Bridge pins.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Allen on December 30, 2009 at 12:59pm

I use bone pins and bone saddles on my acoustics and they do make a difference. I have bought the $30 ones on Ebay and the $60 ones in the guitar stores and either way works. But also change the saddle to bone and that is the biggest change other than strings that affects tone. On my Dove I even installed a brass plate on the inside under the bridge and that really made it ring even longer and sound better than I thought it would for such a cheap little thing to do.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Scanlan on December 30, 2009 at 5:42pm

Hi Dave,
All of my guitars have bone nuts/saddles/bridge pins. I've tried everything except the new Titanium pins..I've used hard woods, brass, aluminum, you name it, I've tried it. the closest pin to bone is probably tousq (sp?). I used the tousq pins on my OM for a while, and they produced a tone very similar to bone. It's all in the ear of the player I guess.
Jim

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Permalink Reply by John Cheyney on December 31, 2009 at 5:49pm

I change to Tusq pins on my Alvarez-Yairi and it did make a difference, albeit subtle. It did not make a discernible difference in the sound that came out through the Fishman Matrix undersaddle pickup. I would say be realistic about what you expect. It wouldn't plan on solving any major problems, unless the problem is actually the pins you have. However, it is also a relatively cheap and easy thing to do if you are just curious.

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Permalink Reply by Dave Sterenchock on January 1, 2010 at 9:25am

I'm just curious. My Martin sounds great with the pins it came with. I was just wondering about the difference they would make.

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Permalink Reply by John Burr on January 2, 2010 at 3:05pm

I think the pins make very little difference in general. I have bought some cool "Looking" pins for my Martin that are made of Oosic, an interesting part of an interesting animal. They are quite pretty and even have tiny Mother of Pearl inlays in them but they don't sound any different than my standard plastic Martin pins really. Nut and saddle support the strings, these should be the spot to spend your money for sound difference. Saddle in particular because this is what transfers most of the vibration from string to guitar top and that is what moves the air...

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