Bridge pins are examples of things you never think about—until something goes wrong.
They have potential to break, get stuck or wear just enough to cause tuning issues. I’d suggest a quick once over every string change to keep them in check.
Power Pins, a product of Bigrock Engineering, are new style of bridge pins that boast stability and enhanced tonal characteristics compared to plastic bridge pins. Power Pins actually mount onto the guitar’s bridge by tightening a nut with a supplied allen key. No modifications are needed, and the end result is greater string contact with your acoustic guitar’s bridge.
My installation required no additional tools besides the kit’s supplied allen key. While I wouldn’t say it was a difficult install, give yourself at least a half hour and install the pins with all of the strings off your acoustic.
First step was to unscrew the head of the pin and place the screw up through the bridge hole. The pins are marked for each string. Additional washers are included to secure proper height.
Once in place, take the allen key and secure the pin. Just beyond finger-tight is plenty secure. The reason I suggest doing this without any strings on is you need to stick your hand through the sound hole into the body of the guitar to tighten the pin.
The final step is installing strings on the new Power Pins. The ball of the string mounts to the back of the pin, and the string fits right along side of the Power Pin. The process is very similar to a top-loading electric guitar bridge.
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The guitar I used to demo was an off-the-shelf $200 Yamaha FS700s. Below are a few before and after shots. After a few hours of playtime with the Power Pins installed, stock strings and a few alternate tunings later no problems. Here’s a quick sound clip.
You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.
