sticky out pins

[corduroyhorn]

hi all

I just brought a walden and there a slight problem with the bridge pins....they dont fit all the way in....i thought when i saw it in the shop it was just cos someone made a mess putting the strings on...but since changing them i cudnt push the pin in fully...the low e is miles out while the rest are all the same way out....

 

should i drill the holes bigger, leave it alone or try diff bridge pins?

thanks all

[knockwood]

I would try sanding down the pins a bit at a time until they fit - wrap the pin posts in sandpaper and spin 'em to maintain a cylindrical profile. It's a little tedious, but it doesn't take too long.

I would not try drilling or reaming the bridge.

[corduroyhorn]

cheers. is this a common problem? seems like it wud be easy to build a guitar with pins thats fit proper...i would of thought it would be hard work to make they not fit lol as all the tools would be set to bang them out quickly

[Freeman Keller]

It probably means that the pin holes were not reamed, and unfortunately this is common with even big companies like Martin. To do it right you need a 5 degree reaming tool (StewMac, LMI, etc) - don't just drill out the holes. You can also sand the pins a little smaller, as suggested above, or leave them sticking up.

If you ever have a technician do a good setup on your Walden have her ream the pins as part of the work - it will only take a second.

[rjoxyz]

I bought a reamer online from the Martin 1833 Shop for less than I have seen them elsewhere.

[missedmyexit]

I have a different problem with the pins/saddle but since I am sure it's a pretty straight forward answer I'll not bother with a separate thread.

My Dad's Washburn D10's peg holes aren't big enough to fit the nut of the string through. I am guessing the simple solution would be drilling or filing them bigger but every time I think about it is when I am restringing it and haven't gotten around to it so I feed the damn string through the sound hole and out the peg holes. As you can imagine this is NOT alot of fun. Should I just use a drill to open up the hole or is there some type of file that will be better?

Keeping in mind that the D10 cost me probably 140 and I don't want to pend 50 dollars on repairing it.

[Freeman Keller]

When I was fitting the pins on my first homemade guitar I noticed that some string would fit thru the 3/16 diameter holes perfectly, while others were tight. I check the ball ends with my calipers and in both cases the little cylinders were the same diameter and the same height, but the ones that fit had their edges chamfered (rounded off) more than the others. It was very slight, but noticeble (I don't remember which strings were which). When I reamed the holes I was able to open them up just enough to allow the balls to slip thru, it would be possible to very slightly sand the holes to make them larger (don't try running the next sized drill bit thru them, you can chip the bridge pretty easily).

Again, it would be a very easy thing for a good tech to fix. A little trick I learned with pin reamer is to put a piece of masking tape around it to make sure you don't go too deep and to get all the holes reamed the same. Go slowly, these things cut fast!

When reaming the pins, it would be a good time for your tech to consider ramping and/or slotting the pin holes.