Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Broken Lines, Broken Strings, Broken Threads, Broken Springs

I'm set up for playing, right? Acoustic set up, electric set up, ready to go. We're in the middle of warm-up/sound-check, and wouldn't you know? Ptang! It's the G string on the acoustic. So, I played all electric all night. Always fun.

So, I pulled out the GHS Phosphor Bronze set, unwound the strings and started popping out the bridge pins. Then what happened? My low-E pin broke in half. This, of course, made it a complete pain to get out.

I have never bought a set of pins without them coming with a guitar. I now have to get a new set.

I'm thinking of going with Tusq, if either of the local pushers have some. I don't want to just get plastic replacements, or worse, a white plastic replacement to go with my five black plastic pins.

I just realized. My GHS set is .011-.050. As previously estabilished, my Tele is strung with Not Even Slinkys, .012-.052. When I get this set on, my acoustic will be strung lighter than my electric. Is it just me who thinks that's funny?

Anyway, if you have other ideas, if you think I should go brass, or it's so worth my money to go with fossilized ivory or concentrated mollusk shell, please, tell me.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If you have a rosewood bridge, get rosewood pins..same goes for Ebony. your pin hole may need to be reamed with tapir. bridge pins are conical.

The string ball should lodge itself up against the top, and pin with the string passing thru the channel in the pin. If your strings are heavy, the channel may need to be made larger to accommodate.

Your pins shouldn't be lodged in so tight that you need a major force to get them out, but just enough that the string binds them in place. With tension down, push the ball end of the string into the guitar body and pull out the pin, much like pulling a daisy on a warm spring afternoon.

Hope this helps...