I've never had to replace any of my acoustics' bridge pins or end pins. However, I did recently pick-up a pre-war 0-17 which is missing it's end
pin. In looking for a replacement, the first thing I noticed is that it was darn near impossible to find someone selling just an end pin. Having to purchase
an entire bridge pin set to get the endpin, I then noticed that there were a number of different materials (plastic, wood, bone, ivory). It got me thinking .
. . I keep hearing about bone saddles and bone nuts, and noticed there were a few bridge pins made of bone. The pins on my Martin are made of black plastic.
I wonder how a set of bone pins will effect the sound. (Of course, I'll save the originals).
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Martin: Bridge Pins & End Pins
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 Tricone |
Martin: Bridge Pins & End Pins |
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Posts: 569 05/30/09 10:23 PM Moderator |
Last Edited By: Tricone 06/07/09 8:16 AM.
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Guyute |
#1 | |||
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Posts: 345 05/31/09 2:16 AM Moderator |
Bob Colosi is a great resource for this stuff. He will sell you just an endpin and makes saddles, endpins and bridgepins out of bone, elephant ivory,
fossilized walrus ivory and mammoth ivory. Before people freak about the ivory, he buys from an organization that sells ivory confiscated from poachers and the
proceeds of that sale go to fight poaching. So it's not encouraging poaching and it would be a shame if that poached ivory was simply destroyed because the
elephants would have died for nothing. At least this way, their murders can possibly help to save other elephants.
http://www.guitarsaddles.com/ Bob's site is a wealth of knowledge about what material has what sound, etc. You can also call or email him with specific questions and I've found him to be extremely helpful. Can't recommend him enough. Tricone, you said it's pre-war and the pins are plastic? Are you sure they're original?
Last Edited By: Guyute 05/31/09 2:19 AM.
Edited 1 time.
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Tricone |
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Posts: 569 05/31/09 8:38 AM Moderator |
Hey Chris,
Thanks for recommending Bob! I'll definitely check-out what he has to offer. Regarding the bridge pins, I purchased the guitar from Eric Schoenberg, and I was told that everything was original. When I went to remove the strings last night, I discovered that the pins were plastic, and was wondering the same thing. I broke out my Martin references and checked various websites, and more or less confirmed that 0-18s and 0-17s during this time period were spec'd with solid black plastic pins. I might save them, and order something from Bob. |
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Guyute |
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Posts: 345 05/31/09 9:39 AM Moderator |
I didn't know they even had plastic before WWII. LOL
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Tricone.acousticfingers... |
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Posts: 48 05/31/09 4:57 PM Administrator |
Guyute wrote:I didn't either! Funny, but it's the only thing that looks newish on the guitar. Everything else looks 70+ years old. |
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Tricone |
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Posts: 569 06/07/09 1:58 PM Moderator |
Just received my replica Martin plastic end and bridge pins from Elderly. They are made by Willi Henkes (BHguitars on UMGF) in Germany. Pretty much an exact
copy of my original bridge pins. Very nice.
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Guyute |
#6 | |||
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Posts: 345 06/07/09 5:50 PM Moderator |
Huh...I thought you were going to go with bone or some other material. Did you go with plastic purely for authenticity?
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Tricone |
#7 | |||
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Posts: 569 06/07/09 5:55 PM Moderator |
Yes, I purchased the Willi plastic ones for authenticity. They are pretty inexpensive. I might still try bone or similar, although then I'd have to change
to white-colored pins.
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Guyute |
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Posts: 345 06/07/09 6:47 PM Moderator |
You might think about the water buffalo horns because they're much darker (almost black).
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Tricone |
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Posts: 569 06/07/09 7:26 PM Moderator |
I was just reading about those, but Bob's description states they aren't as dense as ivory or bone, and that you probably won't hear a sonic
difference.
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Guyute |
#10 | |||
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Posts: 345 06/07/09 8:07 PM Moderator |
I think he means a difference between them and ebony pins. My guess is you'll hear a difference between them and plastic pins...but you never know.
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Tricone |
#11 | |||
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Posts: 569 06/08/09 9:14 AM Moderator |
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