Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello everyone , is it me ? Or are almost all modern bridge pins I buy too small ? Doesn't seem to matter what guitar , old or new nothing seems to fit properly anymore . For that matter , ready made bridges , nuts and saddles all suffer the same problem . Is it China ? Do I have to become a "real luthier" and make absolutely every part ? Actually , the tuners , strings , buttons , frets and the bridge pins are the only parts I do buy . So , I guess I'm taking bridge pins off that list . Now , .....where can I find a tiny lathe ......

Rant complete . Peace ....

You could make smaller bridge pin holes in your bridges. Do you know how to make 6 identical bridge pins? Make 24 or more and sort them into like piles.

Not sure what is going on-I do a lot of repair and building and haven't had that problem.

Stew mac does sell "oversize" pins

where you getting them? I can't say I have that problem

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Bridge occasionally may be “exactly right” but generally pins have to be fit to the holes if you are looking for an ideal fit. Either by reaming the hole larger or making it smaller.

I haven't had that problem either.

Bridge pins need to be fitted to a bridge with a 5 degree reamer usually and sometimes 3 degree. You make your pin holes slightly smaller and ream the holes to size for the pins.

I don't find them too small and there are oversized pins available from StewMac for repair work where the pin holes have been enlarged too much.

What is evil about today's bridge pins are the slots which were a so-called innovation back in the day to preclude the need for semi-skilled factory labor to fit things properly. But they damage the bridge plate over time and solid pins are a much better idea.

I have my non-slotted pins made to spec by https://www.gurianinstruments.com/ You do have to buy them by the gross, but they are very consistent in size.

M

I’ve had good luck with Waverley unslotted pins. Very consistent size but they are expensive.


Steve

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

If you want to make your own pins a small jewelers lathe might be a compact and affordable option. I have used them to turn replacement ivory finials on some of my wife's antique spinning wheels, and have also turned Corian material for various uses. I'm sure you could also turn bridge pins. I rarely use one of the three I have, as you can see by the dust on the one pictured.
You can sometimes find these little lathes at flea markets for reasonable prices and eBay also has them, so if you catch the right auction you might find a deal.
They are small enough to be set up and put away without much trouble and have an indexing pin if you want to try your hand at cutting gears and such. A sewing machine foot pedal (rheostat) controls the speed.
Honestly though, for bridge pins I would make the hole fit the pin if I couldn't find a pin to fit the hole.

I'm in with most of the rest here. I take time to match bridge pins in sets so they are interchangeable for the end user.

Some of my first (cheap) sets were so bad in uniformity, it took 6 sets to find six pins the same. I think they were turned from green wood. I've had good luck with StuMac and LMI for uniform pin size. Easily worth the $$ IMO. I mean what are we talking here, $6 compared to $10 or something?

I prefer 3 degree pins, as they are longer and I use a slightly thicker bridge plate. I think they are a bit more robust and less likely to wear long term.

I'm still on the fence as to slotted or unslotted pins but I'll present that case in a later thread. I'll have to do a search first as I know some folks are strongly opinionated on that so I suspect it's been discussed in depth before.

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Brian R, Wood Mechanic
N8ZED

Yeah hi , I get them from "where else" ? China . Not any more , I found some nice pegs here in Oz . I think they're made in the USA . anything under 5mm is too small in my opinion . Made my first bridge yesterday from wenge , it's not as easy as it looks is it . But it went ok I guess . Just a Martin standard . Peace .

Hey David no it's not easy to make a bridge from scratch. Takes me nearly two hours to do. My business partner can bang one out on the belt sander in 15 minutes.... and they are perfect.

We are Martin certified for warranty work and instead of using Martin bridges which they will send us when we need them we make a bridge from scratch carefully selecting the blank to match the instrument.

Hi David,
The Wenge I have worked with tended to split relatively easily. I like to use a little tougher wood for bridges, but yours might be O.K. Some people have suggested "skew cut" grain is best for bridges, but I have seen them with all kind of grain orientations.
Maderas Barber sells wenge classical guitar bridges, so I guess it works for some people.

Both 'in depth' and 'to death'!

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Peter Havriluk

Hey Brian the best threads on slotted vs. unspotted were around 2007 - 2008 where we had Mario P's and Rick Turner's RIP participation. There was a clear winner and it's 3 degree unslotted. They don't damage bridge plates and I've had 1867 Martins in my shop with perfect bridge plates from unslotted pins.

So I used 3 degree, unslotted pins too. I had a bunch of BRW and a few African Blackwood and Cocobolo pins like this made up for me and still have a bunch of them too.

It was mentioned a few times in this thread to make the holes smaller. How do you do that? I imagine drilling the hole larger to some degree and plugging the hole for redrilling. Do you need a plug cutter to match the grain or just an ebony dowel?

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Hutch

Get the heck off the couch and go build a guitar!!!!

Stew-Mac has tapered plugs in rosewood or ebony that you can glue in. The plugs also have a small hole down the center to guide the new hole. I've used them a few times.

When you are back to virgin wood use a 3/16th" drill to drill the pin holes and then ream if using 5 degree to fit with a 5 degree reamer.

Ream only a turn or two at a time they drop the pins quickly and if you go too far you are screwed.

Make the pins AND the end pin on the butt end fit very nearly to the first ring on the pin(s) but not touching it. They pins should be a hair proud (sticking up) and that first ring should not be used as a stop.

If you always use the same strings cut yourself a set of them with just the string ball and 6" of string. Use these dummy strings to file/cut the face of each pin hole so that the pin sits in the same place just as far down with a string and without. You will find that some strings require much more fitting because of the wraps, Tomastic are one example and some Martin strings need more relief in the slot too.

Good idea too to trial fit multiple pins some pin makers have lousy quality control and their pins can be different sizes....