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Anyone ever see a pinless bridge like this on old Kay flattops from the 60's era? I've got one in for some work, and was surprised to see this unique flattop bridge that strings from the front....

Someone put slots in the bridge saddle, which I plan on removing when I radius the top of the bone saddle. The plain strings were buzzing the slots....

https://imgur.com/ApEPBeo

https://imgur.com/e2NsRjM

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I vaguely remember those... Would not have been able to tell you the brand that used them though.

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Brian

You never know what you are capable of until you actually try.

https://www.howardguitarsdelaware.com/

I've seen a few of those. One was on a Sovereign "jumbo" (more like an oversized dreadnought) and the others were on various jumbos that have come through the shop.

I will say that each time one came into my shop it was there to have the bridge replaced, so I ended up converting each of them to pinned bridge designs. To my ears they sounded alot better but ymmv.

I have a 1954 Kay Jumbo that had one. It had split down the center thru the bolts on the wings. I replaced it with a pinless bridge with a much larger footprint I got from bezdez on ebay. Retained the old bolts for nostalga. The bridgeplate didn't look like it would be spaced for a pinned bridge. I still might convert it to X-bracing, that should really improve the sound.

I had a K-22 (Mahogany B&S). It had a bridge like that when I got it, but it was cracked. I replaced it with something more conventional, as that design was known to fail. That one looks to be in good shape though, you don't see that, often. It I remember correctly the scale is longer than 25.5". I had mine tuned down to D or D#most of the time, and it sounded good. Most were ladder braced, but I think the K-27(Maple B&S?) was x-braced. The are pretty keen, some people called them K-200 s (Poor man's J-200).