bridge pin taper.

[liam_fnq]

hi all, i've had a bit of a search but couldn't find the info i'm after.

whats the go with different bridge pin tapers, also whats the go with slotted vs. unslotted pins.

are there benefits with certain combos or is it much of a muchness.

feel free to tell us all what you use and why.

thanks, Liam.

[jeffhigh]

I am using 3 degree unslotted pins, can't remember why I went with 3 but now I have the reamer to match I will stick with it.
By slotting the bridge and using unslotted pins, the string balls seat better on the bridge plate causing less damage over the years both to the bridge plate and to the pins.
I have used both bone and black buffalo horn and both were fine.

[Hesh1956]

Liam buddy what Jeff said: unslotted pins force the string ball more onto the bridge plate flat surface and less onto the edge of the bridge plate pin holes. The obvious benefit is less plate wear over time. The debatable possible benefit is more of the string is in direct contact with the bridge, top, plate provided that the pin holes have also been correctly sized to match the taper of the pins and with more contact there may be more vibration to harvest.

I may have this wrong but I believe that 3 degree was used on some of the iconic pre-war instruments and 5 degree is a more modern notion. Again, not sure about this.

What's most important though is that the pins, what ever taper that you use, are well matched to the reamer that you use so that there is good wood-to-wood contact throughout the bridge, top, plate system. Both of Stew-Mac's pin reamers, 5 and 3 degree, are very high quality tools and well worth the money if you plan on building until you are fertilizer.

Have you ever pulled the plastic pins out of a guitar and noticed that they are somewhat bent? I have many here that I have pulled out of old guitars and replaced. The pins bend because the slot in the pins pull the string ball closer to the pin and the edges of the pin holes in the bridge plate. As the plate wears more the string ball gets closer to the pin and on plastic pins it can and does eventually bend the pins. When the pins bend the string balls get even more on the edges of the pin holes and the wear increases in both scope and over time. It's a long walk on a short pier so-to-speak.

Slotted pins came about as a cost savings fix, and a very poor one too, for factories who wanted to nix the time consuming process of slotting the bridge, top, and plate to fit the strings.

David Collins has done a lot of historical research on this subject and has some demonstration placards that show the relationship of slotted and unslotted pins on the wear of the bridge plate.

I use 3 or 5 degree unslotted pins and slot the bridge, plate, and top accordingly. I don't think that it matters what taper that you use provided that you ream the holes to fit well.

If you cannot find unslotted pins in your neck of the woods slotted pins work fine if you turn them around so the slots are not used. The only problem with this method is if the owner of the guitar does not know what you did and why they may, upon the next string change, turn the pins around and attempt to use the slots when you have already slotted the bridge, plate, and top. That won't work well......