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Thread: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

  1. #1
    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    I think "pinning" is the trem I'm looking for.
    It's a way to keep an archtop's floating bridge from moving around, and so you don't have to relocate it each time you change strings.

    I understand how it's done, but I'd like to get info about materials etc.

    Have any of you ever done it, or do you know of any "how-to" or "what-to-use" links?
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  2. #2
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    The Gretsch Pages probably has instructions somewhere on the BBS.

    I've thought about doing it with my Gretsch. Instead of doing it, I tried rubbing some violin rosin on the underside of the bridge. Movement hasn't been an issue. Somebody on the Gretsch Pages, I think, gave me the idea.
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  3. #3
    Forum Member NTBluesGuitar's Avatar
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    Re: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    I just change one string at a time on my Ibanez AF75, so that the other 5 hold the bridge down while I'm working the new one in.
    "...pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field;
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    shriveled, meagre, hopping, though loud and troublesome, insects of the hour."

    -Edmund Burke

  4. #4
    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    Re: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    I've been playing it with a trapeze tailpiece, so movement hasn't been too much of a problem.
    I do find it easy to knock around when I get strumming away.

    I'm fixing it's busted "Igsby," so that's another way it can move.

    Kap'n, I found 2 methods on the Gretsch Pages.
    One was wordy and somewhat anal, without being all that detailed, aside from using the smallest brads you can find, so you can fill the holes with a drop of lacquer when you change your mind.

    Then Billy Zoom himself said, just drill through the bridge, countersink the holes, and screw the bridge in place.

    I envisioned winging it, doing something about half-way between those.

    I do agree with Billy's feeling that "Life's too short to worry about an unsecured bridge."
    I'd say it's definitely too short to be dainty about securing a bridge on a $200 guitar.
    "Well, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
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  5. #5
    Forum Member Kap'n's Avatar
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    Re: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    You could also use that thin double-stick tape that they use to adhere Frost-King window-film. Not that thick, foamy stuff.

    I wouldn't do that on an expensive guitar with a nitro finish, but I'd consider it on an inexpensive guitar covered in poly.
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  6. #6
    Forum Member NeoFauve's Avatar
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    Re: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    If I do one of the sticky solutions, I'll probably re-curve the bottom of the bridge. I notice that it doesn't really conform to the arch.
    Less contact- that may be part of why it moves.
    "Well, I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
    Elvis Costello

  7. #7
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    Re: "Pinning" and archtop bridge

    This is more of a problem with archtops with shallow neck angles ala thinline Gibsons and Gretsch; definitely not a problem with old Epi's. Contour the bridge base, rough it up with some heavy paper, and then see where you are at...the rosin and tape tricks work, as does small patches of sandpaper glued to the bridge base for a more radical fix. I don't like pinning bridges, especially in spruce tops or anything that might start a crack.

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