now back to the headstock, you can begin unwinding each string from it's tuning key and remove each from the guitar entirely.
Pcs Bridge Pins Acoustic Guitar String End Peg Fixed Holder Tool Accessories
As mentioned earlier, this step it optional. I generally recommend cleaning the fretboard every time you change the strings as it is one of the few opportunities you have to access areas of the guitar that are normally blocked by the strings. You can usually see residue build up on the fingerboard if you look closely at the guitar. If any residue is visible on any of the frets, it's a good idea to polish it.
First, grab a sheet of paper towel and fold it in half several times to make a small square or rectangle. Dab the folded paper towel on the lid of the wood polish (I use Old English Wood Furniture Polish) and flip the bottle upside down. Quickly return it to the upright position so the paper towel gets a small amount of the polish soaked in.
Scrub the fingerboard, one fret at a time, moving with the direction of the grain of the wood. Give special attention to areas where build up is visible. You will quickly see the residue starting to build up on the paper towel. Feel free to reapply polish as you go, flip the paper towel to a clean side or switch to a fresh sheet altogether.
White/black Acoustic Guitar Abs Plastic Bridge Pins (6 Pieces)
Once the fretboard is taken care of, you can use a small amount of polish to clean any other areas of the guitar that may be hard to reach normally. Dust will commonly build up on the headstock and around the bridge, these are areas that the strings usually prevent us from being able to clean.
Guitar strings often come wound together in their packaging. This can potentially make it confusing to figure out which string is which. Luckily most string manufacturers have a way to help; many brands (including the D'Addario strings I use in the video) have a color guide. The ball at the end of each string will have a different color and a color guide will be included somewhere on the packaging. For my strings, the color guide is:
Once all the strings have been attached then you can being to tighten them. Again, don't worry about tuning just yet. We just want to begin to stretch the strings so they don't break while tuning for
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