Hey (insert name here) Walden Worx
Using a smiley pin arrangement should not affect the break angle over the saddle too dramatically as the distance variation between that pin which is closest to the saddle, and that which is farthest away, is quite small.
The advantage however, is that the pins will not aligned with the woods natural grain and therefore is less likely to split the bridge along their alignment as a result of the ganged wedging effect that running them in line with the grain can have.
Having said that, there really are many old guitars out there doing just fine with the pins running straight. So with Mulga being soooo strong, this wedging effect is not really an issue. However to me, the gentle radius just seems to fit better with the soft curves of this bridge, so that is why I drilled them that way.
As for that knot which Michael so observantly picked up and highlighted in the image above,
I am betting that it will be fine. As explained, Mulga is a desert wood, it is as stable as steel. In fact, as I was sawing this small log of Mulga up into fingerboards and bridge blanks, I identified the bit pictured as scrap because of that very defect. However I thought rather than toss it, I could fool around with it rather than use up the clear stuff.
Well, just after I had taken the wings of this experimental bridge down to 1/16", I grasp that knot firmly with my thumb and the knuckle of my index finger and used substantial levering force to try and snap that knot out of there. It would not budge, this stuff is STRONG and it also only varies by a few % in moisture content between fresh cut green and air dried for 10 years. When our good mate Rod True gets around to using his, I am sure he will confirm all that I have said here.
If you believe what I am saying, I suppose that this is beginning to sound like some kind of miracle wood. Well, I'm here to tell you folks that it most certainly is. If you could see how harsh and arid the country side is where some of this stuff grows, you would fully understand how it is that a man can be dead within 2 hours of leaving a broken down vehicle to walk his way to safety. This does happen quite a bit in the outback, usually to those who should know better. Quite frankly, it truly is a miracle that anything at all can survive out there, and I do mean anything.
I guess that the contradictions are just one of the many things that make Australia just so incredibly beautiful. If you ever get the opportunity to stand at the edge of the world, your feet perched at the brink of the 70 metre high, 400 kilometre long limestone cliffs that are the Great Australian Bight, and you watch as the huge waves of the Southern Ocean, having travelled all the way from Antarctica, come rolling in to crash ineffectively below at your feet, you will feel a sense of majesty, it will simply take your breath away. Take it in, enjoy that moment while it last, for when you turn 180 degree to stare in hopeless frailty at the thousands of kilometres of arid nothingness that now stretches out before you, all the way to the Gulf of Carpentaria at the other side of this huge continent, you will have been put firmly back in your place, your insignificance will have been completely crystallised for you and your heart will skip a few beats upon that revelation.
Behold the Great Australian Bight
Cheers all
Kim
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by an import guitar company. So, I came up with WaldenWorx. My wife says that you can add 'seldom' at the end of that.
(She says she is just kidding.)