Greetings, All!
So, recently I met with my first guitar teacher to hang out and play some music, and he pointed out something I found very interesting: he had installed brass bridge pins on a significant number of his guitars because they drastically improved the sound, especially on smaller instruments...
So that got me thinking...
Which is pretty impressive, since I don't think all that much. (= But seriously, after about 15 years of guitar playing, I hadn't given much thought at all to my guitars' bridge pins and how they affected my tone. So I ordered myself a set of brass bridge pins, installed them in my Taylor GS Mini (whose tone had always left me wanting more) since it had come with plastic bridge pins, and...
GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY.
Not only did the brass pins improve the tone of the guitar, the change was significant. Here's how I perceived the improvement:
Brightness up 10%
Volume up 15%
Bass distortion down 20%
High-fret clarity up 15%
Sustain up 15%
Chord intonation up 20%
So I bought lots more brass pins. I think I have them in 5 guitars now.
My point? Give your bridge pins some thought, like I did. There are plenty of guitars out there that come with plastic bridge pins, and I'd say that's probably the worst material that is generally used for pins. Your strings are metal, and the guitar is wood, and together they produce your tone; why on earth would you connect the two with plastic?!? That doesn't make any sense to me, just sayin'.
So if you've got plastic pins, I strongly encourage you to think about getting some pins of a premium material. You could get brass like I did, or bone, a hardwood like ebony, or a high-end synthetic like Tusq. All these would be an improvement over plastic, for sure. (Already have premium pins? Try another material to experiment with tone.)
That's all for now! Thanks for...
...Wait...
...I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I just can't PIN it down...
Oh, well. Thanks for reading!
Pickin' & Bloggin',
Justin Richters
Comments