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bridge pins

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 9:32 pm
by John Hamlett
Hi folks! Long time no see!... but I have a question.
I'm about to finish up a restoration of a CF Martin Foden Special guitar. It is one of few ever made and the only one I have seen. It had a very rough homemade bridge on it when it came to my shop so I had to make a replica bridge as near as I could from internet photos mostly. The original apparently had ivory bridge pins with large abalone dots. I will probably use bone pins rather than some sort of legal ivory, and I'm trying to find a source for custom... or not... bone bridge pins with no flute, and preferably already inlaid with approximately 4mm abalone dots. I'm thinking fairly small diameter pins because I can adjust the pin holes to fit (new bridge).
Any help will be appreciated.

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:26 pm
by Bob Gramann
Making bridge pins on a lathe is quite possible. I have made quite a few. I do my own end pins ( I use persimmon—I’ve never seen anyone selling that). If you have access to a lathe with a chuck and someone to show you the basics, you can get competent at it pretty quickly. The way to get six matching pins is to make a whole bunch and then sort them.

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:47 pm
by David King
Stewmac has some and there's a fellow in Georgia, Bob Colossi, http://www.guitarsaddles.com/products.asp who appears to make custom ones.

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:05 pm
by John Hamlett
Bob Gramann wrote:Making bridge pins on a lathe is quite possible. I have made quite a few. I do my own end pins ( I use persimmon—I’ve never seen anyone selling that). If you have access to a lathe with a chuck and someone to show you the basics, you can get competent at it pretty quickly. The way to get six matching pins is to make a whole bunch and then sort them.
Yes, I used to turn "stuff", including end pins but I no longer have a lathe set up. I'm basically trying to avoid having to find a way to make them myself by getting someone to make them for me!

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:07 pm
by John Hamlett
I had already found "guitarsaddles.com" and a couple of others that I will call tomorrow. Just seeing if anyone here makes custom pins or knows someone who does.

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2018 10:32 am
by Clay Schaeffer
You can find fluted bone/abalone dot pins on ebay. I fill in the flutes to unflute them. :D

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 6:33 pm
by John Hamlett
If anyone is interested, I got some pins from guitarpartsandmore. The look is pretty close to authentic according to internet photos of Foden special guitars.
Here are some before and after pictures.
front1.jpg
front2.jpg
bridge1.jpg
bridge2.jpg

Re: bridge pins

Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 10:51 am
by Barry Daniels
Nice work, John.