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I'm wondering what's going on here. The pins are after market. Are they not a good fit? The strings seem to be sitting okay on the bridge plate inside, but no matter what I do I can't get the E and A pins to sit flush with the bridge.

seems like the hole needs to reamed a little deeper to me, or you might try changing pin positions, sometimes that'll take care of it.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

Slotted or unspotted pins?

Ream the holes to fit the pins. Then open the slots to fit the strings. If they are slotted pins its not uncommon for the slots to be too small for the wrapping on the bass strings. Also look inside with a mirror and make sure they are seated against the bridge plate.

I have seen this before. Does your bridge have slots or notches on the saddle side of the bridge pin hole? These provide some space or relief for the string windings and also have the benefit of reducing the "break angle" of the strings as they leave the pin holes.

If the bridge does not have these slots, it is easy to cut them using needle files. There will likely be a dent at the edge of the bridge pin hole that provides a witness mark for the slot location. A triangular needle file can start the slots and is sufficient for the unwound strings. You may need to use the edge of the flatter needle file (or a nut slotting file, that's what I use) to open up the wound string slots.

You can try this before attempting altering the bridge pin holes or the bridge pins themselves. The slots are not as invasive, and once you modify the pins or pin holes you may have to ensure you keep track of the bridge pins in the future - that is, each pin would only be good for the slot it was fitted to.

//mike

Stew Mac makes a nice little saw for cutting those slots. You can use a jigsaw blade also. You can actually use the whole jigsaw. It's not as bad as it sounds! Then I use a chisel to bevel the top of the slot.

Pat

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Pat

Make sure you know what the problem is first. If the pins don't seat properly in the hole with strings removed then the hole needs to be reamed (you can try moving the pins to different holes- the pins in some sets are not all the same size). If the pins are ok without the strings in then the pins (I'm assuming slotted?) are not slotted sufficiently for the A and low E strings to fit and your will need to slot the bridge a bit for the strings (or get a set of pins with a bigger slot in them). If the pins are unslotted then the slot in the bridge is the culprit.

edited so it makes sense - I missed a few critical words the first time around

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

These pins are slotted ebony pins I found in a box of parts I inherited from someone. With no strings the pins sit nicely in the holes. It's my personal guitar, and when I bought it it had just basic plastic pins. The low E string was always sketchy and looking inside it looked like the ball was beginning to migrate up into the bridge plate a little bit. When I changed to these pins the ball now sits nicely against the bridge plate, but the pin is sitting pretty proud once the guitar is strung up (as you can see). There is a little bit of a slot in the bridge coming out of the hole, but not much. It sounds like the slot on the new pins is smaller (or just less worn) than the plastic pins and this is what's causing the problem. I have a few of the stew mac hole slotting files, I'll try opening up the E and A string a bit and see if that solves my problem.

OP might consider opening up slots for all 6 strings and turn the pins around 180 degrees... Slotting is something that I think manufacturers found that they could avoid, as it's not casually visible on a finished instrument. And you can't hear the benefits of a slotted bridge, when 'tone' seems to be the Holy Grail of buyers.

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Peter Havriluk

Yeah I think I will end up slotting all the holes eventually and either buying unslotted pins or flipping these ones around. But in the meantime I opened up the E and A slots, and those pins are sitting a lot better now.