Jerryc41
Well-known member
Is there any practical reason to favor a pin bridge over the regular tie bridge? I like the looks, but is that all there is to it?
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I'm sure there are more pros and cons, but here are a couple things I can think of that favor, or why I favor, the pin bridge:
Easier string changes (not that a tie bridge or knot bridge is hard)
Places more tension on the sound board (better sound board vibration? )
Less apt to cause a bridge failure (bridge joint failure where glued to sound board)
Looks Cool!
Jim
I'm sure there are more pros and cons, but here are a couple things I can think of that favor, or why I favor, the pin bridge:
Easier string changes (not that a tie bridge or knot bridge is hard)
Places more tension on the sound board (better sound board vibration? )
Less apt to cause a bridge failure (bridge joint failure where glued to sound board)
Looks Cool!
Jim
I dont have any ukes with a pin bridge, only slotted and tie-bridges.
For either, and since I am always changing and testing strings, all my strings have knots at the ends, and for a tie-bridge, I do NOT tie them on, but rather put a bead on the end, which goes betw the knot and the string hole in the bridge and just pull the string straight thru, and they work just fine and easy to remove and/or reinstall later.
Also looks neater to me (going thru with the bead and knot), as well as saving the wood of the tie-block from getting chewed up from indentations caused by the pressure/tension of the string when wrapped around the tie-block.
I do the same thing with beads on my classical guitars. Steel string acoustics all usually have pin bridges, and I have no issue with them.
Are you using metal beads? glass? plastic? I'm curious to try this as I have a trillion beads to chose from.
Are you using metal beads? glass? plastic? I'm curious to try this as I have a trillion beads to chose from.
Yes! I'm interested in hearing more about this too, Booli.
I bought all kinds of shapes and sizes of a shiny-grey hematite-looking beads that they had at Michaels. I think they are glass or ceramic. Some are 3mm spheres, some 2mm spheres and others are 1.5mm thick and 3mm square flat beads, and others yet are flattish elliptical and 3mm or 5mm diameter and a few are 3mm cubes. All the same color.
Some have smaller holes thru than others. I've used different beads from this collection for everything from 0.0185" fluoro (Worth CL "A" string) up to 0.065" sliver-plated copper wound over nylon classical guitar strings to give you the range of the hole sizes.
I will try to put up some photos, but just taking the pictures would be a kind of big project and may not get to the photos for a couple of days....
Thanks so much for this info, Booli!
No problem.
I forgot to mention that my Cordoba Mini has a pin-bridge, and for that I've used the smaller 1.5mm (I think?) beads to make them more like typical ball-end strings. The Mini originally came with the normal brass barrels (like that would be inside the twisted ends of an electric guitar string) on the strings that were already installed, but I lost 1-2 of them on the first string change, and my slight OCD would not let me have some strings with the barrels and others with beads, so I had to change all of them to the beads, LOL.
It's kind of funny to me because nobody would ever see them or know they were there, but it would be nagging at me and keep me up at night. Funny how stress and chaos has given me the gift of slight OCD about certain things, in needing to have SOME feeling of control in my life, and this instance of having all the string ends at the bridge be all matchy-matchy makes me feel better.
I dont know the smiley or emoticon for sending hugs, but I am sending hugs right now. :bowdown: :worship:I'm with you, Booli. Great minds think alike. I'm exactly the same way.
I dont know the smiley or emoticon for sending hugs, but I am sending hugs right now. :bowdown: :worship:
Jerry, would you mind sharing where you saw this? I'm really curious where it appeared and who wrote it. Thanks!I recently read an article explaining that the glued-on bridge is a safety feature. If the uke is dropped or banged, the bridge can pop off, rather than having a more important part get broken by the spring tension.
I bought all kinds of shapes and sizes of a shiny-grey hematite-looking beads that they had at Michaels. I think they are glass or ceramic. Some are 3mm spheres, some 2mm spheres and others are 1.5mm thick and 3mm square flat beads, and others yet are flattish elliptical and 3mm or 5mm diameter and a few are 3mm cubes. All the same color.
Some have smaller holes thru than others. I've used different beads from this collection for everything from 0.0185" fluoro (Worth CL "A" string) up to 0.065" sliver-plated copper wound over nylon classical guitar strings to give you the range of the hole sizes.
I will try to put up some photos, but just taking the pictures would be a kind of big project and may not get to the photos for a couple of days....
I don't know the hug emoticon either, but right back at ya!