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Came across an ad for a custom guitar from a pretty well known builder and there was a picture of the bridge and bridge pins that were not lined up - or were they? The 'D' string pin is clearly not lined up with the others and I was curious if this is a trick that only the best custom builders employ or is it a simple error that the builder decided to ignore? Or is it an error at all?

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Is that a new guitar? Sometimes when restrung and the pins not inserted all the way you can get a picture where they look out of line.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

John is probably right, the pins look at differing heights to me which would give that effect maybe?


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They look slightly staggered probably with the goal of keeping them out of a single grain line and hopefully prevent a split. Looks like slotted bridge pins.

Not sure if that stagger is enough to do that, I like to parallel the saddle slot which also gives a similar break angle to each string as well as keeping them all out of one grain line. The (That could probably be a selling point except it probably doesn’t to much except look cool.)

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Sooo..high end custom guitar builders don't make errors like that? It's just an optical illusion?

Not a new guitar. Used, for sale.

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This looks like a martin bridge , and I have seen this a few times. My money is that someone used a drill to set the height of the pins or the pin may be worn , the ball end starts working up the hole and then that leans the pins forward.
I bet the bridge plate may show signs of wear.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

The more I look the more it looks like this is probably the case...

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The photo is inconclusive. However, if the name of the file is accurate, the alignment of the holes is not the result of an error in Mr. Greven's building process. Trust me, the dude has things dialed in.

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George :-)

My initial thoughts exactly George...

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Photo makes me suspicious that the bridge has been reglued, which could explain a lot. Also looks on the edge for neck angle adjustment, based on the low saddle.


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It's not clear what the purpose of this thread is. it to sneer at another persons' work? I do hope that isn't the motivation.

It's best we concentrate on drilling our own bridge holes in line rather than point out when we think someone else has made a mistake.

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nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com

That's a good question Nigel. I am the OP and have built a few guitars but make many mistakes along the way including bridge pin holes that may not be in a line. I also see many many beautiful guitars but really only on-line and in pictures so have no real first hand knowledge of the quality and build detail of any of those guitars and was just really curious about that bridge and those pin holes. And it may seem even dumber but I thought that maybe offsetting a bridge pin might be one those 'tone' things I didn't know about .

So the purpose wasn't to sneer but more about my curiosity and to inadvertently reveal my ignorance about such things.

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This picture is the new Yanni Laurel.

To me it looks like the E's and the D pins are just not pushed in all the way.

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