Seagull bridge,bridge plate and top

[Daysailer]

From the looks of the birdge plate, all the holes seem to be slightly damaged by the string balls.
I am no expert, but with those fingernail marks also, my bet is the plate is made from wood that is too soft.
If its that soft, I also wonder how much sound is being absorbed and lost instead of driving the top?

just my .02   ds

[Danny]

From the looks of the birdge plate, all the holes seem to be slightly damaged by the string balls.
I am no expert, but with those fingernail marks also, my bet is the plate is made from wood that is too soft.
If its that soft, I also wonder how much sound is being absorbed and lost instead of driving the top?

just my .02   ds

  Not bad for only 2 cents

[Mr_LV19E]

  Not bad for only 2 cents

Very economical. 

I'm going to try the oversized bridge pins or bridge pins without slots and slot them myself.
I found some new interesting info Here. Scroll down and check out the partially slotted bridge pin idea.

[jeremy3220]

Well the top and the braces are made from soft wood. If it were a type of softwood with a high stiffness to weight ratio it would let the top vibrate more. A dense wood like ebony would be one that would cause the sound loss. The reason hardwoods are used for the bridgeplate is durability. It's said that generally a less dense hardwood bridgeplate like maple will sound brighter than a denser wood like rosewood or ebony. It's the same reason a bridge made of EI rosewood sounds brighter than one from ebony or a spruce top sounds brighter and louder than a mahogany top. The wood with the higher stiffness to weight ratio is going to have less energy loss and produce sound more efficiently.

[Mr_LV19E]

Well the top and the braces are made from soft wood. If it were a type of softwood with a high stiffness to weight ratio it would let the top vibrate more. A dense wood like ebony would be one that would cause the sound loss. The reason hardwoods are used for the bridgeplate is durability. It's said that generally a less dense hardwood bridgeplate like maple will sound brighter than a denser wood like rosewood or ebony. It's the same reason a bridge made of EI rosewood sounds brighter than one from ebony or a spruce top sounds brighter and louder than a mahogany top. The wood with the higher stiffness to weight ratio is going to have less energy loss and produce sound more efficiently.

Interesting Jeremy, it makes sense.

[Danny]

Very economical. 

I'm going to try the oversized bridge pins or bridge pins without slots and slot them myself.
I found some new interesting info Here. Scroll down and check out the partially slotted bridge pin idea.

 I like that link Roger, I'm going to use it on one of my gits. I knew about ramping, but the slot to string size and slotless pins is new to me. And once again you see the warning about the ball causing a buzz if it's not up against the bridge plate.

[Mr_LV19E]

I ordered some ebony pins from LMII and I have to say that when I was pricing the pins I thought they were expensive because I was under the impression the prices were for each one, not so.
1 Set of 6 oversized ebony = $4.55
1 set of 6 ebony with abalone dot = $7.60
1 set of 6 ebony unslotted w/Ab dot = $7.60
plus a couple bone saddle blanks for $3.55 each

I decided to use the unslotted pins and slot the holes instead, it worked out great.  I also got my first opportunity to make a compensated bone saddle from a blank.  Seeing as it was my first stab at it I decided to use the contour of the original.

[Trinity Guitars]

Thanks Danny, I always put a bend in the string before putting it through the hole. I also tried the sharp bend you suggest. And I tried turning the pin with the slot facing away.

Thanks Jeremy, all the pins in my guitars are the same size so there was no difference when swapping them. I think I'll try the larger pins but how do I know what size to get?  The ones at stewmac just say oversize,  how do I know they will be big enough?

Also take a look at this pic. Is this a Maple bridge plate? Is Maple soft enough to put marks into it like this with your fingernail?

Sorry for so many questions and thanks again.

   These are GREAT shots!  I am going to try your mirror process and see if i can come cloes to the quality of your photos. Just great shots.
Jim Holler

[Yoyodyne]

Yeah, I was blown away by the photo quality too...very cool.