Official Luthiers Forum!

Has any of the repairmen experiences with the bridges of Lowden Guitars? Their design is very different to usual steel string bridges, so what is about lifting or pulling off?

Pinless bridges? Used by other makers too, such as Takamine etc. What do you want to know about them specifically?

Don't know what information you need, some stuff here -
http://www.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=46993&hilit=pinless+bridge+stress

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

One of the down sides of the Lowden style bridge and it has been an issue for several of our clients is the split saddle. Lots of pick-up choices won't work and for a while Lowden was recommending the Baggs Lyric because a couple of years ago it was about the only pickup that would fit since it did not rely on a UST (under saddle transducer).

There are of course other choices and someone is now making a split UST but again you are limited if you want to use a UST that is not split or a system that has a UST in addition to a mic.

We have reglued bridges on other makes that used pinless bridges and have not noticed that a pinless bridge is any more likely to stay put as a pinned bridge.

You know a pinned bridge on a steel string is really no different in terms of the physics as a classical bridge with tied on strings. Classical bridges do lift too in fact in the trade the word "Cordoba" stands for bridge reglue.

Also please consider calling us "repair people" since some of us are women and on the OLF here one of our most knowledgable repair people is female.

Thanks

Dear Hesh, sorry for my mistake
I know that many women build and repair guitars and other stringed instruments. Again, sorry!
I think that the load of string tension works more directly to the glue joint at lowden bridges than on bridges with bridge pins. A classical guitar bridge has not to withstand such a heavy string load as a steel string guitar bridge.

I can't speak to Lowden bridges. My only experience with installing a pinless bridge resulted in said bridge departing the scene after a year. Nada mas.

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Peter Havriluk

Years ago we had a Lowden in the shop for sale. One day we heard a 'bang' from the back room, and when we checked the bridge was off the top hanging by the strings. The glue joint had not failed: the bottom of the bridge was 100% covered with a thin layer of the cedar top wood, which had failed along a sharp line all the way around the bridge. Obviously, whoever scribed around the bridge to remove the finish before gluing it down had not been careful about only scribing the finish, and had cut into the wood. We suspected that the worked had replaced the blade in their knife just before doing that bridge, and was pressing too hard as they were not used to the way the sharp blade would cut. Due to the lower toughness this is a special concern with cedar tops. We contacted Lowden about it at the time.

Some stress analysis I've seen comparing pinned and pinless bridges suggested that there is no real difference in the stress in the glue line between the bridge and top in either case. The pinned bridge adds in a column load through the top, but that analysis, and my own experience in repair, suggests that it doesn't help keep the back edge of the bridge from lifting. Once it has the pins might help keep it from flying off right away, but that's about it.