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Question for those with experience in going pinless.
Since there are no pins there should be no real need for a bridge plate. do any of you use a brace of some sort under the bridge when you go pinless to help counter string torque?

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John, I think that if you make sure you cross the legs of the x with the bridge, that sould counter the force enough. Though I'm of the school of thought that the bridge plate does NOTHING but keep the balls from ripping up the top. So mine are as thin as possible.
I've done two pinnless bridges. One as a repair to fix compensation issues and one that was planned. The fix has a bridge plate and the planned doesn't. I haven't noticed adverse effects on either.

I agree that the plate doesn't do much but support the pins but it must add a little stiffness I would think. I'll not put a plate in this one though and see. It'll be a keeper anyway.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John,

I use a pinless bridge, but with a bridge plate also. It's not quite as heavy as normal, but my pinless bridge is made using the Klein bridge as a point of departure. There are music wire rods that the ball ends of the string slide over, and these pass through the bridge, top and bridge plate. It's a pretty solid assembly.

Russ

Russ, are the wires anchored somehow or just glued in?
Actually I am thnking about using a string thru style. string inserted from behind the bridge but above the top.
Just something I want to try out on a special guitar.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

John,

I've built only one steel string so far, but I liked the idea of a pinless bridge, so that's what I went with:



I installed a bridge plate on mine, just more out of following tradition more than anything else. I build classicals, and most classicals use a bridge pad, typically made from a soundboard offcut, which acts to reinforce the top from the bridge's attempt to torque the soundboard toward the nut. But since classicals typically do not use an X-bracing design, I can see why a plate might not be necessary at all. It seems to me that an X-brace would provide you with all the reinforcement you would need to counteract the string pull without the addition of the plate.

However -- one thing I've noticed regarding my classical builds is that more solid reinforcement along the bridge saddle line seems to increase a guitar's sustain. So, it might be worthwhile to keep a plate of some sort in the event that sustain might be affected. Apples and oranges, I realize, but still something to possibly consider.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

I would definitely check out how Mike Doolin does it.
http://www.doolinguitars.com/pinless.html
I believe the pins pass through the bridge and into the bridge plate,
replicating the type of "pull" a conventional bridge design does.
-C

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Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Trust me, the bridge plate can have a big effect on the bridge's ability to
stay stuck to the top of the guitar. By stiffening the area, it reduces the
tendency of the top to "peel" away under the bridge.

One feature of the pinless bridge I find particularly annoying is the tendency
for a broken string to "shoot" the string ball back out of the bridge, seriously
scarring the top. Another is that when the bridge becomes loosened from
the top it can pull all the way off, sometimes taking a big chunk of the top
with it in front of the bridge. That's another nasty piece of business that the
pin bridge design avoids.

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Cheers,

Frank Ford

FRETS.COM
HomeShopTech
FRETS.NET

I don't entirely get the whole pinless bridge thing.

Now I realize that some of these pinless bridges look really cool, and I think maybe it's easier to change strings with a pinless bridge.
But maybe I'm stuck in the mud here, because I just like the look of the pinned bridges better. Perhaps we're all so accustomed to it that the pinless bridges have a certain "wow" factor that the traditional pinned bridges don't have. At least in our minds. I like pins.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

I'm jst trying to loose weight were I can. Not that a bridge plate is very heavy. But now I can get ride of those big lead bridge pins I've been using .

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I like the Doolin design.
Don,
There is something about "seeing" the anchor point of the string at the bridge that seems reassuring somehow.
With pins, it took me a while to learn how to get the strings to seat properly against the inner plate on my first few acoustics. When the ball end is not in the right spot, it can cause some odd sounds.
But, I like pins too.

Wade

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Wade
Nashua, NH
http://www.wadefx.com

Don,

I came at guitar building having owned and been impressed by the Lowdens that I own and have only made guitars with pinless bridges. I'm the flip side to you - I don't get (or want to do) the multiple "piercings" of the top, forcing the strings down and then wedging them in with some bits of wood or other substances

My head tells me that not having to perform the anchoring role of the strings through the top, the bridge will drive the top in a different way (more freely?) but I've asked the great source of wisdom Alan C about this and he's not so sure. It certainly gives more freedom for bracing designs, but I think you still need a bridge plate (as Frank Ford says, to help keep the bridge on) and also I would tend to agree with Michael that it helps with sustain. The Mike Doolin bridge is a very clever design, but I regard it as a hybrid rather than pure pinless bridge as it has pins (albeit brass ones) drilled through the top into the bridgeplate.

I make my bridgeplates with the grain in the same direction as the top - after reading something that Frank Ford said.

