classical bridges?

[inoz]

My mind was just wandering in the shed, as it does, ....... oh yeah.......
Why do classical guitars have strings tied to the bridge? Is it just a tradition thing now? Wouldn't they get more drive from ball ends/pins like a steel string? Has anyone done this on a classical ala crossover guitar?

[Tod Gilding]

My First guitar build was a steel string X braced Om WRC top ,and a very sweet sounding guitar, but as I learnt after about a year or so, I had under built it and the area on the treble side of the soundhole went like paper with the strings at tension, back the strings off and it returned to wood , I concluded that this guitar was not going to have a long life, so I strung it up with ball end nylons, and it still sounded great, just like a fine classical guitar, but with a longer life expectency, I really like this guitar as it is Classical sound with a steel string feel, I'm not a big fan of the wide flat classical fingerboards, so it suits me just fine, so to answer your question, if your not concerned with tradition there is no reason it can't be done. I just call it a nylon string guitar

[Dominic]

Because you don't have a hardwood bridge plate and there are braces under there.
Cheers
Dom

[Allen]

If you build to accommodate that style, then no reason at all not to go with that option.

On my Baritone and Tenor ukes I use a pinned bridge. For the Bass, Concert and Soprano I go with a string through bridge, but no pins. Hardwood bridge patch is traditional on all ukes. You could also go with a Carbon Fibre one.

You just need to plan out the bracing so that there is no chance of drilling through a fan brace. Or go with a completely different bracing pattern to eliminate the possibility.

[jeffhigh]

I would not expect it to have a sonic improvement
Lots of classical guitars in the german style were done with pinned bridges in the 1800's
Look at the Martins from that era, gut strings and pinned bridges

[charangohabsburg]

[...] Lots of classical guitars in the german style were done with pinned bridges in the 1800's [...]

... and also many French and Italian guitars of the 19th century.

A pin-less bridge will be a little bit lighter (pins plus bridge plate!).

I guess the Spanish guitar (Torres - model) took over because its combination of various design elements gave (give) a better sonorous result than other types of nylon- (previously gut-) strung guitars. While one single design element (like for example the type of bridge used) may be difficult to be proven as superior, it seems that the combination of all of the ingeniously united design elements in the Torres-model (and its successors) make a clear difference.

I imagine that bridge weight is somewhat less critical for steel strung guitars because steel strings provide more driving power (more mass and more tension).

In any case, I firmly believe that if one attempts to build a guitar sounding like this or that guitar, this goal is best (or only!) achievable by sticking not only to the dimensions of the role model but also to its building method, and olso get somehow close to the way of thinking of the master luthier... While this alone is still far from guarantee the result one strives for, every deviation from dimensions and building method will guarantee that the result will be different - which may or may not be a bad thing, it really depends on what one wants to do. If one wants to do "something different" It would be a bad idea to copy everything from an existing instrument or model!