I'm finally nearing completion of my first alto guitar, designing and making the bridge now while I wait for the body and neck to come back from Joe White. This instrument has four double courses (eight strings in unison pairs) and a pin bridge. I've never built or repaired an instrument like this before. I thought I had figured out the string spacing until I realized
that the bridge pins limit how close together I can space the two strings in each pair at the bridge end. Of course, I will stagger the placement of the pins, but still, the string anchored in the pin further back has to pass by the pin (of its sister string) closer to the saddle. I plan to sneak the strings slightly under the heads of the pins they have to pass by, so the string pairs can be a little closer together than half the diameter of the pin heads. I will also cut ramps for the strings as they emerge from their pin holes and head for the saddle. (I'm using unslotted, 3 degree taper pins, btw.)
What I'm looking for here are any tips for how best to do this. My concerns are:
1) that I'd like the strings in each pair to be as close together as possible, given the limitation imposed by the pins
2) that the ramp slots I cut for each string provide the best possible angle of approach to the saddle for each string, and
3) that the ramp slots from the further back pins will, it seems, be cut awfully close to the further forward pins, and I don't want those ramp slots to threaten the integrity of the pin holes of the further forward pins (I hope you can follow that)
If anyone who has worked on pin bridges for 12 string guitars or bouzoukis or whatever can help me out with the details on these issues, I'd greatly appreciate it.