Pinless bridges have to be more carefully glued and can pop, but those of mine that have came off clean as a whistle (like taking off an elastoplast). Breaking strings can do damage, but equally they can do it between the bridge and soundhole. Nearly all of my breakages (fortunately) have been at the tuner end and the ball-ends have not caused damage. Changing strings is actually trickier as you have to avoid damaging the top behind the bridge as you take the old strings off and put the new ones in. I have taken to making small wooden plates that match the contour behind the bridge for my guitars that can be used when changing strings.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Just a anticlerical thought here. All things being equal, for the pin-less bridge to increase sustain over the pined bridge it would seam to me that the pin-less bridge arrangement would some how have to produce more energy either at the saddle or through the bridge its self to have that affect. Most pin-less arrangements I have seen have a shallower break angle than pined. And in my thinking slightly dampen the available energy at the saddle
I could be wrong here.

Michael,

It would take greater minds than mine to know for sure!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

[QUOTE=MichaelP] Just a anticlerical thought here. All things being equal, for the pin-less bridge to increase sustain over the pined bridge it would seam to me that the pin-less bridge arrangement would some how have to produce more energy either at the saddle or through the bridge its self to have that affect. Most pin-less arrangements I have seen have a shallower break angle than pined. And in my thinking slightly dampen the available energy at the saddle
I could be wrong here.
[/QUOTE]

Micheal,

My reasoning (and it could be equally flawed!!) is that the strings being anchored through the bridgeplate will take some of the energy from the bridgeplate (most of the movement part being at the saddle, the anchor being - well an anchor) so pinless could actually move more freely. Also in terms of break angle, I have seen the great Alan C post many times that it is the height of the strings above the top (which is closely correlated, usually to break angle) that is the driver - you only need enough break angle to keep the strings in contact with the saddle.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Dave

I come at this one from a slightly different angle, my theory (which could also be flawed) is I view the bridge plate and bridge as one unit, so for my design of guitars I want the bridge and bridge plate to drive the top, I have experimented alot with various sizes of bridge plate, and to me it make a real difference.

Thats not to say that I think the pinless approach is wrong, take Lowden for instance they build top and brace structures that are already very active, so put a large bridge plate and pinned bridge on this and it is rather like having a small car with a big engine, it becomes uncontrolable.

For me this is one of those areas where you can't isolate a part of the top and test, the top must be considered as a whole.

Which is not too good I guess from a science point of view as it is difficult to test in a scientific manner.

Mind you having seen pictures of some of your beautiful top designs, I am sure you have this all in balance.

I don't like the idea of the force of the strings held only by a glue joint. If the piano wire supports penetrate into a bridge plate that helps some with a mechanical bond but not as much as the strings themselves pulling directly against the bridge plate. With a pin bridge, as I am sure most of you know, even if the glue joint fails completely the strings will stay put.
I vote for the mechanical connection of pins.

Just my 2 cents contratian view.

John

[QUOTE=John Kinnaird] I don't like the idea of the force of the strings held only by a glue joint.
John[/QUOTE]

Makes it a sort of "creative tension"

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Russell,

I agree 100% - the whole of the design is what makes things work, not just individual pick and mix parts. As they used to say - "If it ain't baroque, don't fix it"

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

The thing about pinless bridges to my eye is that more of the string tension is on the bridge itself, trying to peel the bridge off the top. I think with a pinned brige
you are vectoring more force perpendicular to the top tending to keep the bridge in place. Lower string tension on Classicals I think can handle the peeling force better than a steel string. Then again I never tried it on a SS.

Michael,

re: break angle at the saddle. Here are a couple of pictures (not the best quality) that shows how break angle is addressed on my version of the pinless bridge. The strings are passed under the head of a button head cap screw that can be adjusted up or down allowing adjustment of the break angle. By tightening the cap screws the break angle is increased by pulling the pivot point closer to the bridge.

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Jimmy Caldwell
http://www.caldwellguitars.com

Jimmy, that's pretty cool! Can you show us a close-up of the side of those pins? And, are those anchors piano wire like Mike Doolin uses?
Very sharp looking...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Well you guys made me so nervous that I glued on a bridge patch and will use pins on this one and save the pinless for after more research.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Jimmy
   That is a very creative bridge. In fact the entire guitar looks very original and nice.

I like two things on this set-up

1) The step brake angle induced by the buttons
2) The deep foot print of the bridge (more glued surface area.) I have repaired several pinless bridges that have pulled lose that were more like the Ovation pinless. A note here Ovation bolts their bridges to solve this issue.